When you go to an aquarium shop, you’ll find a lot of different foods to feed your fish.
While it’s true that most fish aren’t too picky and can eat just about anything, that doesn’t mean any food is the best choice for them. To help your fish thrive, not just survive, it’s a good idea to mix up their diet.
Think of it like this: just like people, fish need a balanced diet to be healthy. This includes proteins (for building muscle), fats (for energy), vitamins and carbohydrates (for overall health). In the wild, fish get these from various sources, but in a tank, they rely on you to provide them.
If fish don’t get the right nutrition, they might not grow as big as they could, and they might get sick more easily.
Most aquarium foods cover the basics, but by giving your fish a variety of foods—like flake foods, vegetables, and small pieces of fresh fish—you can make sure they’re getting a well-rounded diet.
So let’s take a look at the different kinds of food you can feed your fish.
Prepackaged Fish Food
When choosing food for your aquarium fish, there’s a whole supermarket’s worth of options out there, all designed to make sure your fish not only survive but thrive.
Fish food makers have really thought of everything to make feeding as simple and beneficial as possible.
Dry foods are the go-to for many fish owners because they pack in most of the nutrients fish need. These foods come in different shapes and sizes to match the eating habits and needs of various fish.
For example, flakes are great for fish that feed at the water’s surface, while disks and pellets are perfect for those who prefer dining near the bottom of the tank or pond.
And, if you’ve got both tiny and large fish, don’t worry—there are food options sized just right for each.
To make feeding even more tailored, you can find food specifically designed for different fish types. Cichlid flakes, for instance, are rich in fat and protein to support fast growth, while goldfish flakes might have garlic and extra veggies to match their natural diet and keep them healthy.
Manufacturers also pay attention to how the food behaves in water. Flake foods float initially but will sink as they absorb water, making them accessible to fish at different levels of your tank.
And for those super specific feeding habits, there are even foods you can stick to the side of your aquarium using food clips. Doing so ensures that everyone gets a bite.
Frozen Fish Food
Frozen foods for aquarium fish are like frozen dinners for people, but much healthier and designed to match what fish eat in the wild.
These foods can be single ingredients or a mix of different things like brine shrimp, worms, small fish (silversides), or even bits of meat and vegetables.
They also come in handy forms, such as sheets or cubes. This makes it easy to feed your fish the right amount without overdoing it.
The small cubes are especially useful because you can count out exactly how much food you’re giving your fish, which helps prevent overfeeding—a common problem that can dirty the water and harm the fish’s health.
However, it’s crucial to keep these foods frozen until you’re ready to use them. Once thawed, you can’t refreeze them without losing a lot of the nutrients that make them so beneficial for your fish.
Moreover, if they start to melt and you don’t notice, your house might end up smelling like a day at the docks!
Before feeding time, you should thaw the frozen food in a little cup of water that doesn’t have chlorine in it (you can use tap water treated with a dechlorinator or bottled water).
You should then make sure that the food is evenly distributed in the tank. Doing so gives all your fish, including the shy or less aggressive ones, a fair chance to eat.
This way, everyone in your aquarium gets to enjoy a delicious and nutritious meal.
Freeze-Dried Fish Food
Freeze-dried foods for fish are a bit like astronaut food—light, dry, and long-lasting. They’re made from small water creatures like crustaceans, shrimp, larvae, and worms.
When these creatures are freeze-dried, they’re essentially frozen and then have all their moisture removed, which keeps them preserved without needing a freezer.
However, fish can be picky eaters, and they might either gobble up freeze-dried foods or completely ignore them. Because of this, it’s a good idea to keep just a small amount on hand.
You can use it as a special snack for your fish or as a backup option if you run out of their regular food.
One drawback of freeze-drying is that the process can cause the food to lose some of its vitamins.
To make sure your fish still get a balanced diet, you can mix freeze-dried foods with their usual food or add commercial vitamin supplements. These supplements are specially made to mix with fish food to ensure that your aquatic friends get all the nutrients they need.
Blackworms, whether freeze-dried, frozen, or live, are especially good for some types of fish, like the beautifully patterned discus.
