# Food



## stealth (Dec 11, 2005)

I'm guessing most of us feed quality flake food, but I'm just curious to find out what everyone uses. Currently we've been feeding flake, bloodworms, and algae wafers. Majority is flake. It doesn't seem like the tetras or mollies care for the bloodworms at all, anyone else run into this. What would you guys consider the best food for the fish and the food most liked by them? I was thinkin about trying tubifex also but I'm not sure how that'll go over. I know it depends on what type of fish you have but I'm still curious to see what you guys think and if there are any special tricks you guys use to feed them. Paul


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## DUSTIN323 (Sep 21, 2005)

Well it's best to give them a varied diet like you said ya'll do. I give my platies & bettas flakes, frozen brine shrimp. bloodworms, tubifex worms, & pellets. I just will throw in whatever I grab flakes most of the time but I vary my fishes diet pretty good. If I had to choose the best food I would say brine shrimp very nutirous great for newborn fish and a wide variety of FW & SW fish accept them.


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

Dustin's right, its all about variety.


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## IloveCichlids (Jul 11, 2005)

I use New Life Spectrum cichlid pellets. Not the cheapest but very high quality.


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

The secret of fish health is a varied diet. Try feeding your fish as many different foods as you can and you would be astonished by the results.


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

I feed my community fish dried bloodworms, a frozen food (I don't know what is in it, it says it is for community fish), mosquito larvae, 2 different kinds of flake foods, bottom feeder pellets, some kind of little pellet, dried baby shrimp, algea wafers, and spinach. My koi carp get koi pellets, dried baby shrimp, dried bloodworms, and goldfish food. The ghost shrimp I put in there also tend to disappear so I'm assuming they eat them since I don't usually find them on the floor.

So as you can tell, I think a varied diet is best. 

Cichlid Man is right...ever since I started feeding a varied diet, my fish have got way brighter colors, and they breed often too.

What is everyones opinion on Spectrum pellets? I have considered getting some of them for my fish but I don't know if it is worth the money....


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## Guest (Dec 15, 2005)

I feed my neons & dwarf gouramis flakes, tubifex worms, & live brine shrimp. I was also thinking about getting some of that spectrum food. MY neons have pretty good color already but if it would make them a little brighter it would be worth the money.


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## DUSTIN323 (Sep 21, 2005)

Hey I wanna know also about the Spectrum I'm getting some lemon tetras for my 20g long that I'm getting for Christmas already bought it. They can be beautiful if kept right I wonder if that stuff would help out


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## Gunnie (Jan 20, 2005)

I feed my fish all of the above. I tried the New Life Spectrum and was disappointed. All of my fish have been raised on Omega One products and are beautiful and healthy. Some of my fish have never been sick. As I am always looking for more variety, I try new products including flake foods. I bought the NLS Optimum flakes because I had heard so many good things about their products. Although my fish ate the flakes, there was a noticeable difference on which flake they preferred and it was the Omega One. I use the veggie and color flakes mostly. I also feed my fish tubifex worms, freeze dried bloodworms, freeze dried shrimp and krill, brine shrimp, plankton sticks, earthworm sticks and veggie wafers.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

I feed my fish omega one flakes as well as mysis shrimp, bloodworms (almost never to the sw fish though) the occasional brine shrimp, and frozen shrimp and fish from the fish market.


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

Tetramin color flakes and regular flakes, tubifex, bloodworms, algae wafers, and shrimp pellets


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

I agree with everyone else, variety is best. We feed numerous frozen foods as well as freeze dried, fresh veggies, wafers and cichlid sticks


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## micstarz (Oct 22, 2005)

When I first took up fishkeeping I never listened to my dad and when I did I often forgot what he said. So I used to end up with a load of stiff, dead bloodworms polluting the aquarium. Now that I feed a variety the fish have a sheen to them!


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## redpaulhus (Jan 18, 2005)

I don't think there is a perfect food - as others have noted, its about variety and quality of ingredients.

