Fish reared at home should be fed with the right diet just like any other pet. Proper feeding will keep your aquarium fish more colorful and healthy. Any deficiency of vitamin or nourishment can cause weakness and stunted growth. There are different types of fish foods for physical feeding habits and dietary needs that people can choose from. The decision made depends on the types of fish reared. It is important to understand the types, needs, and habits of your fish before choosing your fish feed.
How to Feed Your Fish
Some of these species eat meat, plants or both. The different species of fish have different digestive systems that are meant to digest certain types of foods. Carnivores should be fed with meat based proteins. Herbivores are fed with vegetable-based protein such as soybean meal or spirulina. These animals are fed will small amounts of foods. Avoid feeding them at once since they will finish the food in less than ten minutes. Again, you should not overfeed them. Fish will rarely feed on leftover flake foods on the aquarium’s bottom.
Selecting the Right Food
These feeds can be purchased from the local pet stores. Some of the recommended options that you can choose for your fish include:
Live Food
These include feeder fish (for large carnivorous fish) worms, and live shrimp.
Dry Food- most people think of flakes whenever they hear about fish food. This is the most common type of fish food. However, dry fish foods come in different forms including sinking, pellets, granules, and floating varieties. You can also find other options which are meant for specific species. Most of the dry foods used in feeding fish have low fiber content. It is therefore important to add some vegetable foods to reduce the risk associated with bloating and swim bladder disorders.
Greens
Fish that love aquarium plants should be given green foods. Other green options include zucchini, spinach, lettuce, and cucumber. You should clip these foods to the tanks side or fasten them near the substrate. Any uneven vegetable should be removed and replaced within 24 hours. Individuals who have a variety of fish in the aquarium should feed them with different foods. For instance, they can combine slow-sinking foods, rapidly sinking foods and floating foods to provide the nutrition needed.
Frozen Foods
Some species of fish enjoy eating frozen food like bloodworm, prawn, mussels, plankton or krill. Avoiding feeding your carnivorous fish with beef because their digestive system can’t digest it. Some pet stores sell spirulina and other frozen vegetables for fish tanks.