Fish flakes can be purchased from any pet store that carries aquarium supplies, and are an easy and efficient way for surface feeders to eat their meals. Flakes come in various sizes for every kind of tropical fish species available today and can even float freely in the water, making their consumption effortless for surface feeders.
These high-quality flakes are designed to be easily digested by fish, while not leaching color into aquarium water, keeping aquarium conditions clear and clean. Plus, Tetra ProCare health enhancing technology provides additional immunity against stress and disease!
Contents
Fish Flakes
Most fish food flakes are composed of a combination of fish meal and flour, designed to float on the water surface and available in multiple formulations to meet different fish species’ nutritional requirements. Fish flakes are easy to store, transport and utilize.
Add additional foods to supplement the flakes’ diet of your fish, such as garlic (an appetite stimulant and antibacterial), vitamins, minerals or even spirulina – an algae-derived color enhancer – in order to maximize your fish’s diet.
TetraMin flakes contain a stabilized form of vitamin C to support healthy immune system function, while TetraCare, with its proprietary health-enhancing ProCare supplement system incorporating immunostimulants, biotin, vitamins and Omega-3 fatty acids for added immunity benefits. You can feed this to tropical fish such as angelfish and barbs which require high fat content without worrying about leaving an unpleasant cloudy residue behind in their aquarium water.
Pellets
Pellets are an increasingly popular form of fish food that come in various shapes and sizes. Most pellet foods are designed to either float or sink depending on your fish species’ preference, while certain kinds release nutrients slowly for an enhanced feeding experience.
Most pellets are composed of high-grade ingredients like fish meal, cereal grains, vegetable proteins and vitamins that have been compressed together through steam and heat in a process called extrusion. Unfortunately, this form of processing often exposes important amino acids, lipids (fats) and vitamins to temperatures so high they become degraded or lose their nutritional value – rendering pellets an ineffective food source.
Some of the most popular pellet foods for tropical fish are tailored specifically for them, providing essential nutrients like vitamin C for supporting immune health and beta carotene to enhance color. Some even contain added nutrition from sources like spirulina, chlorella and krill that promote health and vitality – making these an excellent option for larger fish as well as some smaller species who find flakes more challenging to ingest. These foods make an ideal food option both when feeding larger populations as well as those that find flake feeding difficult.
Freeze-Dried Food
Freeze drying is one of the latest methods of food preservation, preserving its taste, appearance, and nutritional value while prolonging their shelf life. Furthermore, freeze drying allows food to retain water-soluble vitamins that would otherwise be lost through traditional dehydration processes such as hot air dehydration or boiling dehydration processes.
At its core, this process involves freezing food to temperatures below freezing before placing it into a vacuum chamber and gradually decreasing temperature to allow sublimation without passing through liquid state. Although energy-intensive, this technique yields delicious and highly nutritious food ideal for backpacking, camping, hiking, space exploration applications as well as emergency and survival rations for military rations.
Freeze-dried foods can be preserved through this preservation method by placing them in airtight packages that prevent moisture and oxygen access, thus helping prevent bacterial growth and oxidation, making it possible to store freeze-dried products for years without spoilage or decay. Once dehydrated, they can easily be rehydrated back into their original, fresh state.
Other Foods
Not all food for fish comes in the form of flakes; there are other options designed specifically to meet species-specific requirements and mimic what fish would consume in their natural environments, including insect larvae, spirulina and even fresh fruits and vegetables like pears, apples, carrots or peas. Garlic can also help stimulate appetites while strengthening immunity systems in fish.
These types of fish food often come in the form of granules or pellets and are designed for daily feeding of tropical aquarium fish that feed both on animal protein and plant protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Furthermore, these products often include stabilized vitamin C to strengthen immune systems as well as zeolite to facilitate proper digestion while clearing away waste products and harmful substances from fish bodies.
How It’s Made, one of America’s popular TV shows, recently presented an informative video showing the production process for flake and pellet food at a Tetra factory, making flake and pellet food. You can watch it below.