Live Fish Food
Finding live food for your aquarium fish can be a bit of a hunt nowadays because not many local fish stores stock them regularly.
However, the internet is a great resource for sourcing both live food and the equipment you might need to grow your own.
Live foods are considered a more natural diet for many fish and can include things like bloodworms, small feeder fish (like goldfish and guppies), brine shrimp that’s been beefed up with extra nutrients, and silversides, which are small fish often used in saltwater aquariums.
Large carnivorous fish, such as pacu and Jack Dempseys, often dine on feeder guppies and goldfish.
Live food is a natural way to feed your fish. It mimicks the food chain in the wild. However, the idea of feeding live fish to another fish doesn’t sit well with everyone.
It’s a personal choice, and it’s okay to choose what you’re comfortable with. Feeder guppies and goldfish are bred specifically as food. This means they play a role in supporting the ecosystem of your tank.
But, it’s important to be cautious with certain types of live food. Some, like leeches, hydras, beetles, and dragonfly larvae, can be harmful because they might attack your smaller fish or their fry.
The natural world is full of predators, and while it’s natural for some fish to eat others, you don’t want to introduce a predator that could upset the balance of your aquarium.
Moreover, just like eating out at restaurants might come with a higher risk of food poisoning compared to cooking at home, feeding live food to your fish can increase the chance of introducing diseases into your aquarium.
Live foods bought from reputable fish stores, especially live brine shrimp, are generally safe because these stores take measures to ensure the food is clean and healthy.
But, if you decide to collect live food from natural sources like rivers or ponds, you’re stepping into unknown territory.
Wild sources can host a variety of pathogens, and without the right knowledge or tools to test the water and the food, you could accidentally bring harmful bacteria or parasites into your tank.
So, while live food can be a nutritious and stimulating option for your fish, it’s important to source it carefully to avoid the unwanted side effects of disease transmission.
Brine Shrimp
Brine shrimp are these tiny sea creatures that many fish like to eat. They’re so popular that you can find them in different forms: frozen for convenience or live for those who prefer to give their fish a more natural dining experience.
Some pet shops and online stores offer live brine shrimp, but if you’re into a bit of DIY, you can also grow them yourself!
You can buy kits that come with dried brine shrimp eggs, which you can then hatch into live shrimp. This can be a fun project and a tasty treat for your fish, especially young fry, who might need smaller, more nutritious food.
However, be warned—raising brine shrimp can get a bit smelly. So it might be a good idea to set up your hatchery somewhere like a garage or basement, unless you fancy the idea of your living space smelling like a fish market.
There’s also a bigger picture to consider when feeding live brine shrimp to your fish.
Even though your fish are living in an aquarium, they still have natural instincts, like hunting, that are important for their health and happiness.
Eating live food allows them to exercise these instincts, keeping them more active and engaged. Plus, think of it as their own little workout before mealtime.
Spirulina
Spirulina is like a superfood for fish. It comes from a type of blue-green algae that’s packed with good stuff. It’s really high in protein, which helps your fish grow strong and healthy.
But that’s not all; spirulina is also great for making your fish look brighter and more colorful because it contains substances called carotenoids—think of them as natural color boosters.
On top of that, it supports the health of your fish’s skin by encouraging the development of a protective mucus layer that can fend off infections.
You can find spirulina in pet stores in various forms, like flakes for easy feeding or frozen for a bit of variety in your fish’s diet.
It’s easy for fish to digest thanks to its soft cell walls, and it’s full of beneficial fatty acids, vitamins A and B, iron, and calcium—all of which contribute to the overall health and proper development of your fish’s organs.
Interestingly, a lot of the vibrant colors you see in fish can actually come from their diet, and spirulina’s high carotenoid content can really make those colors pop, even in fish that aren’t being groomed for any sort of show.
For a double whammy of goodness, you can look for spirulina-enriched brine shrimp. These are brine shrimp that have been fed spirulina powder so that they carry all its benefits. This makes them an excellent, nutritious food choice for your fish.
Infusoria
Infusoria are super tiny creatures, like paramecium and amoeba, that live in water and are an ideal first food for fry.
