How Many Fish Foods Do You Have?

[Daniel]

They would be a good source of nitrogen in a compost pile.

[RyanR]

I don't have any suggestions, except for make sure it's someone you know and trust.  If someone's fish get sick or something else happens at the same time they start feeding the food you gave them, it might not be a good situation.  I personally wouldn't take food from someone that I didn't know.  I got a sample of food that I haven't heard of before in with a shipment and I threw it away.  It had the ingredients listed that I wasn't crazy about (the second ingredient was a filler\binder) and I didn't like the smell.  It's not worth the risk when you can buy quality food for less than $10.

After re-reading this, I hope it didn't come across wrong and I don't mean to sound offensive, just stating my perspective.

[RyanR]

On 10/15/2020 at 8:50 PM, ange said:

...My shrimp alternate between shrimp cuisine, crab cuisine, and snowflake food however I ran out recently and decided to sample Shrimp King (this was a mistake)....

Why didn't you like Shrimp King?  That's on my list of food I want to try after I run our of Crab Cuisine. 

Honestly, I don't think, for the most part (with a few exceptions), Hikari ingredients are that that great.  Take Crab Cuisine, for example.  I would think that Calcium would be a large part of the food.  From the Hikari Crab Cuisine page...

INGREDIENTS
Fish meal, flaked corn, rice bran, wheat flour, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, krill meal, brewers dried yeast, fish oil...

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS

Crude Protein	Crude Fat	Crude Fiber	Moisture	Ash
min. 31.0%	min. 4.0%	max. 3.0%	max. 10.0%	max. 11.0%

Phosphorus	Vitamin A	Vitamin D3	Vitamin E	Ascorbic Acid	Calcium
min. 0.7%	min. 19,000 IU/kg	min. 2,900 IU/kg	min. 610 IU/kg	min. 430 mg/kg	min. 0.7%

 

The second, third, forth and fifth ingredients, are to me, things that I would not want to feed my "fish" in those quantities.  Corn, rice, wheat and soybean are before krill.  Right before I started this thread, I started looking at ingredients much more carefully, so there are things that I want to replace once I run out.  I only feed crab cuisine once a week, so I'm not in a huge rush right now.

[ange]

I'm not a fan of Shrimp King purely because my shrimp won't eat it, every time I've used it there has been >70% of the portion remaining after a few hours while with the normal staples it's either completely gone or mostly gone. I value a good formulation for pet food but my highest priority is making sure my pets will actually eat it.

I would probably be more okay with it if the price point weren't so high.

[RyanR]

9 minutes ago, ange said:

I'm not a fan of Shrimp King purely because my shrimp won't eat it, every time I've used it there has been >70% of the portion remaining after a few hours while with the normal staples it's either completely gone or mostly gone. I value a good formulation for pet food but my highest priority is making sure my pets will actually eat it.

I would probably be more okay with it if the price point weren't so high.

Yes, you are correct, making sure the fish eat it is important.  I bought Xtreme Sinking Wafers and was excited to be able to start feeding it to the shrimp, snails and plecos, but no one except for the snails would touch it. So yes, ingredients can be great, but it does no good if your fish don't like it.  Good point.

[PhotonMark]

Twelve different food types for about 35 small fish in one nano and one 55 bow front. Add one 20 tall. Doing a soft water tank with R.O. for Blue Rams. I had them ages ago before water changes were done regularly and have been lusting Rams after watching Dean's Fish Room, but never thought I could keep them. Got a pair going now that I have managed to keep alive for a month, so far so good. I've had R.O. for many years but never had fish tanks to use it on.

Edited March 17, 2021 by PhotonMark
New tank addition.

[RyanR]

On 10/15/2020 at 2:42 PM, RyanR said:

I'm curious about this, but I' wondering if most people rotate a lot of food or stick to one or two foods.   I try to feed a different food each day of the week (Sunday they don't get fed).  I like that the fish get a variety and I think it's a little more healthy for them and it helps their color, in my opinion.  Beside the vegetables that I keep in the freezer, I don't have any frozen food.  I'm about to start hatching some baby brine to see if it's a pain and how much my fish like it.  Below is what I feed, some of it is going away and some of it is for bottom feeders, so it looks like a lot.

