Fish food

[GSO1]

Good morning, I'm new here and hope you can help me. I have a 20 gallon tank I have skirts and tetras. I purchased their food TetraMin Tropical Flakes. When I put the flakes in the tank the fish only eat a small portion the rest ends up on the bottom of the tank. It appears they will only eat a certain type of the flakes. The rest they swin right past. What is the best food for these guys. I hate wasting the food. Is there a better food out there? Thanks

 

[squirley]

Hey, I also have alot of flakes that fall to the gravel and i hope that they feed the snails when they slide around at night. whenever i put food in it goes all over the place from the water currents. i clean up some of it and getting it all is just not realistic. I hope cleaning some is helpful for water quality anyhow heh.

 

[BanjoFish]

It takes practice to get the portion size correct.

I only started with fish in January.

 

[emeraldking]

Welcome to the forum to start with...
In general, they should eat it all but I do think it's more of the correct portion of food you give them.

 

[Innesfan]

Welcome to our think tank!

Not quite sure what fish you mean by 'skirts and tetras' but a little bit of flake goes a long way. Try smaller portions. I feed frozen foods--baby brine shrimp, cyclops, daphnia etc--to my tetras (mostly Nannostomus and Cardinals) and Rasboras, who have similar feeding habits and needs. Most pet stores have a selection of frozen foods these days. I also feed bug bites (tiny pellets) and some flake. The food that makes it to the bottom is taken care of by 'corys'. Do you have any bottom feeders in there? I also siphon-vacuum the gravel once a week during water changes.

 

[MuddyWaters]

I like the pellets more than the flakes. I've heard the flakes can foul water more easily, but I have proven that you can foul water with enough of any kind of food . The hardest thing for me to do has been to learn to feed them less. I feed my fish only on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday now. I try to be reasonable with the amounts I feed. I have been overfeeding for years- it has taken that long for me to finally learn to back off. I feed frozen food only on Sundays- the rest of the days I mix it up between pellets, some flake-type but not exactly flake, freeze dried tubifex worms, and baby brine shrimp that I hatch and freeze in little vials.

I think you could feed the fish the same thing every single day if it's a good brand of food. I think something that is 45% protein or better with some kind of fish product high on the list of ingredients is good for most fish, but other guys in here probably have better info.

Anyway, the key is not overfeeding- it's so easy to do because they always want it and it's fun to watch.