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Feeding Your Aquarium Fish

• Mar 19, 2019
• PalaciosAn
•   1315        0      0

When it comes to feeding the different species in your saltwater tank, what to feed and how often to feed will depend on the species that are in your aquarium. There are many things you should take into consideration. To start with, you should note what type of food each species needs, are they are carnivore, herbivore or an omnivore?

Carnivore - Is a meat-eating fish, these fish like meaty food or food high in protein.

Herbivore - fish like to eat algae and plants, these type of fish need plant-based foods.

Omnivore - fish that eat both meat and plants. These fish are a bit more flexible when it comes to feeding.

How often should you feed your tank?

The frequency will also depend on the species in your aquarium. The best way to look at this is by observing the behavior of the species in your tank. Look at each species and how active they are in the tank. For instance, Anthiest fish are small fish that are very active in an aquarium, fish that are very active tend to need multiple feedings per day. These very active fish need additional nutrition to stay healthy. Research the needs of each of the species in your tank.

If you have a single species that needs multiple feedings, consider splitting out the food you would feed once daily into two or three feedings. Doing it this way will provide the same amount of food daily just in multiple feedings. With a full-time job, sometimes it is hard to do more than one feeding per day. To make sure my fish are guaranteed to have at least one feeding a day, I have an automatic feeder that feeds my tank around noon. I manually feed my fish in the evenings when I get home from work. Schedules can get crazy, and there are times I don't get around to feeding the fish manually.  Having the automatic feeder ensures the fish are at least getting fed once daily. 

You could set the automatic feeder to feed twice or three times a day, so you do not have to feed the tank manually. This will give you more time to enjoy the tank, give the glass a quick wipe with your magnetic cleaner and observe the fish, coral, and invertebrates to make sure they all look healthy.

How many days can fish go without food?

So you are going away for a weekend trip, and you are concerned about your fish. Who will feed them? A healthy fish can easily go 3-4 days without being feed, but there are some things that you should take into consideration. While they can go 3-4 days without food, they want to eat, and as they get hungrier and hungrier, they may start to see some of the other species in your tank as a possible food source.

I have seen fish that are labeled as caution around invertebrates in the tank for years without picking on any of the invertebrates. Go on a trip, and they do not get feed for a few days, and all of a sudden your invertebrates look a lot tastier. The issue with this is that once you get back and start feeding the fish regularly again, those invertebrates will still be on the menu when they become hungry. So they may continue to pick on your invertebrates.

Will my fish stop eating when it's full?

No, fish are opportunistic feeders. What this means is when the opportunity to eat is available they eat. In the wild, fish do not know when their next meal will come. Therefore they take the song “Never pass up a free meal” literally. That is why they always look hungry when you feed them even if you just fed them moments ago. Overfeeding fish could cause health issues, could cause a coral to regurgitate food, and also cause water quality issues.

The largest issues with overfeeding your aquarium are waste and water quality. Even though all of the fish look like they continue to eat they slow down and more and more food is left behind. That uneaten food will start to decompose and turn into ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates. Two of these are deadly to fish (ammonia & nitrite), and the other (nitrate) can contribute to algae blooms. Overfeeding will lead to more maintenance needs for your aquarium. You want to make sure you are feeding the correct amount and the correct number of times.

What can you feed your aquarium?

There are many different types of food, and each one has its advantages. Each of them also has many different brands and quality. When looking at the aquarium food look at the ingredients. Just like human food the ingredients are listed in order of predominance, the ingredients used in the greatest amount are listed first, followed in descending order by those in smaller amounts. As a rule of thumb if the first ingredient is a word that I can’t read or have never seen, then I look at the next food.

Flake Food - Flake food will tend to float at the top of the tank, you can also get a pinch of food and release it underwater if you want it to flow around the tank. Flake food is usually a dense food, so the amount that you feed will be significantly less when compared to live or frozen foods. The food can be enhanced to help improve a species color.

This food is ideal for fish that will come to the top and eat and even fish that stay in the middle area. It is less ideal for fish that remain at the bottom because it will most likely be eaten or even dissolve before it gets to the bottom.

Flake food is also easy to break into smaller flakes for smaller fish. You can crush it between your fingers to break it into smaller flakes.

When used with an automatic feeder the food will float at the top of the tank so keep that in mind to prevent it from going uneaten and into your mechanical filtration. Also, flake food can sometimes be a bit hard to judge how much will come out each time. This is especially true is there are large flakes in the auto feeder.

Crisps Food - Crisps are a thicker flake and sometimes consist of more than one type of food to allow variety in each bite of food. They tend to float longer and dissolve slower.

Crisps also have a more uniformed shape allowing them to work better in an automatic fish feeder. Crisps seem like the evolution of flat food.

