Angelfish Diet

[ficklefins]

I have three little baby angelfish that I picked up at the LFS a few days ago.  With my betta and Endler's livebearers I have always just fed them a commercial pellet food.  The Angels don't seem interested at all.  At first they would eat it and then spit it back out, now they are just ignoring it.  They seem to LOVE frozen bloodworms.  Would it be okay to just feed them on a diet of frozen bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp, or do I need to include a commercial food in their diet? 

The pellets I've been trying to feed them are the New Life Spectrum small fish formula.  My Endler fry can eat them, so I know they aren't too big even for these little guys..  I'm not a huge fan of flakes, but if that's what they have to have, I guess I will get them some. 

 

[Ninjouzata]

Perhaps some sort of cichlid pellet or sticks?
There is some great stuff HERE.

 

[Dreamer03]

I usually buy cichlid pellets, and well ive had some angelfish that like the flakes better. Idk if its a good idea ot have a betta and angelfish together...

 

[ficklefins]

Oh goodness, the angels aren't with the betta The betta is in a seperate tank with a bunch of Endler's.  I probably should have specified that, sorry

 

[Dreamer03]

oo ok. I thought that was weird. sorry!!!

 

[simplyfish]

I feed mine on Tetra Prima Granule, they love it and seem very healthy - certainly if the number of eggs are anything to go by...
 
Angels like food that floats or suspends in the water, if you look at the shape of their mouths, it is up turned indicating their preferred route for finding food...

 

[Zante]

It would probably be better to vary their diet a bit more than just bloodworm and brine shrimp.
 
You might want to consider beefheart. It's usually given to discus, but angels would benefit from the mixture, especially if they're small and they need to eat a lot of protein.
 
Even if you don't go for beefheart, they will be more than fine eating only frozen food, byt you must vary what you give them: fish eggs, glassworms, bloodworms, brine shrimp, daphnia, etc..
 
Frozen brine shrimp comes also infused with lots of different stuff: garlic, aloe vera, spirulina, omega 3, etc...

 

[ficklefins]

Thanks, I will definitely look into the other foods you mentioned!  I used to have some big angels that loved beefheart but they were stealing it from another fish so I wasn't sure if that was something that should be included in their regular diet. I just stopped in to Petco to pick up the worms and shrimp yesterday because the closest LFS is pretty far, and all they have are brine and mysis shrimp, bloodworms, and beefheart. I will have to make the drive out to the LFS soon though to see what I can find there.

 

[ficklefins]

Today I went to the LFS and picked up some frozen daphnia and beefheart, and I'll be rotating all four of these with twice a day feedings.  Do you think that's enough variety?  I also saw some frozen tubifex worms there and was wondering if those would be any good?

 

[Zante]

I don't know, I've been warned against tubifex.
 
Beefheart should be a good staple as it has already a variety of stuff in it. The daphnia, brine shrimp and bloodworms are good to give them a bit of variety. I would feed them beefheart once a day and something else for the other daily feedings.

 

[ficklefins]

Thanks! I was a little unsure about tubifex, too, so I figured I would ask before buying.
 
I have ONE more question, after that I will leave you all alone, promise   I was reading up on all the feeding and saw that a diet low in fiber may cause issues with constipation.  I see that the daphnia help, and that feeding them a diet that has some sort of veggie matter also helps.  In a variety pack that I got, there is also a strictly veggie food.  The main ingredients are squash, spinach, and romaine lettuce.  Just out of curiosity I fed a little bit to the angels and they gobbled it right up.  In fact the one that is iffy about the beefheart even loved it, go figure.   Obviously that can't be something I feed them every day but is it okay to feed them something that is strictly vegetarian every once in a while? Maybe once a week or even less?

 

[Zante]

Brine shrimp isn't all that nutritious by itself, but it's good because it ban be infused or gut-loaded with plenty of nutritious stuff and has plenty of roughage, which is good for constipation.
 
By all means, feed your fish some veggies every now and then. In the wild fish will eat what they can when they can, and when they're hungry they cannot turn up their noses at fruit and veg when it comes by.
 
Beefheart already contains plenty of veggies. The vast majority of recipes I've seen contain a quarter of vegetables. That Is why it's a good staple. If it's a good recipe it will already contain protein, vegetables, spirulina, vitamins, garlic and often more.
 
If you want you can even make your own, I was hesitant at first, but once I tried I found it straightforward and quite easy, And once you've made a large batch you can freeze the lot and forget about feeding other stuff.

 

[ficklefins]

Brine shrimp isn't all that nutritious by itself, but it's good because it ban be infused or gut-loaded with plenty of nutritious stuff and has plenty of roughage, which is good for constipation.
 
Beefheart already contains plenty of veggies. The vast majority of recipes I've seen contain a quarter of vegetables. That Is why it's a good staple. If it's a good recipe it will already contain protein, vegetables, spirulina, vitamins, garlic and often more.
 

Hmm, the beefheart I bought just says "beef heart, water, and sodium alginate" as the ingredients

 

[Zante]

Hmm... in that case you might want to either start making your own or changing brand or stop using it altogether if you can't find a good one.
 
This is a canadian guy who has loads of videos on DIY.
I have built quite a bit of stuff following his instructions
 
This is and oldish video of his on how to make fish food
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=12qCQDNc00E
 
This is a newer video where he gives a recipe.
 
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXQS95MHmTk
 
I have recently tried it, but mincing the meat and fish rather than blending it.
All my fish (discus, corys, rummynoses) like it VERY much.
 
I tried it also on my reef and it was demolished in no time.
I'm not feeding it to my reef just because it's too rich for them to be used as a staple.

 

[ficklefins]

What brand of beefheart has the added stuff with it?