Tostada
Aquarium Advice Freak
I was feeding the fish yesterday, and it occurred to me that even with a pretty well stocked tank, my cheap 2.5 oz. can of Wardley flake food is probably going to last me six months. So, I spent $7.99 on the big bag of Hikari sinking wafers for my corys (which is probably going to last more like a year), and also got some frozen brine shrimp (and if I give them a big cube of that once a week, it'll last 8 months).
With just a single 30 gal. tank, I could probably get the most expensive food possible and still be spending less than $50/year on food as long as I'm not going crazy and giving them live food everyday. So, there's no reason for me not to get the best flakes along with some other stuff for variety.
The problem is, I don't really know where to start. I've heard people say that the Hikari wafers are noticably better than other ones as far as most fish are concerned, but what about other stuff?
Here's all the different flake food I saw at Petsmart:
TetraMin Tropical Crisps
Nutrafin Max Complete
Nutrafin Max Color Enhancing
Omega One Freshwater Flakes
Omega One Super Color
TetraMin Tropical Flakes
TetraMin Tropical Granules (small can for bettas)
TetraColor Tropical Flakes
Tetra Color Bits (for large fish)
Tetra Tropical Granules (for large fish)
Besides that, there are freeze-dried Hikari cans of:
Ocean Plankton
Daphnia
Blood Worms
Tubifex Worms
Brine Shrimp
Krill
All of this stuff is pretty reasonably priced, and then there are the refrigerated and frozen foods, which I didn't look at too long, but the Hikari frozen brine shrimp I got in 32 individual packages squares was only $3.79. The other stuff was more expensive (I think the baby brine shrimp was twice as much, and there were other things).
I've just been giving them about as much flake food as they can eat once a day, and along with that I'm giving them a pinch of betta food (the small dry pellets) and a sinking wafer every day, and I was planning on just giving them a cube of brine shrimp once a week after I do a PWC (the cubes seem big enough that I might have to skip all other food for the day).
I'm mostly just wondering about people's opinions on the flake food, how good the "color enhancing" stuff is, and how often you use each.
My current inhabitants are:
1 male betta
1 medium golden gourami
5 tiny panda corys
6 medium to small swords
5 glass shrimp (two are pretty big)
1 large gold mystery snail
The gourami eats a lot of flake food and is a real poop factory. The betta probably eats more flake food than betta food, but he's pretty inept at eating. He often just grabs a flake then just swims around confused with the flake sticking out of his mouth covering his eyes.The swords eat a decent amount of flake food and like to peck at the sinking wafers a little. The corys don't seem to eat much at all. The shrimp of course eat everything.
With just a single 30 gal. tank, I could probably get the most expensive food possible and still be spending less than $50/year on food as long as I'm not going crazy and giving them live food everyday. So, there's no reason for me not to get the best flakes along with some other stuff for variety.
The problem is, I don't really know where to start. I've heard people say that the Hikari wafers are noticably better than other ones as far as most fish are concerned, but what about other stuff?
Here's all the different flake food I saw at Petsmart:
TetraMin Tropical Crisps
Nutrafin Max Complete
Nutrafin Max Color Enhancing
Omega One Freshwater Flakes
Omega One Super Color
TetraMin Tropical Flakes
TetraMin Tropical Granules (small can for bettas)
TetraColor Tropical Flakes
Tetra Color Bits (for large fish)
Tetra Tropical Granules (for large fish)
Besides that, there are freeze-dried Hikari cans of:
Ocean Plankton
Daphnia
Blood Worms
Tubifex Worms
Brine Shrimp
Krill
All of this stuff is pretty reasonably priced, and then there are the refrigerated and frozen foods, which I didn't look at too long, but the Hikari frozen brine shrimp I got in 32 individual packages squares was only $3.79. The other stuff was more expensive (I think the baby brine shrimp was twice as much, and there were other things).
I've just been giving them about as much flake food as they can eat once a day, and along with that I'm giving them a pinch of betta food (the small dry pellets) and a sinking wafer every day, and I was planning on just giving them a cube of brine shrimp once a week after I do a PWC (the cubes seem big enough that I might have to skip all other food for the day).
I'm mostly just wondering about people's opinions on the flake food, how good the "color enhancing" stuff is, and how often you use each.
My current inhabitants are:
1 male betta
1 medium golden gourami
5 tiny panda corys
6 medium to small swords
5 glass shrimp (two are pretty big)
1 large gold mystery snail
The gourami eats a lot of flake food and is a real poop factory. The betta probably eats more flake food than betta food, but he's pretty inept at eating. He often just grabs a flake then just swims around confused with the flake sticking out of his mouth covering his eyes.The swords eat a decent amount of flake food and like to peck at the sinking wafers a little. The corys don't seem to eat much at all. The shrimp of course eat everything.