FishChannel Forums / Freshwater Forums / General Freshwater / Fish food? / Latest Posts

RE: Fish food?

Punch1 — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 06:02:15 GMT

I noticed Conner suggested feeding a slice of potato - - however - If I rememberr issues regarding starches - etc in marine biology - a fishes anatomy cannot process the makeup of a potato - therefore - there is no nutritional value - even less than fish meal - in feeding a potato to fish - and may - in fact - deprive them of their minimu, daily needs.

RE: Fish food?

Punch1 — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:03:23 GMT

Carotenoids are a group-about 800 carotenoids -- fat soluble pigments widely distributed in plants and animals. The carotenoids that have been most studied are beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin and astaxanthin. In part, the beneficial effects of carotenoids are thought to be due to their role as antioxidants. Beta-Carotene may have added benefits due its ability to convert into vitamin A.

Higher plants, algae as well as many fungi and bacteria possess the ability to make carotenoids; and most of them do. My tanks are all Goldies - as Omnivores - they tend to love algae - I culture it on the back glass of all the tanks - where they go to feed or nibble for snack - a good natural supplement of Carotenoids.

RE: Fish food?

LadyBarbara001 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:54:11 GMT

I also try to vary the foods for my tanks. I do keep 2 tanks of small, picky fish (Scarlet Badis and red-cheeked gobies) and they don't get a varied diet. The Badis seems to dislike anything but brine shrimp (frozen), the gobies are a little better, but being small, I have to watch sizes of what I feed, or they just carry it around the tank with them.

My main tanks get zuchini, frozen peas, algae wafers and flakes, regular flakes and a little color enhancing, frozen and freeze dried brine shrimp, frozen and freeze dried blood worms, occasionally beefheart and frozen krill. I also give freeze dried red shrimp, and a powdered shrimp in a can they seem to go nuts over.

RE: Fish food?

princessotfu — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:35:31 GMT

Love Hikari brand foods. They're my second favorite for commercial foods.

RE: Fish food?

draco — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 12:17:00 GMT

what i find is really a mix of foods like hikari (sinking or floating depending on fish), frozen foods and sea weed i find makes a very enhancing diet for 95% of all fresh water fish. that range adds fat, protein and vitamins the fish may need to boost their color and cause a boom in mating or playfulness. i do this for a lungfish and he jumped a foot in a year. for carnivores like Oscars and piranhas leave out the sea weed and give them live fish to chase down so they don't get fat and lazy carnivores need live foods such as feeders, earth worms, and sad to say even small frogs and i have even heard but don't recommend a frozen mouse

RE: Fish food?

princessotfu — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:19:12 GMT

Wow, that's quite a variety of foods! The only thing I would comment on is that I wouldn't personally feed any insects that I can't vouch for the safety of. Which means I will only feed commercially cultured insects (but no tubifex!) or insects that I have personally cultured to ensure as far as I am able that I am not transmitting disease through the food. Insects collected from bug zappers could be carrying diseases or parasites. Obviously, the odds are pretty long that they are, but I prefer not to take chances.

RE: Fish food?

felixpaws — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:10:31 GMT

I've been paying special attention to fish feeding, and have fed cultured fruit flies, earthworms from a box store, a bunch of different brands of flake, pellet, wafer, hard flake, freeze dried live, granule, and have decided that I care more about what my fish eat than they do. I've fed a ton of fresh, blanched veggies, sushi seaweed(also called sushi nori), bananas, green beans, potato, beet tops, romaine lettuce, celery, sweet potato, algae based flakes, algae from pond scum that I collected with daphnia, frozen bloodworms, mysis shrimp(frozen, and freeze dried), frozen brine shrimp, live brine shrimp, freeze dried brine shrimp, algae wafers, swatted houseflies, bugs I collected from my bug zapper outside, and they seem to like some things better than others, but if they are hungry enough, will eat just about anything that doesn't contain anything bad for them ie: mammalian fat, chemicals that don't belong in an aquarium, too much protein for herbivores(or carnivores for that matter!) or too much vegetation for carnivores, acid containing vegetables that alter ph, or any of the other logical bad stuff for fish. Don't feed them too much at a time, and keep them a little hungry. That's what I've gathered from a lifetime of fish feeding, and two years of reading online, and reading trade magazines. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I would hate to steer anybody wrong. Thanks!!!