Because they’re so small, when you put them into your aquarium, they sort of look like a tiny, moving cloud in the water.
What’s cool is you can easily grow infusoria at home.
To make your own infusoria culture, all you need is some vegetable matter—like a small piece of lettuce—soaked in a clear jar of water. You leave this jar in a sunny spot for about a week.
Over time, the water will start to get a bit cloudy. That’s a sign that the infusoria are growing!
To see them, you can shine a flashlight into the jar. They’ll look like tiny, moving dust particles in the light.
This process of growing infusoria is a simple and effective way to make sure your smallest fish have the food they need to grow strong and healthy. It’s a bit like starting a tiny underwater farm for your aquarium!
Tubifex, Bloodworms, Mosquito Larvae, and Earthworms
It might sound a bit yucky, but there are certain types of fish food, like freeze-dried tubifex worms, bloodworms, mosquito larvae, and even earthworms, that your fish will find absolutely delicious.
Think of freeze-dried tubifex worms and bloodworms as special snacks for your fish, kind of like how we might enjoy chips or candy.
You can buy them in cubes or bits, and they’re meant to be given to your fish only once in a while, not all the time.
While these snacks can make your fish really happy and are a fun change from their usual diet, feeding them these treats too often can upset their stomachs.
Mosquito larvae are especially prized for making fish look vibrant and healthy, but they’re not always easy to get ahold of.
Earthworms are another great option that fish love. If you choose to feed your fish earthworms, just make sure you wash them first to clean off any dirt or contaminants and then chop them up into bite-sized pieces.
This makes them easier for your fish to eat and digest.
Rotifers
Rotifers are tiny invertebrates that are actually single-celled organisms. Despite their tiny size, they’re like superfoods for fish, packed with nutrients.
You can find rotifers in natural waters, but for aquarium use, they’re often raised on farms to ensure they’re clean and healthy for your fish to eat.
Because of their small size, rotifers are perfect for feeding to fish, especially those in saltwater aquariums. However, people with freshwater fish use them too.
Fish can easily eat and digest rotifers. This makes them a great choice for providing your aquatic pets with a nutritious meal.
Microworms for Fry
Microworms are these tiny, harmless worms that you can actually grow at home to feed to baby fry. Because they’re so small and easy to digest, they’re the perfect first food for these little ones.
Here’s how you can start your own microworm farm:
- Create the Habitat: Mix some oatmeal, yeast, and water in a bowl until it forms a paste. This mixture will be the home and food source for your microworms.
- Add the Worms: Get a small amount of microworms from an existing culture (you can find these online) and add them to your oatmeal paste.
- Let Them Grow: Keep the bowl at room temperature and wait a couple of days. You’ll soon see microworms start to crawl up the sides of the bowl—this means they’re multiplying and ready to be fed to your fish fry.
Microworms reproduce very quickly, so before you know it, you’ll have plenty of food for your young fish.
This simple setup not only provides a nutritious meal for your fry but also lets you observe an interesting part of the natural food chain right from your home!
Manufactured Fry Food
When it comes to feeding baby fish, or “fry,” there are specially made foods to ensure they get the right nutrition they need to grow strong and healthy.
Among these, you’ll find liquid fry food that comes in a tube similar to toothpaste. It’s very convenient, but you have to be careful not to use too much of it because it can dirty the water in your aquarium.
Another option is powdered food, which is perfect for the tiniest of newborn fish. This powder is really fine, so it’s easy for small fry to eat, but it’s not suitable for adult fish.
If you use it for bigger fish or use too much, it can also make the water in your tank dirty.
Manufacturers like Hikari offer a range of baby fish foods designed for different stages of a fish’s early life.
This means you can find food that’s just right for your fry as they grow, from the tiniest newborns to those ready to move on to foods meant for adult fish.
It’s important to read the labels on these foods carefully. Just like choosing the right formula for a baby or the right type of food for a puppy, picking the correct food for your fry can make a big difference in their health and development.
So, when you’re at the pet store, take a moment to make sure you’re getting the best option for your baby fish’s specific age and growth stage.
