Feeding your fish

It is important to understand the way of providing adequate food supply for your fish and when to feed them. A hungry aquarium fish may tend to focus its attention to the smaller inmates of the tank if it is unable to find any food.

A correct diet should include the right type, form and amount  of food.

Types of food for fish:
1. Manufactured food
2. Live food obtained from nature or cultured
3. Household scraps

1. Manufactured food

• several forms: pellet, flake, tablet/granular
• made from: cereals, meat, fish, vegetables, vitamins and minerals
• can be fed to all types of fish usually unless breed-specific variations are included in the package

 i) Pellets: floating pellets for surface-feeding fish and sinking pellets for bottom dwellers
 
ii) Tablet food: can be stuck to a surface to provide feeding stations at different water levels
iii) Flakes: for carnivores, vegetarians and omnivores. Flakes float at first and then sinks slowly allowing the mid-water swimmers to eat
iv) Granular food: for bottom-dwellers. Bottom dwellers are mostly nocturnal eaters and therefore serving food at night is preferred
.

2. Frozen, freeze-dried food

• water fleas (Daphnia)
• black mosquito larvae for fish for breeding and shows
• blood worms
• bone shrimp (Artemia)
• pacific shrimp
• krill
• tubifex worms

3. Household scraps

• oatflakes
• chopped spinach leaves
• chopped/shredded lettuce
• fish roe
• slivers of raw fish meat
• crumbled cheese
• slivers of cooked white meat such as chicken
• slivers of raw, lean meat