RE: Fish food?

pufferrocks — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:22:01 GMT

I feed the community tank:

Frozen bloodworms

algae wafers

Tetramin tropical flakes

Frog and Tadpole nibbles (intended for my ADF but my platys love them)

A couple times a month I will put in a few slices of fresh vegetables

I feed the betta:

Aqua Culture betta pellets

Tetramin tropical flakes

Occasionally freeze dried brine shrimp

I also have a snail in the tank that I try to feed algae wafers to but the betta usually gorges himself on them first. If anyone has any ideas on how to feed the snail and not the betta I would apriciate it.

RE: Fish food?

princessotfu — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:19:06 GMT

and yeah, I believe everything mentioned so far is fine for goldies. Just feed the fruits sparingly. They're high in sugars.

RE: Fish food?

Conner — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:09:55 GMT

Well, assuming you don't completely cover the bottom of your tank with veggies, then your fish should be able to eat most of the slices within a few days. You can try with different amounts of food, but if you notice that they are just sitting uneaten day after day, or start to discolor, then you should pull it out.

I put a 2.5" diameter, 1/4" thick slice of potato in my tank (after microwaving it for 10 seconds and allowing to cool), and it was 75% gone within 2 days, and I only had 2 bottom feeders.

RE: Fish food?

jfish13 — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:03:27 GMT

My goldfish will eat banannas!

RE: Fish food?

Mindnova — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:43:08 GMT

I was wondering how long you leave potato, zucchini, and other foods of that type in the aquarium. To those with experience, this it would be very helpful to keep from fouling our tanks.

Also would any of these foods be suitable for goldfish.

RE: Fish food?

jfish13 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:28:32 GMT

I just tried bannanas! My cory is going crazy.

RE: Fish food?

jfish13 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:16:11 GMT

This is a COOL topic!

I feed my fish:

TetraFin flakes for "regular" food
Bloodworms for treats
Pellets for treats
Granules for treats
Spinach (they hardly ever eat it!)
and for corys and bottomdwellers some algae sinking tablets.

RE: Fish food?

Maraqua — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:47:50 GMT

Awesome thank you for pinning this. I will reference it often as there are a lot of good ideas on here

RE: Fish food?

filipem — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:59:46 GMT

I feed my fish

Tetramin Flakes
Hikari Frozen Blood Worms
Hikari Tropical Algae Wafers (all of my Rams lose their mind when I toss one in. They love it)
Hikari Formula for small fish
Beefheart (I forgot the brand and I only started using it yesterday)
Hikari Cichlid pellets (started last week)

I've tried to feed my fish various veggies but none of the fish responded well to veggies. I am a big fan of Hikari. All of my fish seem to respond very well to Hikari foods. I think I will try new life spectrum flakes when the tetramin flakes are done. I have heard very good things about NLS foods here on this forum and from other resources.

RE: Fish food?

Maraqua — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:30:06 GMT

I was wondering if this thread can be pinned? I think it's very useful in letting people know all the nutritious and diverse foods fish can have It would also make it more accessable to reference for others (and me )

RE: Fish food?

David Lass — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:39:22 GMT

Thanks. I'll try banana on them.

RE: Fish food?

DazzleDiscus — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:31:36 GMT

Thanks Maraqua- I'm actually running low on a few items from the list, and about four on the list are relatively new- especially the algae flakes. They were a new item on the LFS shelves. Thought I'd give it a try- and the fish crave it! The same with the aquarian pellets... I have actually lost a male betta splendens because he stole it from the rest of the fish and tried to swallow it whole... It was way to big for him. By the time I realized it, it was too far down for me to try to pull it out. So know I cut them in half and let them soften a bit before I feed them.

