Aquarium Fish Feeding, and What you Should Know
For some beginners, fish feeding is as easy as reading the back label of a commercial fish food. It would do for quite a while but it won't be so good for the fishes in the long run. Even feeding your pets with the same fish food over and over again is boring and unhealthy. Fishes would love to have a variety of food choices, too.
Use a variety of fish foods. These can be categorized into five classes...processed, freeze dried, frozen, live, and fresh foods. Processed fish foods are ground stuffs made into pellet, sticks, and flakes. Varieties for carnivorous, vegetarian, and omnivorous fishes are available. Freeze dried fish foods include daphnia and blood worms while frozen includes whole beasties. Live foods include anything alive like beasties while fresh foods include carnivore foods and zucchini.
Follow manufacturer's storage recommendation. Fish foods are so delicate that a single mistake can turn into a disaster. Most fish foods should not be exposed to sunlight. Lids should be kept on to prevent moisture from coming in. Although economical, a large container of fish food takes a long time to finish, sabotaging the food's nutritional value.
Flake food is a staple to fishes. Consider flake food like bread or rice. It can always go well with other fish foods.
Watch the fishes while eating. Forget about what your mother told you that it's rude to stare on someone eating. Fishes won't mind that you watch them eat. Doing so will better orient you about their world.
Take note of their eating habit. First, put less than enough fish food in the tank. Position yourself where you can watch the fishes closely. Ideally, the foods must be finished before they go to the bottom. But it rarely happens. Some food will fall down to the bottom. If you have bottom-dwellers, watch how fast they can consume the food. Add a little more only after everything has been consumed, except for those that fall to the bottom. Never add more food unless the additional pinch is finished.
Feed the fishes several times a day. It's safer than feeding them a big bunch of food all at once, especially if you don't have bottom-dwellers. Feed less frequently in older tanks or tanks with natural edibles like algae. This encourages the fishes to eat more of those than what you are feeding them.
Make sure live foods are alive. Commercial live fish foods are often at high risk of carrying parasites. Better stay away from them. If you can't, at least check the worms if these are still alive before feeding.
Feed enough and balanced food. Fishes get fat, too. And that's a bad sign. Fat fishes have shorter lifespan, develop deformed bodies, and poop more. Feed them with a variety of foods that include protein, vegetables, and fiber to keep them in the right shape.
Your good choice of fish food now will be evident on how well your fishes will grow. Better invest on knowing more about the most ideal foods for them. As always, the best food for them is the same thing that they would eat in their natural habitat.
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