Providing Fish With A Varied Diet

[A creature void of form]

My first fish will be two Bolivian Rams. They're Omnivores and require a healthy mixed diet.

With a mixed diet, should I offer a different food every day, a selection of foods during each feeding session, or, say -

flake foods mon-wed,
bloodworms thurs-fri,
vegetables sat-sun?



Another quick question:

What are safe level for Nitrates and Nitrates in my tank? It's fully cycled at the moment (0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, trace Nitrates), but I've heard conflicting numbers for safe levels of NO2 and NO3 to watch out for.


Thanks.

 

[SJ2K]

Most would say a mixed diet consists of a base food (ie flakes) everyday with the occasional suppliment of others (eg bloodworm once a week).

And the only safe levels of Ammonia and Nitrite are 0, nitrates can be higher

 

[xxBarneyxx]

The feeding plan sounds fine to me. I tend to feed my fish a combination of flake food, frozen food and freeze dried food. Flake food is their staple diet but every other day (sometimes longer) I will give them some frozen or freeze dried food instead. Occasionally I will give them a day with no food.

Most of my fish are breeding and they are all growing fast and looking healthy so it works for me.

With regards to nitrates with FW fish its not really an issue. Personally I wouldnt want them higher than 40ppm max and under 15-20ppm ideally. That being said however there is a fair amount of conflicting information on this and in some cases it has been shown that "some" fish are quite happy in water up to 100ppm of Nitrate. Marine fish and most Inverts are much more sensitive to it however.

Unless you have very high nitrate in your tap water then regular partial water changes will keep it low anyway.

Ammonia and NitrIte should always be zero.

 

[A creature void of form]

Thank you both for the prompt and informative responses. I feel confident to feed my fish sufficiently now.