• Blanched zucchini and canned green beans - everyone loves these two.
• Xtreme Krill Flakes - I love this one and will keep reordering
• Xtreme Sinking Wafers - I'm not crazy about it because my fish don't like it
• Fluval Bug Bites Algae Crisps - My fish like it and I like the ingredients - going to try the smaller version below
• Fluval Bug Bites Tropical Formula (small bites) - I like this one also and so do my fish - I'll keep reordering this one.
• Fluval Bug Bites Bottom Feeder Granules - New - Trying to see if my plecos, shrimp, snails and ottos like this.
• Fluval Spirulina Flakes - This is new also to see if the fish like it.
• Hikari Betta Pellets - I'm not crazy about the ingredients in this.  It will be replaced as soon as it's empty (maybe sooner)
• Hikari Freeze Dried Blood Worms - The fish love this and will keep this in the rotation
• Hikari Vibra Bites - Not too crazy about the ingredients, but  wanted to see what the hype was about.  This will be replaced - I'm already feeding Krill Flakes, so nothing new here to see
• Hikari Crab Cuisine - got this for the shrimp and snails for some calcium, but will try something new (Xtreme Shrimp or Denerle)

I just picked up a small bottle of Soilent Green from my LFS this weekend.  The smell isn't too plesant, but so far I love it and my bottom feeders do too. Figuring out the right quantity to feed is the next step.

[varanidguy]

On 10/22/2020 at 11:27 AM, RyanR said:

Why didn't you like Shrimp King?  That's on my list of food I want to try after I run our of Crab Cuisine. 

Honestly, I don't think, for the most part (with a few exceptions), Hikari ingredients are that that great.  Take Crab Cuisine, for example.  I would think that Calcium would be a large part of the food.  From the Hikari Crab Cuisine page...

INGREDIENTS
Fish meal, flaked corn, rice bran, wheat flour, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, krill meal, brewers dried yeast, fish oil...

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS

Crude Protein	Crude Fat	Crude Fiber	Moisture	Ash
min. 31.0%	min. 4.0%	max. 3.0%	max. 10.0%	max. 11.0%

Phosphorus	Vitamin A	Vitamin D3	Vitamin E	Ascorbic Acid	Calcium
min. 0.7%	min. 19,000 IU/kg	min. 2,900 IU/kg	min. 610 IU/kg	min. 430 mg/kg	min. 0.7%

 

The second, third, forth and fifth ingredients, are to me, things that I would not want to feed my "fish" in those quantities.  Corn, rice, wheat and soybean are before krill.  Right before I started this thread, I started looking at ingredients much more carefully, so there are things that I want to replace once I run out.  I only feed crab cuisine once a week, so I'm not in a huge rush right now.

You have highlighted very well how I choose most of my foods. Ingredients and their placement are key. Which is why I've really been a fan of NLS and Omega One for commercial foods. I'll also be trying XTreme in the future.

[Streetwise]

I got annoyed by having too many different foods to choose from, so I combined a bunch of different foods.

Left to right: flakes (Sera + Xtreme Krill), super-chunky, medium chunky, coarse, small, nano, fry.

I would like to thin the selection down further as I run out of some of these.

[Jeff]

I have a rotation of six kinds of dry, 2 frozen, and one live (baby brine).

I'd love to introduce another live food. 

[lefty o]

id guess i have about 6 different foods, plus or minus one or two.

[josh world]

Don’t have that much 

[Fishmonger_X]

I'd have to go count. At least two dozen if I include all my frozen and freeze dried food. Personally I feel like giving fish a variety of foods makes them healthier and happier. Who wants to eat the same meal or two or three for their entire life?

[Maggie]

Hikari micro pellets, flake, frozen daphnia, dried bloodworms, repashy soilent green, live baby brine shrimp, mineral junkie bites (for shrimp, pond snails love them too), algae wafers (only shrimp and pond snails will eat these). Also got a sample of soft micropellet food from where I ordered the brine shrimp hatchery, which the danios love but it sinks too fast for the rasboras - they like it but do not chase below a certain level in the tank. I'm going to order some of that when I need to replenish my supply (which will probably be outdated well before finished). 

