A proper fish diet discussion

[sudz]

Man, In comparison, my fish must be malnourished... :-S
Primarily, i give them flake, I have this kind by "avant" that has 4 different flakes... bloodworm, Spiurlina, Plankton, etc.

I also have frozen cubes that i do once or twice a week that have bloodworm, brine shrimp, and a bunch of other stuff. I occasionally throw in an algae tab (a few times a month) as a treat to the clowns, but they seem to love the flake (espically the green flakes...)

If i notice that a tetra is starting to float after eating, i made some cubes from Green Pea baby food. I also have shimp pellets which i put in my smaller tank b/c my Rainbow fish likes to eat them all before they hit the ground, Chokes, and turns almost black from stress until he gets the common sense to spit them out.

 

[docrak]

docrak, NLS has a high-protein baby food - NLS growth, that's also smaller in size.

i think earthworms are also a great food-source. anyone going fishing would know that earthworms are a sure bet in catching a wide variety of fish.

My local fish stores don't carry NLS. I had to buy my cichlid formula online and hadn't done enough research. I just found the specs for NLS Growth Formula. Looks like a great food, I'm going to have to pick some up.

I'm glad this topic came up. It kind of conforms a lot of the stuff I already knew. I also learned some new stuff. My fish are growing much faster than my buddy's, who got his fish at the same time but only feeds his fish common flake food. The right food can make a huge difference in growth and appearance.

 

[BillD]

I feed avariety of flake and pellet, depending on what I have picked up for cheap. Most of my food comes from fish club monthly auctions. Often food can be picked up cheap. Right now I have a pile of Omega one, Nutrafin Max spirulina sticks, freeze dried tubifex ($4 for a dozen containers), Nutrafin spirulina flake (door prize), Big Al's staple,Wardley cichlid pellets (door prize), HBH Soft pellets with Krill,and Avant 4 in one (door prize of 12 cans). In addition, I have some frozen blood worms, a culture of white worms, and a frozen concoction I made up of pollack, shrimp,spinach, squash, and garlic. In the spring I feed copious quantities of daphnia, live blood worms, and whatever other typs of insect larvae are on the winter pool cover. Romaine lettuce and peas for those that will eat it (Severums, plecos).
All this is fed in a helter skelter manner with no set schedule, anywhere from once to many times a day as time allows. Of course, it doesn't matter how well you feed your fish, you will not have good results without clean water. The more and better you feed, the more often you need to change water. Good topic, Brian.

 

[BrianNY]

Thanks Bill. Giving credit where credit is due.... What focused me on this topic was a talk I recently heard by Rosario LaCorte. For those that may have never heard of him, he's one of the formost aquarists in the world. He's spent alot of time collecting fish in the Amazon and bred more species than I've heard of.

Rosario studied what fish ate in the wild and did alot of experimenting to find the perfect foods for feeding captive fish. He noticed a marked difference in vitality, color, growth, finnage, and breeding condition when certain foods were included in the diet. They are:

Krill - This food is almost perfect as it is high in protein, rich in vitamins and minerals, and contains the roughage needed to keep a fishes digestive tract in good order. The freeze dried variety can be powdered with a mortar and pestel, allowed to soak, and be fed to even the smallest fish.

Ready for this one? Butternut Squash. If your fish eat veggies they will go bonkers over this. My plecos seem to prefer it to zuchini and broccoli. Even my discus eat it and seem to have better color and finnage. It must be cooked until soft or the fish won't touch it.

Try feeding the above and see what happens.

 

[joannde]

Hm, butternut squash - good one. I'll pull off a few pieces the next time I make it - in fact, I have one sitting in my "out of fridge" produce bowl so I should be making it soon.

Are Krill and those Gammarus shrimp the same thing ? I have the later and do break them up and soak them before feeding - I just don't like freeze dried foods for some reason - I'm always afraid of constipation / bloat.

 

[sudz]

I have dehydrated blood worms, i never feed it anymore because all my fish float to the surface. when i do think to serve it, i have to soak and shake and stir them for a good 15 minutes. Very inconvenient.

 

[QTOFFER]

Great idea, Brian! I love to cook with winter squash and will have to try feeding the fish some butternut. I would imagine that they would also enjoy other squash varieties that I use like spaghetti and acorn. Most squash are rich in beta carotene - good for healthy eyes and brighter coloration.

A nice site I found about squash with pictures and recipes:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/squash.htm

 

[triazole]

wow, i had never fed those two! i guess i'll start right away.

