Good food for tetras

SolaceTiger

So... sorry for all the questions, but I'm on a fish knowledge binge. :D So I'm knowledgable about cat and dog food, and what kind of ingredients are good and what isnt. But I know nothing about what makes a good fish diet. Usually I just buy whatever tropical fish flakes are sold at wherever I am at the time. I'm finishing up a can of Wardley Essentials tropical fish flakes, and after that will be starting on tetramin tropical flakes. Wardley has 45% crude protein and tetramin has 47%. I know that tetramin is better in that way, but what should I look for in a premium food. Both fish foods I have, have ethoxyquin in it.. a preservative which I know is not good in dog or cat food. Any ideas?

jeaninel

I usually look at the ingredients listed. I recently switched from Tetramin to Omega One flakes after comparing the ingredients. For instance:

TetraColor Flakes - Fish meal, ground brown rice, dried yeast, shrimp meal, wheat gluten, potato protein...etc

Omega One Flakes - Whole Salmon, halibut, black cod, whole herring, whole shrimp, whole krill, wheat flour, wheat gluten, fresh kelp...etc

The Omega One may be a buck or two more but it's much better quality food. I also like NLS brand (New Life Spectrum) but it's harder to find. There's only one LFS near me that sells it. Although you can order it online.

SolaceTiger

I did some research in the meantime to, and found this site. http://www.americanaquariumproducts....Fish_Food.html I'm thinking I may return the fish food I haven't opened yet, and order some good stuff. My cat gets to eat Wellness Core, I think my fish should get the same quality hmm? :) Although, my two Otto cats I bought today, I bought some omega one wafers for them, and those do look pretty good.

jeaninel

Very informative article! It's great that you are willing to put in the effort to do the research. Your fish are lucky to be in your care. They will definitely reward you with good health and color. :D

iamntbatman

Omega One and New Life Spectrum and OSI are usually pretty much top of the line in prepared food quality. Wardley and Tetra stuff isn't as good, but it's certainly a *lot* better than the store brand stuff (TopFin, I'm lookin' at you!)

In addition to prepared foods like flake, crumbles, pellets, wafers, etc., it's also good to feed your fish a variety of other stuff. Plenty of fish are omnivorous and would appreciate fresh veggies. Cucumber, zucchini, romaine lettuce and spinach are favorites. You can serve them up raw or weigh them down with a plant weight or paperclip. Frozen and live foods are also a plus. I've found that just about all fish like frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. I also occasionally feed frozen mysis shrimp and frozen tubifex. Hikari makes really high quality frozen foods. If you have a LFS that sells live blackworms, your fish will *really* love you.

SolaceTiger

Thank you jeanine, well it's funny you know. the only reason i registered here was to seek help. i didn't realize it till later but on saturday when i cleaned my tank, the heater inside shattered..the bottom part of the bulb, and i didn't realize it till i saw the temp was to low nad i tried to adjust it..wouldn't work, and i noticed the water was floating up into the bulb. little bits of something was floating in the water after that, but my fish seem okay... i'm just lucky i didn't get electrocuted cause i didn't think to unplug the heater before i grabbed it and removed from the tank. Phew. luckily now though i have a new heater, and it's funny cause it's the same one i already had... a really old penn plax one, and they had em on clearance for 2 bucks. :D

Tyyrlym

Probably too late but I like visi-therm stealth heaters for exactly that reason, they can't shatter. Solid plastic housing.

willow

gosh,you're lucky you never got an electric shock.
one of the main things i do is shut the tank off when i do
anything in it.

SolaceTiger

Hehe yea, well like I said. It was 2 dollars. If I break this one, I'll buy an unbreakable one next time. :P