Many tropical fish species are omnivores or herbivores and will enjoy eating vegetables as part of their diet, such as in flakes, pellets or wafers.
Pellets can either float or sink and are bite-size foods that produce little waste, making them perfect for larger fish species.
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1. Flakes
Flakes are one of the most commonly available fish foods at pet stores. They float to feed top-dwellers before sinking to satisfy midwater and bottom dwellers. Plus, these tasty treats come with various ingredients designed specifically for herbivores, omnivores and carnivores!
Look for flakes made without soy as this filler can be hard on fish. Instead, opt for foods made using other sources of protein, like fish meal or frozen food made with whole vegetables or natural ingredients. Avoid those with high levels of ash which force fish to expel excess material through expulsion while those heavily processed may lack essential vitamins and nutrients and increase toxins in the water.
2. Pellets
There is a wide selection of fish food pellets designed specifically to the species of tropical fish that you own, most specifically tailored towards top dwellers such as Guppies. Flakes work best as top feeding food while mid and bottom feeders require fast sinking pellets or compressed foods called tablets for fast sinking food delivery.
Pellets tend to provide better quality fish food due to less air being swallowed by fish when fed pellets compared with flakes, as well as maintaining their shape longer to release water-soluble vitamins that might otherwise have been lost during high temperature processing.
Quality pellet foods tend to be more costly than flakes; however, the quality of your fish’s diet should take priority over cost considerations.
3. Wafers
Wafers provide food that dissolves gradually, ideal for fish that nibble or rasp on their food over an extended period. These thick aerated sticks and granules feature surface reeds with vanilla or chocolate fillings and often come in floating wafer forms to satisfy Oscar and sinking sticks for pleco species.
Avoid foods containing bread or crackers as their dry ingredients expand when exposed to water and can clog your fish’s digestive system. Also stay clear from frozen crustaceans like daphnia and brine shrimp that contain hard-to-digest exoskeletons. Gel food offers another unique solution; when mixed with hot water it forms a jelly-like consistency perfect for slow eaters such as goldfish and aufwuchs.
4. Freeze-Dried Food
Freeze-drying is one of the most commonly and effectively employed means of food preservation, being found everywhere from baby food aisles to backpacking treks in backwoods terrain and doomsday preppers storing basements with it (3). This preservation technique has even made its way into baby food aisles! Freeze-dried meals have even made appearances alongside dried apricots at stores! (3).
Freeze-dried foods that most closely resemble what fish eat naturally (shrimp, worms etc) make the best selections for freeze-dried feedings for fish. In addition, these supplements provide much-needed vegetables.
Vegetables can play an essential role in maintaining the health of tropical fish. Vegetables may help prevent swim bladder disorders and bloating for herbivorous varieties as well as reduce levels of toxic nitrates in water, making vegetables such as spirulina and nori algae available at most pet stores for feeding herbivorous tropical fish (5).
5. Vacation Fish Feeders
Most fish require frequent feedings; however, as with wild species some can go for several days without being fed. Pet parents must ensure their aquarium sitter has an effective solution to feed their fish while they’re away from home.
Vacation fish feeders are an excellent solution, offering flexibility when filling their aquariums with flake, pellet and freeze dried food. Battery-operated automatic feeders feature timers which can be set to dispense the necessary amounts daily into an aquarium.
Another alternative is using slow release fish food, which resembles an enormous bath bomb when dissolving in an aquarium and provides an uninterrupted source of nutrition that may last up to two weeks.