That being said - I use a quality brand-name flake as the foundation for most of my fishes' diets. Usually one of the Omega One brand foods, or Ocean Nutrition brand. I look for lots of fresh seafood ingredients, little or no fillers (wheat, soy, etc), and lots of vitamins. I also tend to alternate between "veggie flakes" and a general or color enhancing flake.
I try not to buy too much at once - I don't trust the oxidized nutrients after a few months, and relegate old food cans to feed my white worm cultures - but with about a dozen tanks, thats not usually and issue 

My bigger fishes (mostly big cichlids) also get quality pellets, both sinking and floating. I also use some of the smaller pellet/granuale foods (Boyds, Tetra, and NewLife Spectrum) as a treat for some of my fishes.

I like to feed alot of frozen foods - bloodworms, brineshrimp (either vitamin enriched, spirulina enriched, or HUFA enriched), cyclopeeze, daphnia, mysids, E. pacifica plankton, etc. I also buy the cube versions of the "formula" foods from Ocean Nutrition, especially formula II for my marine angels and formula I for my marine predators (and my big ol Oscar). I've had good luck reversing both FW and Marine "hole-in-the-head" or "HLLE" using formula foods.

I also culture a few foods - white worms, microworms, redworms, (sometimes) daphnia, and vinegar eels. The whiteworms are feed to any fish I'm looking to breed, the redworms mostly go to the big cichlids, and the others are used for raising fry.
Lately I've also been hatching alot of baby brine shrimp for certain fishes, and giving the leftovers to everybody else 

Oh - and when the weather allows, I catch mosquito larvae from my backyard. Nothing puts my gouramis in spawning shape like fresh "skeeters" !

I also feed a fair amount of "grocery" seafoods - shrimp, scallops, squid, etc to both my bigger marine fishes and big cichlids. I find grocery shrimp to be a great low cost alternative to krill  especially when on sale

Sinking wafers from Omega One, Hikari, etc provide a bit of variety to my ancistris and other herbavores, but their main food tends to be Zuchini - fresh.

hmmmm I think thats most of it.

My saltwater fish also get fresh seaweed from Cape Cod in the summer, and the oscar gets nice fresh nightcrawlers and crickets once in a while (no feeder fish, however).

Basically - just about everybody gets flake or pellets once a day (usually in the AM) and something else from the list in the evening - fresh, live, frozen, etc. 
Of all of the frozen foods, probably the biggest % for the FW fishes would be the bloodworms - its a major part of the wild diets of most fishes. For the salts, its pretty evenly split between enriched brineshrimp and mysids as the top foods (except for my Koran Angel, who gets mainly formula II).

About once a year I make a big frozen food order from Drs Foster and Smith - it saves me alot of $ since I'm not buying little packs of food all the time.


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## stealth (Dec 11, 2005)

Sorry to bring this link back from the dead, but I had another question about food. Specifically the brand names. A couple of you said Omega One. I have not seen any of those around town but what I have seen a lot of are Tetra, Wardley, and Nutrafin. Any of those three half good? Or is there really no horrible brand out there?


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## IloveCichlids (Jul 11, 2005)

I have heard that the Omega one is a great brand. I am going to alternate with NLS pellets (spectra) and the Omega one to give a bit of variety along with FD plankton and Frozen Brine shrimp


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

I'm personally not a fan of wardley, if you look at the ash content you'll see its quite high (filler) and check out the phosphates, they also are quite high. I wish they had a label of all the vitamins/minerals/calories/fat/protein/ect on the labels but that hasn't really become very standardized yet for fish food manufacturers... which stinks. Soooo I have two guidelines for picking a good food, one is low phosphates, and the other is low ash.


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

for my community i feed a staple of flakes, (i but different brands each time i go so even that varies) the i give different frozen foods, mainly brine and blood worms, when i had my cichlids, i fed flakes in the morn, pellets in the afternoon, and maybe once a month i would get various raw veggies and give that to them till i was out of it.


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## MYGOBYRULES (Dec 31, 2005)

I use the Omega One line of food. I use the color enhancing flakes, veggie flakes, bloodworms, shrimp pellets, and veggie rounds. seems to make everyone happy. Although at night I will go on the front porch and see what kind of critter is hanging around the light to give to my butterfly fish ang goby. Or if rhere is something real small I will grab it for the golden wonders.


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

what out for wild moths and such, certain things can be poisonus to certain animals, and NEVER feed ANYTHING a lightning bug/firefly. especially lizards (to anyone that keeps herps)


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