Let's Talk About Feeding Our Fish

[Ram419]

I'm never sure about my mystery snails though. Twice a week I'll drop in some blanched veg but they never show any interest, so I assume they're just surviving off algae in the tank and spare bits of uneaten food. They're about 5 times the size they were when I got them a few months ago so must be doing fine but I never really know what they're eating!

Mine like blanched kale. I also feed them algae wafers and unsalted green beans. But yeah they get a lot from just scavenging the substrate, tank walls, and dead plants.

 

[xcheryl]

I feed a large pinch of Tropical flakes with color enhancing pellets mixed together twice a day in my 10g and 39g tank. Shrimp tank has 2 celestial pearl danios so they get a small pinch. Once a week I'll treat them with either freeze dried or frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms.

The 29g has 1 amano and 2 vampire shrimp so I squeeze the sponge covering the intake morning and night.

 

[Naughts]

. is this pertain to all fish, or are fry, babies, & juvenal fish exempt from that..

Specific circumstances vary a lot but a general rule is feed:
Adults once a day
Juveniles twice a day
Fry three times a day.

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello. I've found that feeding less has several benefits not only for general fish health, but creates less work for me in maintaining healthy water conditions. A slightly hungry fish is a more active fish. It's always working to find that small piece of uneaten food. And, helping keep the tank cleaner. Less food in the tank slows the snail population and fewer snails means less dissolved waste material to foul the tank water. As for the water keeper, one doesn't have ever test the tank water and there's no need for high end filtration, because any filter in the tank is just going to be filtering water that's already clean. By simply changing half every few days and feeding less, the water is always going to be near nitrogen free and the chemistry steady for whatever you have living in it.

10 Tank (Now 11)

 

[powerdyne6]

Feeding is probably my biggest issue (well not so much an issue).

I feed flake food and micro bug bite pellets to my 20 Tetras once a morning from Sunday to Wednesday. I feed a mix of frozen Brine Shrimp and Bloodworms on Friday morning. Thursdays and Saturdays I do not feed.

My 10 yoyo Loaches get the same schedule but they don’t get flakes and the micro pellets. They get a bigger sinking Pellet and some sinking Shrimp Pellets.

All fish seem to be getting enough food but mu problem is the Tetras (especially the Blue Tetras) will swim down to the sand and grab the bigger pellets from the Yoyo’s.

Is there any recommendations I can try and stop this or is this just the way it is with others?

Thanks.

 

[Mathew1991]

How does everybody feed there blood worm?

 

[powerdyne6]

How does everybody feed there blood worm?

I will fill a little cup with some tank water put the frozen cube in the cup and then use a big eye dropper and squirt them into the tank. I do it this way so I can feed my bottom fish some as well. The eye dropper is about 15 inches long.

If I don’t do it this way all the food is gone because of the top fish

 

[fish48]

I only feed live bloodworm and plenty of it when I have it available. I collect it from my water butts mainly through the summer months

 

[TwoTankAmin]

As far as I am concerned, the two most important features in feeding are first that the nutritional value of the food in term of it being appropriate for the fish and second is the quality of the food. For commercially created foods that means ingredients.

Read the label. The best foods have their main ingredient listed in the first 2 or 3 of those listed, avoid food with lots of filler ingredients. Also read the Guaranteed Analysis.

It isn't the price of the food that matters, it is the above factors that do. Of course, that is just my opinion for whatever it is worth.

