Tropical fish can be great companions, but they require specific care – particularly regarding feeding. Fish quickly learn which person brings food, often acting like they’re hungry even though they were just fed!
Feed them what they will consume within five minutes for optimal results and to prevent uneaten food that might cloud their water or increase ammonia and nitrite levels.
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Small and Active
Many fish owners make the mistake of overfeeding their tropical fish, leading them to become obese and bloated as well as leading to poor water quality. Overfed fish may also suffer from fatty liver disease and constipation. It is best to feed small amounts multiple times a day and leave enough uneaten food in their tanks for about 10 minutes post-feeding; you could even consider holding weekly fasting days so their bodies have time for rest and recuperation.
Your fish species will dictate when and how often it needs feedings. A peaceful tetra or group of docile guppies should be fed morning or midday, with an additional feeding at night if active at that time. Herbivorous varieties such as mollies or endlers should receive three to four small meals every day along with some live plants or algae they can nibble on for sustenance.
Slow Grazers
Tropical fish such as peaceful Tetras and lively Danios are known as grazers, needing frequent meals in order to maintain energy levels and stay alive. You should feed them twice or three times each day; however, only put enough food into their aquarium that they can consume in two minutes; overfeeding will only cloud your aquarium water and may harm its inhabitants.
Most fish require 16-24 hours for full digestion of their food, so providing it more frequently than once daily could cause digestive issues in these animals. This applies also to those which feed opportunistically such as arapaima and snakeheads.
For optimal nutrition in fish tanks, frozen foods provide similar nutrition as live ones; they just make life simpler by not necessitating wading into ponds or setting up cultures of brine shrimp or tubifex worms, nor triggering their natural hunting behavior.
Growing Babies
Newborn tropical fish require frequent feedings. As they tend to act like they’re starving even after being fed, newborn tropical fish require between 16-24 hours for digestion of food; overfeeding may produce waste that clouds the water and increases ammonia/nitrite levels resulting in harmful rises in ammonia/nitrite levels. A good rule of thumb would be feeding your newborn tropical fish portions they can consume within five to ten minutes.
If you have young corydoras fry, it is recommended to feed them six times a day using half of a spoon rather than four times daily with a full one – this will accelerate their growth while avoiding overfeeding. Live foods such as grindal worms, black worms, bloodworms and tubifex contain important vitamins and fatty acids which will accelerate their development faster; plus they’ll enjoy being treated to some brine shrimp every meal!
Vegetarians
There are numerous species of fish, each species having unique nutritional needs. Carnivorous species require meat-rich diets while herbivorous ones depend on plant material for sustenance. Small fry and smaller species often need more frequent meals due to smaller stomachs.
There is a range of vegetarian food suitable for tropical fish, from spirulina or algae for saltwater species like cichlids to lettuce leaves for goldfish and plecos, carrot pieces for tetras and guppies, zucchini slices for bettas and shelled peas for symphylliforms like guppies and tetras – not forgetting freeze-dried food mixes made with algae, seaweed and other ingredients to provide vitamins!
As with humans, tropical fish should not be overfed; doing so could result in fatty liver disease and other health complications due to excessive food. One large meal per day or less usually suffices for most commonly kept species like tetras and guppies or shoalers.
