Best Flake Food

[soccermatt]

I am going to soon be adding some fish to my cycled tank. What is the best flake food that I could buy for tropical fish.

I will also vary the deit with other foods.

Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

There are lots of good ones I believe. I tend to like the TetraMin flakes that come in the brown and yellow cylinder. Its both important to give fish some live/frozen variations at times and also not to overdo that. Both brine shrimp (its like a candy to them) and bloodworms should not be overdone at all.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[soccermatt]

So i think i will get a flake food, freeze dried brine shrimp (for an occasional treat), some sort of frozen food, and some vegi's some time.

What would you recommend as a frozen food.

Also would it be good to drop in the occasional rinsed piece of lettuce?

Thanks

 

[OldMan47]

It is hard to say without knowing what fish you have SoccerMatt. So far your emphasis seems to be on high protein foods which would be appropriate for most tetras and cichlids but if you also keep livebearers, you need to get some veggie food into the mix. I use spirulina flake for that and all of the fish seem to love it. Fresh greens are even better but are harder to use because you end up giving a lot of bulk in order to get much nutrients and then need to fish out whatever is not eaten fairly soon or face decaying vegetation in the tank. I often use brussel sprouts cooked as a vegetable source or my larger fish. A leaf or two at a time is plenty for my bristlenose plecs and my rainbow cichlids.

 

[soccermatt]

I am probably getting barbs. Do i have to cook the vegi's.

 

[OldMan47]

With barbs, your focus will be mostly the high protein foods you have already been looking at. Any veggies would need to be at least blanched to make them easy for the fish to bite into. Your frozen food will be things like daphnia, blood worms or brine shrimp. Some people have severe allergic reactions to blood worms so you should at least be aware of that before you start.

 

[waterdrop]

OM, could I ask your approach to the high protein frozen foods for tetras and cichlids? What are the other options besides brine shrimp and bloodworms and have you found any of them to be particularly good. In the past I've observed what I believe to be particular species of fish perferring particular foods, which I guess is pretty obvious but have you observed that too and have you found other factors with particular foods that made you turn to particular ones more often or less often? WD

 

[bitteraspects]

i prefer tetramin pro tropical crisps. its really the only "flake" food that i use.

 

[waterdrop]

i prefer tetramin pro tropical crisps. its really the only "flake" food that i use.

Did it just sound good that they are produced with a lower heat process or did your fish like them more or you got recommendations or what?

 

[OldMan47]

Lower heat processes do indeed help with the naturally included nutrients in fish foods, but truly low temperatures that would actually preserve the nutrients are almost unheard of in commercial foods. The difference between heating something to 250F or 200F is not a difference at all. The natural vitamins in processed foods are almost always destroyed by the processing and artificial vitamins are added back in after the fact because many are destroyed at not much more than room temperatures. One of the healthiest processed foods that can be had are freeze dried foods. In that case the moisture has been removed but temperatures were never raised to remove it. Ideally fish are fed fresh foods only and receive frozen or freeze dried foods next.
Let me get back to the real world now. Nobody want to spend all of their time trying to make fresh foods for their fish so we try to get them the nutrients that they need by selecting a number of different foods in the hopes that the mere variety will help them get all that they need. It is likely to work more because each manufacturer formulates food differently than because a particular one is better or worse.