# Fish Food



## jmurray01 (Jul 11, 2012)

What type of fish food do you feed your fish ? 

There are certainly plenty on the market; pellets, flakes, sticks etc...

I feed mine Aquarian flakes (the blue tub) but soak them in water for a few seconds prior to putting in the tank as the Orandas are prone to swim bladder disease which as I'm sure you know, is caused by sucking in air from the top of the tank while eating. If the food sinks down immediately, that risk is reduced vastly.

I did used to feed my fish with a different sort of food which came in yellow tub made of cardboard, but the brand escapes me... It wasn't Tetra, before you say.

Anyway, what type and brand of food do you feed your fish ? I'm interested to hear your views.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Lets see,I feed mine all kinds of food,gel food,frozen food,stick,wafers,pellets flakes,and live.Also fresh veggies.The main thing is they need a variety to get all the needed nutrients,and eating the same thing over and over is boring lol.


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## jmurray01 (Jul 11, 2012)

majerah1 said:


> Lets see,I feed mine all kinds of food,gel food,frozen food,stick,wafers,pellets flakes,and live.Also fresh veggies.The main thing is they need a variety to get all the needed nutrients,and eating the same thing over and over is boring lol.


I like variety too but have never really never got around to feeding my fish vegetables. Which ones can you feed them and how do you do it ? Grate them ?


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I feed yams and zuchinni,for my plecos.I slice them and since they are adults I dont need to boil them so I just drop them in the tank.Once the fish find them they clear them out,rind and all lol.You can cut a zuchinni into slices and freeze them,to keep from being wasteful,same with the yams.I think someone else uses spinache and romaine lettuce,and ive heard brocolli is good for them too,though ive not tried that one just yet.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

With goldies, you can feed blanched and deshelled frozen peas once a week they also like small chunks of fruit like melons.


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## fishguy2727 (Sep 5, 2011)

New Life Spectrum exclusively is the best thing they can get.


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## ArtyG (Jun 29, 2011)

Kens Fish - Home of quality tropical fish food and supplies is where you need to go for what I think is the best flake food in the universe. A half pound of Ken's Premium Tropical Fish Flake is only $3.95!
The fish love it. It smells so good it's like a bowl of corn flakes. I feed it for breakfast and follow up with frozen brine shrimp, beef heart, blood worms or live worms from the bait cooler at WalMart.


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

i feed all of mine 8 different kinds of frozen food, river shrimp, earth worms, courgette and different pellets for different tanks, all hikari; first bites, micro pellets, bio gold+, excel, betta bio gold and algae wafers.


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## fishguy2727 (Sep 5, 2011)

Just buy NLS Thera+A and be done with it.


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## ClinicaTerra (Nov 12, 2010)

Interesting I came across this thread, as I have been noticing that my fancy goldfish never do that well after steady diet of either Tetra or Aqueon flakes (many of them in the past have suffered with the "swim bladder" disease issue that eventually killed them) -- however, they also tend to respond much better to flakes than (Tetra) sinking pellets, in that when they eat the pellets, they seem to go into a state of shock of some kind, just moving their mouths and staying in one place until these things are digested. So I have been staying away from the pellets -- though this is a catch 22 because the flakes allow air to be introduced into their systems (when they feed at the surface). I never tried soaking the flakes...

Just yesterday, I noticed that one of my small goldies I recently purchased as one of two tankmates for an aggressive Red Cap Oranda we isolated in a 10-gallon was exhibiting the beginning signs of this swim bloat problem -- the head-long, head-down "floating" symptom along with general strange behavior...I immediately thought "here we go again...we are going to lose another one in 24 to 48 hours, maybe less..." but today, he seems to be swimming normally. It HAS to be the food I am feeding because the water quality in both tanks have been great, as I am doing regular water changes and they're both cycling on schedule and remaining with clear, clean water; I agree about the frozen cooked deshelled peas as one member suggested, as we have done that before with swim bloat issues, but this merely buys time -- every goldfish that ever exhibited these symptoms in our tank eventually died even though the peas seemed to make them feel a bit better before it happened...

I have been hearing a lot of good things about the New Life line Fishguy mentioned and I am wondering if I should just purchase some already -- but it is sinking food, so I don't know what to do...


