Best Food For Aquarium Fish-Buyer’s Guide

What is the best aquarium fish food on the market?

Feeding our pets by providing the right aquarium fish food is one of the biggest concerns for all of us, whether it is cat food, dog food or fish food.
The challenge is to get the right food, so that the health of the fish is not disturbed by the feeding. A well-fed fish is a healthy fish that will not have problems in the aquarium.
We must be clear about the fact that the fish we have in the aquarium have different origins, and I do not just mean their origin in nature, which can also influence their diet.
While some fish (the most commercial and easiest to obtain in captivity) come from hatcheries and are used to being fed prepared food, others come directly from nature, where they get a completely different diet than we can offer them.
To provide them with the right food, we must know their habitat of origin and what they eat in the wild. It is not the same to feed cold water fish, tropical fish, marine fish or bottom fish, each one has a different diet.
Depending on the habitat that we have recreated in the aquarium, it may be the case that we have fish with different eating habits and that we must treat them differently. It is our responsibility to know their needs and provide them with the necessary nutrients.

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Different types of fish food

There are several types of fish food on the market that are already prepared and that we don’t have to deal with. However, if we have time and want to, there are some homemade fish food recipes we can make.

We can distinguish five different types of fish food:

Live food
The typical live food for aquarium fish is composed of daphina or artemia (small crustaceans), mosquito larvae, shrimp and tubifex (small worms).
Kits with fertile artemia eggs are sold, to make an artemia hatchery at home and always have live food available for our fish.

Freeze-dried food
Many of the live foods are not easy to obtain, but they are available to us freeze-dried, a drying technique by which they do not lose their nutrients and are just as delicious for the fish.
-Free of parasites and pathogens
-Excellent protein supplement for your aquarium fish

Dry food
Dry foods are the most commonly used, in any of their versions, flakes, flakes or granules.
Its composition varies depending on the species of fish to which it is directed, including all types of food, such as algae or crustaceans for carnivorous species.
The great advantage is that they are usually enriched and are the ideal complement to a balanced diet, which must include live and fresh foods.

Fresh but not living food
Some fish are grateful to have small pieces of mussels, shrimp, fish, even chicken or animal guts included in their diet.
This should not be the basis of the feeding, and we must be careful with “what” food we use, depending on which species we have in the aquarium.
We must also be very careful not to introduce any kind of parasite by accident.

Frozen food
Daphnia, tubifex or artemia can be found as frozen food in specialty stores.
They are the perfect substitute, if we cannot provide live food. We must defrost it beforehand, and wait until it is at room temperature to introduce it into the aquarium.

What do fish eat?

We must be clear that the aquarium is a very limited space, in which we can only aspire to recreate the natural environment of a fish in freedom.
The limitations are of all types, and while we are creating a controlled environment, in which you will not have the typical surprises of your life in freedom, nor the risks of having to face your natural predators, we are also generating different health risks, such as those produced by the quality of the water itself.
That is why it is very important to combine live and dry feeding, because dry feeding contains elements that balance the diet and keep them healthy.

  • Live, gelatine or frozen food: mosquito larvae, shrimp and small worms.
  • Dry food. Scales, flakes, floating food, granules, tablets, or algae such as spirulina, which provide them with fiber and protein.

Thus, in the market there are all types of food specifically created to satisfy the needs of each type of fish, taking into account their own characteristics and their eating habits in freedom.