Pellet Food - Pellet food or Granules typically come in 3 different types. Each of them is designed to either float, sink slowly or sink quickly. There are different types and qualities of pellets to accommodate several types of fish. Pellets come in several different sizes and choosing the correct size is essential some pellets will be too large may be challenging to eat for smaller fish.  If the pellets are too small, the fish may not get enough food.

Pellet foods are great when you are using an automatic feeder, its easier to fine tune how much food will come out of the feeder.

Wafers - Wafers or tablets are designed to sink quickly, and the exterior of the wafer will start to dissolve and soften. As the fish eats the soften part of the wafer, it exposes more of the harden wafer that begins to soften. Wafers are not intended to be consumed in one bit instead nibbled on for some time.

Wafers are ideal for herbivore fish that need to graze on algae throughout the day, mainly bottom feeding herbivores.

Dried/Freeze Dried Foods - Most meat-eating fish, are eating insects or small invertebrates or fish. Ideally, we should try to feed them what they are used to eating, but these type of food are hard to keep for an extended period. Dried/freeze dried food helps solve this problem, it has a long shelf life, it can also be broken into smaller pieces to accommodate smaller fish if needed.

Vacation foods - Are you are going out of town and need someone to feed your fish, but you can’t find anyone that is available? Vacation foods have you covered when they come in contact with water they will start to dissolve slowly as it dissolves it releases food into the tank.

Some vacation foods can feed your fish for as long as 14 days. If this is your first time using vacation foods, I suggest you try them out for the period that you will need them for before going on vacation to see how they work.

Vacation food used to be very popular in the aquarium hobby, but now you can pick up an automatic feeder that can continue to feed your fish the food they are used to eating. You can even schedule the amount of food that is released and how often it is released.

Because automatic feeders have become more affordable fewer people are using vacation foods. With my luck my vacation food would dissolve faster then it should or was missing the food inside of them.

Fresh Foods - Herbivores and Omnivores are likely to eat some vegetables or fruits.

Some vegetables or fruits may need to be softened by lightly boiling them and removing any protective coatings they may have. Fruits and vegetables should not be feed regularly but could be a treat for your fish.

When I go diving or snorkeling, I always take a banana with me. I break off a piece and smash the banana between my fingers and spread it around the water and watch the fish go crazy.

You should search and see which vegetables or fruits are ideal for your species before feeding them anything. Uneaten foods will only cause waste in your tank. Some of the foods I have seen fed to fish are Broccoli, Cauliflower, Bok Choy, Zucchini, Cucumber, Squash, Peas, Apples, and Bananas. I am sure there are many more; these are just some of the ones I have seen species eat.

Live Food - In the wild most fish eat live foods. So the idea to feed your fish live food may sound like a good idea. If you propagate your live food or are buying from a company with a good reputation, then it may not be a bad idea.

Feeding only live food can be costly and time-consuming to do every day. Also, if the source of the live food is not reputable, you may have quality issues. Always inspect your live food for any signs of parasites or diseases to prevent issues in your tank.

I like to keep my live food in a small tank to make sure they are all healthy. If the live food shows any signs of issues, I either treat them or remove them from the tank. This is especially true when feeding feeder fish. 

Frozen Foods - Frozen foods come in a variety types from the simple portioned cubes that pop out of the aluminum foil to custom food manufacturers that provide their food in a bag that allows you to break off how much you want to use.

Most live food can be found as frozen food as well. The nice thing about frozen food is that it keeps longer if stored properly. Some manufacturers provide a unique blend of food, or some provide various foods in a single package allowing you to alternate the food that you use without buying several packs of frozen foods.

I like to feed a variety of foods to my tank. I do not like to eat the same thing over and over so why should I expect my fish to eat the same thing day after day. I always have flakes/crisps, pellets, dried, and frozen foods. I alternate through them, I feel like this provides a more even diet.

What can I feed my fish if I don't have fish food?

Fish can go a few days without being feed. They may start to pick on other species after enough time passes. So if you have to wait a day or two to get more fish food no worries fish can go 3-4 days easily without food.

If you have carnivores, then they need meat like mosquito larvae, worms, brine shrimp. Herbivores and Omnivores can eat fruits vegetables. If you are going to test a new food start small you do not want excessive amounts of food laying around and mucking up your waters.

What do you do if your fish doesn't eat?

Is your fish new? If so it could just be acclimating to its new environment and maybe stressed out. If it does not eat within 3-4 days, I would not be worried.

If your fish had been eating and then all of a sudden stops you should observe the fish and see if it's OK. Not eating could be a sign that something is wrong. In most cases, it could be an issue with water quality, stressed out due to fear or it is being picked on by another species, illness, or even pregnant.

Take a quick survey about your feeding habit here: https://goo.gl/forms/pkmcUVZAxOOc6fA72