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

hikari is one of the best foods you can buy, there’s an article about food that’s very informative, ill see if i can find it again. id suggest getting a gold fish food by hikari and seeing what other frozen things you can supplement it with. just feeding one thing all the time will not only be boring but won’t have everything the fish needs. like imagine if you only ate meat, you could live on it but wouldn’t get a well rounded diet without incorporating other food into it.

what i didnt like about the new life spectrum is it doesn’t have specific diets for cichlids. hikari have many different ones for the different needs of say African to American. this is the gold fish page:
Hikari Breeder Preferred Goldfish Diets


ps never ever buy anythiong with a tetra lable on it, the food is awful and have very little nutients


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## ClinicaTerra (Nov 12, 2010)

zero said:


> hikari is one of the best foods you can buy, there’s an article about food that’s very informative, ill see if i can find it again. id suggest getting a gold fish food by hikari and seeing what other frozen things you can supplement it with. just feeding one thing all the time will not only be boring but won’t have everything the fish needs. like imagine if you only ate meat, you could live on it but wouldn’t get a well rounded diet without incorporating other food into it.


But isn't the flake food supposed to offer them a rounded, somewhat balanced everyday diet?



> what i didnt like about the new life spectrum is it doesn’t have specific diets for cichlids.


I can swear they do...

Check this page out:

New Life International Inc- Fish Food, Books, Aquaculture and more! - Fish Food



> hikari have many different ones for the different needs of say African to American. this is the gold fish page:
> Hikari Breeder Preferred Goldfish Diets


Indeed, I am aware of Hikari; I'll consider their food...



> ps never ever buy anythiong with a tetra lable on it, the food is awful and have very little nutients


You serious? Is this documented anywhere?


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

Q; But isn't the flake food supposed to offer them a rounded, somewhat balanced everyday diet?

A; yeah but you cant expect them to thrive on just flake alone. mixed food is always best.

Q; I can swear they do...

Check this page out:

New Life International Inc- Fish Food, Books, Aquaculture and more! - Fish Food

A; they only have one type of cichlid food. there are different needs for different cichlids and this clearly doesnt have the right amounts for some. i cant see the ingrediant list either.



Q; You serious? Is this documented anywhere?

A; yep i shall find you that page now. its makes for heavy reading but hopefully you'll be more aware for choosing food.


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

Proper goldfish feeding and care, quality ingredients, diet suggestions

i cant find where it said it but ill look tomorrow. going home now


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## ClinicaTerra (Nov 12, 2010)

zero said:


> A; yeah but you cant expect them to thrive on just flake alone. mixed food is always best.


I understand, but my point was these flake foods are designed for basic, everyday nutrition...



> they only have one type of cichlid food. there are different needs for different cichlids and this clearly doesnt have the right amounts for some. i cant see the ingrediant list either.


Oh, I thought you were mentioning it because you thought they made NO foods WHATSOEVER for Chichlids; are you sure there's only one product made for this species? I didn't look at that page in depth...



> yep i shall find you that page now. its makes for heavy reading but hopefully you'll be more aware for choosing food.


Yeah, I'd be real interested in reading anything that specifically documents avoiding Tetra food altogether...


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## Nereus7 (Jun 13, 2012)

I mixed NLS Thera+A with Hikari 1mm sinking wafers, kind of like trail mix. Sometimes throw in Tetra Pro Crisps as a treat (until I run out of what I have, there's better stuff out there) I don't feed flakes, they're too messy the crisps you can get a pinch and hold it under the tank water a few seconds and gravity will pull it out of your fingers. They (loaches) love blood worms, are ok with mysis shrimp, they love romaine lettuce, broccoli (makes a mess), don't get down with the carrots, are kind of iffy on blackworms (they're still new to the fish) cucumber (gotta clean up the seeds afterwards)..... I can't think of anything else. I hear tell people using watermellon etc. I'm a little nervous what that would do to water quality so I havn't tried it yet. I bet they'd trigger on it though. When I was a bit of a rookie I gave them deli turkey, they went "ape crazy" over it, but I cut that out pretty quickly once I learned it's a no no.. Now that I'm thinking about it they love to eat java fern and cryptos too. I need to experiment with more veggie/fruits.. oh yea of course snails, they're a wrecking crew when it comes to snails.. Thats pretty much it I guess.. - N


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

grindal worms, earth worms, enriched ostracods, enriched fairy shrimp, enriched daphnia pulex, enriched moinas, crushed dubia roaches, crushed black soldier fly larvae, chopped earthworms, crushed crickets, wollfia, duckweed, fruitfly larvae, housefly maggots, blackworms, mosquito larvae, and bloodworms. 

now on to the frozen foods: glassworms, bloodworms, beefheart, bine shrimp, and tubifex worms.

i dont keep fish, i keep live food...


