What do you feed your fish?

Hawkian

OK so I'm reading many different things about what food to read the fish and most importantly flakes. I've read that flakes are not the best thing to feed fish with. Is this true? I have a container of Nutrafin Max flakes which is really the main food that my fish get and I complement with the occasional tubifex worms and bloodworms. Should I be changing their main food to be something else than flakes?

Angel079

My fish always get a mix of frozen Bloodworms, Daphina, Artemia's (depending on the fish/ size food they eat) and sometimessssss (rare) flakes.
And they only get food every other day. I had found many yrs ago that with providing a variety of foods, they seem healthier and their colors are more vivid (mainly the Killi's).
For the Pleco's I'd offer veggies too (mine LOVED cucumber)
Shrimps & Cray's in my house get a mix of dried pumice slices, sperulina that kinds stuff.

kelly528

I am a huge fan of granular/pelleted food althought I occasionally throw some flake in for variety's sake. The main reason I like granules so much is that they do not fall apart and blow all over the tank where the fish can't get them and sit there and pollute the water.

I also like to spice the diet up with frozen foods (about 3 feedings out of 7 weekly) but honestly they do not make a good staple... think of it this way: spinach is healthy, but could you eat it day in and day out? Probably not-- that wouldn't provide an adequate diet. But soup? Sure, if it had enough different types of veggies and meat and carbs and dairy.

Fish foods are the same way. While live/frozen is healthy, it is only one kind of food. As is spinach. Now dry foods like pellets may be more processed (like soup) but they have a little bit of everything eg krill, fish, spirulina all crammed into one meal. So while you'd have to feed every frozen food under the sun to provide enough dietary variation, living entirely off processed foods meets dietary needs no better.

You can also feed different kinds/brands of dry food to vary their diet.

When it comes to fish nutrition, essentially the key is: variety is the spice of life!

Fishin Pole

one thing to think about, is the TYPE of fish your feeding..........most community tanks, IMO should have a very varied diet, including flake, sinking type granules or pellets or some type of algae or spirlina wafers.......The diets of most community tanks will vary greatly so a varied feeding everytime is a good thing........

Using flakes for such top feeders as guppies i think is ideal............You can also use the flake for fry food if its crushed........

With all the different tanks in the fish room, we have and feed it all on hand......Its sorta interesting watching what certain fish will seek out certain types or flavors of the diffrent foods and diets.........Watching a Silver Dollar go after a huge algae wafer, meant for my cories is amusing to say the least.....

Angel079

I think not only reading the beginning of every word and scanning the text but rather reading the WHOLE word does pay off...

I was just reading that fishinpole said "You can also use FRIED foods" and was thinking wth he's sharing his fries and chicken with the fish now, how's that supposed to be any good

sorry fishingpole - i should have more faith in you I admit

Byron

I feed flake and tablet/pellet food every morning, alternating between brands so there are 4 or 5 different foods which means the fish are offered something different for 4-5 days running. They have clear favourites, but they eat all of it. One is a vegetable (spirulina/algae) base because I believe vegetable matter is good for all fish, apparently something to do with the digestive tract (probably close to the same as for humans). The tablet/pellet foods are sinking for the corys, Farlowella, Whiptails and loaches, although other fish eat from these too, the Headstander and Bolivian Ram in particular which never touch flakes.

Evenings alternate days I feed frozen bloodworms or sometimes daphnia or rotifers, only because I have a couple of wild-caught fish that basically refuse prepared foods.

The prepared foods (flake, pellet/tablet) are highly nutritious, much more so than frozen.

Byron.

1077

I have nearly fifteen different types of food. All of the different flake foods I have are mixed together and then placed in a sealed tub and kept in the fridge. Carnivore ,and cichlid pellets ,freezedried gut loaded crickets,frezedried shrimp,freezedried plankton, Frozen krill,shrimp,mysis shrimp,spirulina based shrimp,beefheart,mussels,Nightcrawlers,algae wafers,zucchinni,sweet potato,and Dried Marine algae are some of the foods offered. I try to always read ingrdients carefully and choose foods rich in protein and vitamins. Favorite line of food is by Ocean Nutrition but I feed several different brands.
I like mixing all different types of flake together. This ensures that there's something for every one.

Romad

Finely chopped Petco employees :)

Fishin Pole

Is that for a treat or regular feedings?.............I dont think our Petco Employees around here have much nutritional value.......

Romad

LOL. There are a few worth keeping around but for the most part it's chum