Aquarium Fish Food Tips
A balanced diet for your aquarium fish is essential to thier survival. Most of the commercially available dry fish foods are almost always unbalanced. In many cases, the vitamin content will gradually decline at room temperature and since majority of the dry food for tropical fish commonly used will only keep for about three months, it is always advisable to buy fish-feeds in many small packs rather than in one large pack.
The feed could preferably be kept absolutely dry in a refrigerator. However, all fish appreciate a change of diet and will thank you for your consideration with more interesting behavior, better colours, and greater readiness to breed and better general well -being. This change of diet should be supplemented with live food; majority of which now come in irradiated freeze dried forms to make sure that they are disease free.
I will mention a few that could be found handy in some major aquarium shops and I will group them into two. And they are flake foods and freeze-dried foods
Flake foods
Most popular and highly recommended brands are Aquarian®, Tetra®, and Wardley®. They are varying in cost and quality. Wardley is the least expensive among the three. However, the Aquarian and Tetra are richer in specialty flakes compare to Wardley.
Freeze-dried foods
You will also find freeze-dried foods available in aquarium stores. They are favorite foods for aquarium fish. They have single animal-ingredient like mosquito larvae, blood worms and Tubifex worm each. Aquarist should note that freeze-foods are not in themselves complete diet but they can be combine to flake food or other type of freeze-dried foods. We shall discuss more about Tubifex as a popular freeze-dried food.
TUBIFEX - This is a traditional favorite food relished by most fishes. They are small red worms that live at the bottom of streams and rivers particularly where large amounts of organic matter are present. Therefore, it is difficult for the aquarist to collect them life from their habitat. It is therefore preferable to buy Tubifex from pet shops where they are already clean, freeze-dried and concentrated into cube forms.
From personal experience, Tubifex tubes could probably be the most exciting feed to use for fishes. The cube can be stuck to the front inside wall of the aquarium. The fishes in the tank will immediately come forward and bit off pieces of worms excitedly until satisfied.
You need not bother to remove the rest worms since they seldom pollute and in most case fishes return to the feed for further fill.
September 14th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
What else will my tropical fish like to eat?
I've got a BiOrb 60 litre tropical tank and I have two red platies, two black mollies and two silver mollies. I put them in the tank a week ago and they're all doing very well. I'm feeding them some recommended fish food from the aquarium where I bought them, but I want to balance their diet with fresh things too. Any tips would be great. I've also heard that cucumber would be good - do I just give it to them raw? Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
September 15th, 2008 at 1:50 am
You could give them water fleas(daphnia) or blood worms.
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September 15th, 2008 at 1:52 am
furniture polish, they Will love that for about 10 minutes the turn upside down.
iv also been told that sellotape is perfect for feeding hamsters if you have them.
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September 15th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Yep, toss a cucumber chip in there, they'll love it.
Also try, Romaine Lettuce, squash, flightless fruit flys (at petco and petsmart)
Also at petco are algae pellets. Usually for algae eaters, but all my fish will nibble.
Good luck
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September 15th, 2008 at 1:56 am
I think you need to think what they would eat in the wild - and it wouldn't be cucumber !
Feed them fish food - you're doing it right.
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September 15th, 2008 at 1:58 am
They will like stuff they can find in the sea. Cucumber is definately not grown in the sea. I recommend buying them some frozen fish food which you can get in a pet shop. they tend to like daphnia and bloodworms. You can also drop a few frozen prawns in the tank. Another option would be to get them tropical plants, which you should be able to buy in a pet shop that sells fish. Good luck!!!!!
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:00 am
blood worm
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Tropical "staple" flakes and for mollies, spirulina flakes too. All fish like spirulina, but it is especially beneficial to mollies. I'd feed them twice a day, once "staple" and once spirulina.
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:04 am
Mollies will nibble on very thin slices of raw cucumber - but pull it out of the tank at the end of the day so it doesn't spoil and cloud the water. You can also feed baby foods like spinach, and peas with a small dropper (like an eye dropper) . Don't get too carried away with the fresh foods or you will find that they won't eat anything else. Platies will eat the same things and in addition will eat frozen brine shrimp and other frozen foods.
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:06 am
Little pieces of green squash is better to feed them than cucumbers. Feed them:blood worms, krill,flake food,live brine shrimp,frozen brine shrimp.freeze-dried brine shrimp,,but not too much at a time. Vary the feedings at different times;3-4 times a day.
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:08 am
vegetables(peas,cucumbers,lettuce,etc.)
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Chop a cucumber into extremely small peices. You can throw in store bought live worms, shrimp, or frozen blood worms. Also try feeders. Your fish may not be that aggressive but they will be happy to chase around a few fish.
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Peas-fish like peas!! Believe it or not,it's good for their digestive system too-prevents swim bladder problems,take a pea (any pea!!) press it gently so that the outer shell splits & the insides are exposed and drop it in the tank-watch them demolish it!
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Almost any green vegetable is fine, but you shouldn't put them in the tank raw. They need to be blanched first so they are soft enough for your fish too eat.
Blanching means dipping the vegetables in boiling water for 15 to 30 seconds to soften them up.
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:16 am
Almost any of the freeze dried foods that you can buy at a pet store I wouldn't put cucumber in there because if they don't eat it all it will cloud your tank
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Your mollies will eat algae if they get hungry however
adding brine shrimp will work well for all including the mollies.
Also, mashed peas and Emerald Entre frozen food works well
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:20 am
There is a brilliantly simple device on "ebay" called a "screwcumber" available for about a £1 or two.
This allows you to feed your fish on RAW cucumber, courgette and the like very easily.( your fishy friends will love you for it!) Frozen bloodworm are always very welcome in an aquarium, too!
Make sure you retrieve any un-eaten food after 4 or 5 hours, or it will poison the tank. Do a 20% water change once a fortnight, and you, and your fish, are laughing!
Hope this helps. : )
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Apart from the right food these fish appreciate a small amount of seasalt in the water(about a teaspoon in your tank).
Available from aquarium shops,it will make them much happier and healthier.
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:24 am
Yes some fish will eat cucumber although i never tried it.Bloodworm from your local pet shop every now and again aswell as the tropical flakes should be enough.
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September 15th, 2008 at 2:26 am
I have been trying my fish on cucumber for the past two weeks. They seem to love it. However I do find it clouds the water a little. Would zucchini/courgette be better?
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