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## ClinicaTerra (Nov 12, 2010)

Auban said:


> i dont keep fish, i keep live food...


Are you joking?


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## ElChef194 (Dec 25, 2011)

ClinicaTerra said:


> Are you joking?


i shouldn't think he is. it is like biodiverse farming: if you want good plants, farm worms. they keep the soil healthy and clean. in that good soil, you will grow good grass/acorn/seed for the cows/sheep/goats/pigs/poultry, they live healthy lives until the slaughter and taste great afterwards. so, if you want healthy fish, grow good fish food. 

i however, feed my fish a variety of food: TetraColor flakes, omega one dried shrimp and shrimp pellets, vegetable wafers and split shelled peas (rams, angels, dojo loach, barbs, and gouramis really love em!), and live shrimp (which i raise in my betta tank) and live minnows. i feed my betta hakiri betta bio-gold.

when i get my own place in a month i will begin experimenting with DIY fish foods (i work with gelatins regularly at work and own a dehydrator). i will let you know how it goes!


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

I've been using aqueon regular flakes and color flakes, bloodworms, algea wafers, freeze dried and live brine shrimps and recently added cali blackworms, id like to delve deeper into live foods but not really sure what to choose


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## ClinicaTerra (Nov 12, 2010)

ElChef194 said:


> i shouldn't think he is. it is like biodiverse farming: if you want good plants, farm worms. they keep the soil healthy and clean. in that good soil, you will grow good grass/acorn/seed for the cows/sheep/goats/pigs/poultry, they live healthy lives until the slaughter and taste great afterwards. so, if you want healthy fish, grow good fish food.
> 
> i however, feed my fish a variety of food: TetraColor flakes, omega one dried shrimp and shrimp pellets, vegetable wafers and split shelled peas (rams, angels, dojo loach, barbs, and gouramis really love em!), and live shrimp (which i raise in my betta tank) and live minnows. i feed my betta hakiri betta bio-gold.
> 
> when i get my own place in a month i will begin experimenting with DIY fish foods (i work with gelatins regularly at work and own a dehydrator). i will let you know how it goes!


Okay...

It just seemed bizarre to me that someone was saying they don't keep or raise fish...they instead keep and raise fish foods with all kinds of worms and such -- unless he was adding some sarcasm to that which then would be more understandable (in other words, of course he keeps fish, but with all the worms and other foods in the house it seems like he doesn't)...


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

ClinicaTerra said:


> Okay...
> 
> It just seemed bizarre to me that someone was saying they don't keep or raise fish...they instead keep and raise fish foods with all kinds of worms and such -- unless he was adding some sarcasm to that which then would be more understandable (in other words, of course he keeps fish, but with all the worms and other foods in the house it seems like he doesn't)...


it was a bit of sarcasm. i am currently breeding six different types of fish, mostly north american natives. my live food cultures actually take up more room than they do. my fish thank me for it though.


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## ClinicaTerra (Nov 12, 2010)

^^^ Gotcha.


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## laxini (3 mo ago)

jmurray01 said:


> What type of fish food do you feed your fish ?
> 
> There are certainly plenty on the market; pellets, flakes, sticks, etc...
> 
> ...


Hello,

I wondered what everyone’s favorite fish food to use is.

I’m looking to get a good quality one or a variety if that is what people suggest.

I currently have:

2 guppies
3 mollies
3 tetras
2 African dwarf frogs

I feed the ADFs frozen blood worms & the fish a generic flake (although the fish steal the the bloodworms







)

All opinions will be gratefully received









Thanks!


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

I get a variety here





Kens Fish


Home of quality tropical fish food and pet supplies.




www.kensfish.com


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## Deathdealer91 (Jul 23, 2014)

I feed my shrimp 13 different foods throughout the week. My fish get live foods 2 times a week. I also feed fluval bug bites flakes, granules, and bottom feeder granules. But I also breed guppies and shrimp. So they get a varied diet because I have a range of babies to adults.


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## rob206 (3 mo ago)

I got micro pellets and protein-algae flakes and here and there daphnia, or black worms, or blood worms.


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## Deathdealer91 (Jul 23, 2014)

rob206 said:


> I got micro pellets and protein-algae flakes and here and there daphnia, or black worms, or blood worms.


Love all the above!!


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