[Ruud]

Good topic as I need inspiration. I currently only have 2 Swordtails and 5 Cardinal Tetra's (just starting the tank) and currently only feed Tetra Micro Granules. I tried Prodac dried bloodworms but they wouldn't have any of it. Gave them a bit of frozen Artemia and they liked that as well. 

What else is good food for these fish?

[Maggie]

On 10/26/2020 at 12:21 AM, RyanR said:

I just picked up a small bottle of Soilent Green from my LFS this weekend.  The smell isn't too plesant, but so far I love it and my bottom feeders do too. Figuring out the right quantity to feed is the next step.

You're being too nice when you say the smell of soilent green isn't too pleasant 😁. It's quite...aromatic, in an unpleasant way...shall we say. About what I'd expect mashed up algae and insects/larvae to smell like when combined with very hot water.

Oh, the things we do for our finned friends. 

[Fishmonger_X]

Frozen brine shrimp and frozen brine shrimp with spirulina should be great for Swords. Mine also like frozen blood worms. Really anything they can fit in their mouths they eat.

[Ken Dyer]

57 minutes ago, Maggie said:

About what I'd expect mashed up algae and insects/larvae to smell like when combined with very hot water.

Hehe, I am no longer allowed to make Repashy "Grub Pie" formula in the house when the wife is home or will be home within the next hour. The fish may like the aroma, but the Mrs. ... not so much. She had no issues with me making homemade beef heart blends for growing up baby/juvenile discus, or filling the freezer with blood worms and cyclops/brine shrimp but Grub Pie was a bridge too far for our household. 

[Fishmonger_X]

Haha! Yeah.... my short lived attempts at making my own fish food didn't go great.....

[Ken]

On 10/18/2020 at 3:53 PM, Daniel said:

And it wouldn't be complete without baby brine shrimp, a cone full every 12 hours!

@DanielWhat are those cones? I love the simplicity of that method and would like to do the same. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Ken
big empty space

[Daniel]

5 minutes ago, Ken said:

@DanielWhat are those cones? I love the simplicity of that method and would like to do the same. 

Those are indeed cones. They are called Imhoff cones and they make harvesting easy. When the shrimp first hatch they sink to the bottom, and then I siphon them from the bottom with a piece of rigid airline tubing. So I harvest them even before they are totally free swimming.

[Ken]

@DanielThank you. I couldn't get google to show me anything like them.

[Daniel]

Cole-Parmer Imhoff Settling Cones and Rack Kit; Three Cones, One Rack from Cole-Parmer

WWW.COLEPARMER.COM

---

Buy Wheaton Imhoff Settling Cones and Rack Kit; Three Cones, One Rack and more from our comprehensive selection...

I think you can get them less expensively elsewhere, but I haven’t had a chance to look.

[FrozenFins]

let see...

For my betta and his shrimpy friends I have,

• Hikari Betta Pellets
• Shrimp King Complete/ color
• North Fin Betta Pellets
• Fluval Bug Bites
• Frozen Bloodworms
• The occasional live black worm

And then for my community tank I have,

• New Life Spectrum community sinking pellets
• Frozen Blood worms
• Frozen Brine Shrimp
• Fluval Bug Bites
• New Life Spectrum Algae max wafer (for my pleco)
• Repashy community plus
• The occasional live black worm

For my nano reef I have,

• New Life Spectrum community sinking pellets
• Frozen Blood Worms
• Frozen Brine Shrimp

[ChefConfit]

Mornings Monday thru Saturday I feed Bug Bites Color Enhancing Flakes

On Monday nights after water change I do frozen baby brine. 

Nights Tuesday thru Saturday I rotate Hikari mini bottom feeder wafers, Hikari mini algae wafers, Bug Bites shrimp granuals and blanched peas for the bottom feeders. Hikari freeze dried brine shrimp, Hikari Fancy Guppy, and Hikari Vibra Bites for the water column feeders. 

My fry/grow out tank rotates between Bug Bites color enhancing flakes, frozen baby brine shrimp and my homemade fry food.

All foods except the flake are stored frozen in their original packaging and I take a few weeks worth out at a time that I keep in tiny Tupperware containers. 

I want to add live baby brine and more frozen foods into my rotation and also want to try extreme foods