I don't feed my fish banana very often, probably once every two weeks or so. I also only feed them a very small amount making sure that they eat it, and then I vacuum the gravel. I don't feed it when the outside is brown or green- a nice yellow seems to work better than when it is brown.

I usually pinch it underwater so that it sinks and so that my bamboo shrimp can get some from the water current. The cories love to pick on it, while the guppies bite at it a little, then get tired of it. Mostly the cories like it.

RE: Fish food?

David Lass — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:02:41 GMT

How do you guys feed banana? The few times I've tried it the fish made a complete mess of it, and I'm not sure they really ate much of it. Ripe or green?

Thanks.

RE: Fish food?

Maraqua — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:17:15 GMT

DazzleDiscus (2/26/2008)

If it's ok for me to add

Here's what I feed my fish:
algae flakes
shrimp pellets
aquarian pellets
algae discs
freezedried bloodworms
freezedried daphnia
freezedried shrimp
live brine shrimp every once in a while
live daphnia from my pond when it is warm enough
fruit flies
very young mealworms (the larger ones go to the birds)
live mosquito larva when it is warm
frozen general freshwater mix
cucumber, banana, and potato slices every so often.

I don't mind you sharing at all this has become a very educating post on what's out there, there are so many great things to feed fish!!

Plus Dazzlediscus that is quite a diverse diet your fish must love you

RE: Fish food?

Conner — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:12:52 GMT

Wow, that is a great selection of foods.

I feed:
Tetramin flakes (phasing out in favor of NLS Community pellets) - daily.
Frozen Brine Shrimp - every other day
Frozen Blood Worms - every other day (either brine shrimp or bloodworms, not both)
Hikari Tropical Algae Wafers - every other day
NLS Community formula - replacing the tetramin flakes
Live Black Worms - Every other day to every 2 days

I feed a fair amount of food because my tank is pretty overstocked, so there really isn't much left over in the tank. I do have one day of the week that I don't feed as well.

I'm also going to start feeding zucchini slices occasionally, since I do have an algae eater and a pictus.

RE: Fish food?

DazzleDiscus — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:44:59 GMT

If it's ok for me to add

RE: Fish food?

Maraqua — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:25:06 GMT

Wow!!! Thanks everybody this is really great information there are so many choices out there!

RE: Fish food?

David Lass — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:17:20 GMT

Thanks for reminding me, princess. The 120 with the jurupari and royal farlowellas get potato and/or zuchinni a couple times a week, and when we have melons I just leave a fair amount on the rind and put the rind in -- they will clean it down to a very thin skin in a day or so. All of the sucker cats that need it -- plecos, ancistrus, otocinaclus etc. -- in my wholesale fish room get potato in their tanks all the time. Veggies are great for most fish -- I just nuke them in the microwave for a minute or so before feeding them.

RE: Fish food?

BonnieandClyde — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:11:44 GMT

goldbarb has a very large regiment i like to see that. I am sure that as you have read before i make my own food its cheap and very healthy because i know everything that is in it.

RE: Fish food?

princessotfu — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:10:52 GMT

My goldfish get a base commercial food of either Mazuri gel food or Hikari Oranda/Lionhead pellets. Frozen bloodworms 2-3 times a week. fresh cocktail shrimp or imitation crab meat (which is just fish) once a week or so, depending on the dining hall. Usually they get fresh spinach, lettuce, or cucumber 1-2 times a week. An orange slice once every 2-3 weeks. Right now they are eating the rest of my leftover spinach/pea homemade gel food instead of the fresh veggies. I try to make sure they get fresh peas every 2 weeks or so, but as I get them from the dining hall, it's a wierd schedule.

RE: Fish food?

David Lass — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:05:42 GMT

Wow, GoldBarb -- that is the best feeding regimen for fish that I have ever seen. No wonder your fish look so terrific. My fish also get a varied diet, and it also depends on the fish. In addition to the many different foods that I am sent to review for FAMA, I feed all of my show tanks two or three dry foods, shrimp pellets, a krill pellet that I am testing, and all of my tanks get spirulina algae wafers every day. I feed frozen bloodworms and frozen mysis shrimp probably four or five times a week -- I confess that I just swish the chunks of frozen food around in the tank, trying to avoid having my fingers bitten by my large wild Uarus and the jurupari. At least one day a week I do not feed anybody anything.