 

[hc8719]

flakes 2-3 times daily, a freeze dried block of something every so often, cucumbers, zucchini you know veggies when i have them.
BGK gets bloodworms

 

[grumpy^dwarf]

feeding time

i give all my fish the same food
peas carrots broccoli coliflower spinach blood worms and brineshrimp daily
they seem to look forward to food time lol

 

[NeonJulie]

Is it ok to feed the fish a little of 3-4 things everyday, if the amounts are small?

For instance, tropical flakes, slow sinking pellets w/vitamins, freeze dried krill/brine/bloodworms, and algae wafers?

Or would it be better to feed them 1-2 things a day, and then the other things on different days?

And how often are you supposed to clip veggies?

 

[Badger]

Oh hey, this sounds like a great place for a question of a newbie! So this whole overfeeding thing...I'm sure I overfeed my fish sometimes, but I'm better than I used to be after reading that they can become obese. If fish will never stop eating, isn't it bad for them to have vacation blocks? Any time I throw food in my tank they all go beserk and I want to feed them lots....but I restrain myself and just feed them many times and in small amounts.
Thanks!

 

[docrak]

Oh hey, this sounds like a great place for a question of a newbie! So this whole overfeeding thing...I'm sure I overfeed my fish sometimes, but I'm better than I used to be after reading that they can become obese. If fish will never stop eating, isn't it bad for them to have vacation blocks? Any time I throw food in my tank they all go beserk and I want to feed them lots....but I restrain myself and just feed them many times and in small amounts.
Thanks!

Vacation blocks are bad, I'd go as far as saying EVIL!

Your fish don't need to eat nearly as much as you feed them. How much is enough? I'm not qualified to say. There the old standbys of so much food eaten over a certain time period. Some people will day once a day, some every other day. Some feed lots of food on purpose to make their fish grow quicker.

Somebody must have an answer as to how much food is the right amount of food? Trick question; the answer is based on the type of fish and its age. I wonder what kind of answers we'll get. I am by no mean qualified to answer this question because I know I'm over feeding my fish.

As for the vacation issue; get a good automatic feeder. It's more than worth the money.

 

[Badger]

Yeah I would agree it's more than worth the money, just...I don't have the money...

 

[fish_4_all]

I feed a pulverized mix of flakes, shrimp pellets, algae wafers and whatever else I have at the time as my main food 3x a week. Once a week I throw in a vegetable of some sort, zucchini, cucumber, potato, yam, grapes, green beans, peas, brocholli, or asparagus. I feed algae wafers 3x a week for the bottom feeders and all the rest of the fish pick at it during the day as well as the snails. I also have Tetracolor Extreme with Cyclopseze, crab bites, betta bites although I have no betta now, and whole shrimp pellets. Once in a while I will give them frozen blood worms, about once every other week. I feed them grindal worms whenever the population gets too high or they collect on the lid. Srpingtails for the same reason (it is amazing that the fish will spend many minutes sucking these little tiny critters off the surface). I think that is all, then again I am thinking so am probably forgetting something.

 

[BrianNY]

The problems caused by overfeeding aren't that fish will eat themselves to death. Rotting food and increased waste production will over tax the biofilter.

Growing fry require lots of food. Adults can go days without eating. If your fish are adults, you're better off feeding smaller quantities 2 or 3 times a day rather than 1 large feeding.

 

[docrak]

Yeah I would agree it's more than worth the money, just...I don't have the money...

Here's a link to some auto feeders:

http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18323/cl0/automaticfeeders?viewType=Category

Feeders range from $14.00 to over $60.00. Even the cheapest feeder will work for a week or two. I own several auto feeders for multiple tanks for different food applications.

Money should never be an excuse. If you smoke or drink beer or have any other vise give it up for one week and you'll have enough money for an auto feeder. Unfortunately my main vise is cheeseburgers. I gave those up and now spend way to much money on my fish tanks. Doing a half ass job because you don't have the money is never acceptable.

O.K. that’s enough ranting. Lets just say those feeder block will cause more harm than good.

 

[joannde]

docrak - please remember that some of the members are young and in school and others are suffering economic hard times. Before singing "Walk A Mile in My Shoes" Elvis quoted a poem that said "Don't critize what you don't understand; you haven't walked a mile in that man's shoes" - I think its a valuable saying for us all to remember

 

[docrak]

docrak - please remember that some of the members are young and in school and others are suffering economic hard times. Before singing "Walk A Mile in My Shoes" Elvis quoted a poem that said "Don't critize what you don't understand; you haven't walked a mile in that man's shoes" - I think its a valuable saying for us all to remember

Good point. Thanks, my bad. I tend to forget the extent of people involved in the hobby. I think my comments were directed unconsciously at one of my co-workers than as a helpful response.

 

[joannde]

docrak - you made me smile - Elvis was a "strange" dude but he comes through so many different ways and so many different times. Its the reason I got "hooked" on him.
All the best with the coworker