 

[MuddyWaters]

Hello again. I have an experiment for you all. First, most tank keepers feed their fish too much. So, if you believe you're guilty, then over the next month, feed every other day. Don't worry, your fish won't starve. They're not like a dog or cat that might have a serious reaction to reducing their food by half. Fish are cooler temperature creatures and have a much slower means of using food. This is why fish can go for up to two weeks without food and still remain healthy. During the month, watch your fish. After a week or so, they'll be more inclined to move around their tank looking for that piece of food the others missed. You'll find your tank stays cleaner longer, because the fish will be doing their part to keep the tank clean. Less food in the water means, lower levels of dissolved nitrogen in the water.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

Ok- will start tomorrow. I know I'm in the overfeeding department. Every-other-day it is! I used to feed all my fish TetraMin flakes, but have recently found that is not very good- or so I read- so I use Bug Bites and Ultra Fresh Tropical Micro pellets. oh, and an occasional treat of tubliflex worms. Does live or frozen food really make a big difference for the fish? I've never used it. I've kept fish off and on for years, but never really did any reading - I just kept doing the same things I did when I was a kid and got my first tank (mid 1970s). Boy I have learned a lot lately.

 

[fish48]

Does live or frozen food really make a big difference for the fish?

yes feeding live food do make a big difference the benefits of feeding live food is way better than any prepared or frozen foods .
it helps growth rate helps to bring out natural colours and well always get the fish into good conditions for breeding .
when feeding live food there is less chances of pollution. most live foods will stay alive long enough for the fish to eat them . I have many tanks with tubifex worms breeding and living in the gravel t's always there ready to remove to feed to other fish when needed

I have been keeping and breeding fish since the 1970s I have been feeding all my fish regularly on live foods for more than 30 years .
I have 5 different varieties of live foods that i culture all year round and many other types throughout the summer months apart from the live foods I feed a standard flake food and catfish pellets .whether prepared foods or live foods always feed a variety ,
cutting back on prepared foods is not really going to be much beneficial to your fish

 

[MuddyWaters]

I have many tanks with tubifex worms breeding and living in the gravel

Wow! How does one go about setting that up? Is there a requirement to monitor the number of worms? Do they eat plant roots?

 

[fish48]

Wow! How does one go about setting that up? Is there a requirement to monitor the number of worms? Do they eat plant roots?

I started off feeding the fish worms and they just got established in the gravel recently moved fish from the tank and worms start coming to the surface as you can see it's artificial plant . has a have mention I have a number of tanks with worms the fish don't get half a chance to eat them they go deep down in the gravel not sure what damage they would do to real plants if any

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[O2Breather]

I started off feeding the fish worms and they just got established in the gravel recently moved fish from the tank and worms start coming to the surface as you can see it's artificial plant . has a have mention I have a number of tanks with worms the fish don't get half a chance to eat them they go deep down in the gravel not sure what damage they would do to real plants if any
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Yeah you never know how it will turn out.. After a summer rain recently I found some juicy mosquito larvae swimming in an overturned trash-can lid. I collected about two dozen and dumped them into my 33-gallon tank. They seemed to turn invisible then. I couldn't see them, and my fish (blue gouramis, American flag fish, zebra angel) didn't seem to see them either. I started to ask my wife to come look but I realized I would catch hell if the little buggers morphed and flew out and began to dine on us. Especially her, she has reactions to them. Lesson learnt! Sticking to flake food and brine shrimp.

 

[fish48]

Yeah you never know how it will turn out.. After a summer rain recently I found some juicy mosquito larvae swimming in an overturned trash-can lid. I collected about two dozen and dumped them into my 33-gallon tank. They seemed to turn invisible then. I couldn't see them, and my fish (blue gouramis, American flag fish, zebra angel) didn't seem to see them either. I started to ask my wife to come look but I realized I would catch hell if the little buggers morphed and flew out and began to dine on us. Especially her, she has reactions to them. Lesson learnt! Sticking to flake food and brine shrimp.

I have 8 water butts and throughout the summer months I collect literally thousands and thousands of mosquito larvae , my fish fish house and water butts are while away from the house so not too much of a problem when I feed them to my fish, I feed so much of it I get mosquitoes everywhere I have some fish tanks with cherry shrimps with out any aeration I get mosquitoes breeding with the shrimps also breeding in my jars of paramecium , well it’s that time of year the mosquitoes and larvae are starting to die off