What do other of you feed your fish? Please share with us.

RE: Fish food?

ILuvMyGoldBarb — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:47:01 GMT

Well, here's my take on food. When we sit to the table we don't eat the same thing every time, we switch things up and just about every meal. In the wild, so do fish. So, in our tanks why not vary the diet as well. It makes for much healthier fish. Just to give you and idea of the diversity of foods my fish get here's what my tanks get.

Saltwater
Mixture and sometimes separated out as follows:
Daphnia
Brine Shrimp
Mysis Shrimp
Reef Plankton
SF Bay Emerald Entree
New Life Spectrum growth formula pellets
New Life Spectrum Marine Fish formula
Dried Seaweed (aka Nori)

all "live" foods are frozen, not freeze dried or live.

Discus Community and 10gal Community
New Life Spectrum small fish formula (for the tetras)
New Life Spectrum community fish forumla
Beefheart
Daphnia
Bloodworms
Brine Shrimp

37gal South American Species + temp home to Pleco
Sera Vipagran
Discus color pellets (I know, the question that will be asked so keep reading. )
Brine Shrimp
Zuchinni
Algae Wafers

Ok, so you ask, why do I feed the Discus food to the 37gal and not to the Discus and why don't I feed the NLS(New Life Spectrum) to the 37? Simple, the Discus color enhancing food is left over from when I had all my Discus, and it is meant to be an enhancer for Red colored discus, neither of my Discus have red in them. And the 37gal tank is stocked with 2 Golden Angels and a small species of Silver Dollar, nothing very colorful there so I don't use the New Life Spectrum because it is extremely good for color (other things as well but a lot for color). Besides, it is a rather expensive food.

RE: Fish food?

Lumberjack — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:41:00 GMT

Nothing give a "FULL" diet. Variety is your best bet to make sure your fish get all the nutrients they need.

I tend to stay away from color enhancing food. I just dont trust them

RE: Fish food?

Genga — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:32:15 GMT

I recently found blood worms are not a full diet. I am also lost on what to feed. Can someone help me aswell?

RE: Fish food?

princessotfu — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:30:23 GMT

If I remember right, and I may be wrong, carotene is a carotenoid, but there are other substances that are carotenoids too. Which means, there may or may not be carotene in the food, and that's probably what it is, but it could be something else the pretty much does the same thing.

And yeah, most color-enhancing foods will have that in it. None of them should have it in high enough quantities to cause any trouble, and if you're already rotating foods for variety, it's unlikely anything will go wrong because of it.

As far as a replacement brand for the flake food, is this for the goldfish or the tropicals? For the goldfish, I very highly recommend Hikari Lionhead or Oranda pellets. They're both the same and very good food. Slightly more expensive for the amount of food you get, but worth it, I think. I've also heard good things about Omega-1, for both goldies and tropicals.

personally, I wouldn't bother replacing the tubifex worms, but I'm completely biased against them, even in the freeze-dried stage.

Fish food?

Maraqua — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:15:22 GMT

I want a very diverse diet for my fish. Currently I feed them frozen blood worms (thawed 1st and only half a cube every few days), freeze dried tubifex worms, flake food, and very once in a great while baby live brine shrimp.

I saw a brand for "color enhancing" and it said the following:

"It's high in carotenoids, this diet is designed to promote development of natural colors in tropical fish."

I was just wondering aren't carotenoids same as carotene? I've told you before I'm not very good at chemistry so I hope I don't sound dense asking Also I heard that too much carotene isn't good for fish, or people for that matter, so do all color enhancing products have this in it?

I'm almost out of tubifex worms, and the flake food isn't that great of quality I like the tetramin brand I was using. My friend gave me the flakes for free when I adopted my goldfish. Anyway what 2 products do you think I should replace these with?