Aquarium Fish Foods

Aquarium Fish Foods come in a variety of types. 

The most common and most well known is flake food but there is also a range of frozen foods, live foods and pellets that may be suitable for your aquarium fishes depending on the type of fish that you are keeping.

Firstly, never over-feed your aquarium fishes.  As a rule of thumb, don’t give them more aquarium fish food than they can eat in three or four minutes.  Watching your fish feed is enjoyable and you will quickly be able to gauge how much food they need through a bit of trial and error.

Uneaten food is one of the commonest causes of water quality problems in aquariums with uneaten food settling on the bottom of the tank and decomposing.

None of the types of food available are going to satisfy the requirements of your fish on their own.  It is important to do your research or get advice on the types of food whenever you buy fish. 

Each variety of fish has its own needs and some food may actually harm certain fish despite being the staple diet of some varieties.  Also as your fish age and mature their dietary requirements may change.  As with all things to do with fish, research and knowledge are the keys.

Like humans, fish also benefit from some variety in their diet.  Like us they will soon lose interest in their food if served the same dish every day so it is worth varying the brands as well as the types of food to keep them interested.

Dried foods are the easiest to keep for any length of time. They usually come in the form of Flake or Pellets.

Flake food is best suited to small fish as it is easy for them to eat.  Larger fish will probably benefit from and show more interest in pelleted food. 

These two are the cheaper end of the fish food price range.  It is always worth spending a little more on dried food to get the brand with the reputation and research behind it.  Dried food will deteriorate in time so it is worth just buying enough for a couple of months rather than going for the largest packet.

Most fish sold in the stores will eat flake food.  It is generally felt that a flake food diet needs to be supplemented but there are a number of aquarists who raise perfectly healthy fish on a flake only diet.

Although pelleted aquarium fish food is better suited to larger fish due to the size you do need to check that this food is being eaten as it will sink to the bottom quicker and may end up be ignored by the fish..

Frozen and Freeze dried foods are the next best form of storable tropical fish food, They tend to be preferred by the fish and can be said to be better food from the fish’s perspective. Frozen food is simply live food that has been frozen.  It keeps the nutritional value of the live food but will last longer than unattended live food.

Most items that you can keep (live) on your own are available frozen as well.

Live foods include Fish, Worms, Insects, Invertebrates, and other live tropical fish food. Although welcomed by the fish, this can be a time-consuming part of the hobby, as you need to maintain, or even cultivate them to keep a supply..

The final decisions on how to feed your fish rests with you, and your decision will only be as good as your research into the area with your particular tropical fish in mind. You should therefore make sure that you do your research.

Find out about Starter fish next