Best food other than flake

[Jackson]

What is a good food for mid tank feeders like rasboras and tetras ? Tired of watching flake food drift to the bottom of the tank . I have shrimp , snails and a pleco for clean up , but feel the don't really get all the food on the bottom . 

[Pepere]

Live baby brine shrimp will always be greedily eaten up, and if you shut off your filters prior to feeding it tends to stay in suspension.

You do want to avoid over feeding though as any hydra in the tank will have a population explosion…

All of the above with freezer dried tubifex worms.  I like to use a fork to shred the cubes into a very fine shredded mass and then soak it in a couple tablespoons of tank water to hydrate.  I then pour it in after 20 minutes soaking and it stays in suspension.. Some people simply submerge a cube, allow it to get wet and then press it against the glass and it sticks there.

On flake food I use a very tiny amount. The aggressive fish storm the surface and enough end up sinking to satisfy the mid feeders, but not so much as to fall to the bottom. I use a tiny, tiny amount, and sometimes, I repeat a second or third time depending how eagerly they eat.  I find I use much less flake food than I used to and no longer see flakes left on plants or substrate.  Because of this I end up adding a few sinking wafers for the kuhli loaches and cories.

[TOtrees]

For small fish, i love the xtreme nano pellets. sprinkle them on the surface, and some will stay there and others will drift slowly down through the water column. The harder you 'dash' the pellets at the surface, the more will sink. sprinkle lightly and right at the water surface, and more will stay floating. 

I like the larger micron sizes of golden pearls for the same reason, like 300 microns and up. 

[Ninjoma]

I would give another vote to Xtreme nano pellets. Hikari micro pellets and Hikari micro wafers are good as well. However, I think you may have the same issue with these three foods as you had with flakes. 

You could also try using freeze dried brine shrimp or freeze dried tubifex worms and sticking the cubes to the side of the glass in the middle of your tank. 

[lefty o]

fluval bug bites seem to hang in suspension for a while.

[Guppysnail]

I don’t use flake. I prefer granules. Xtreme nano, kens foods makes granules in every size from fry to Oscar size. And for different dietary needs. My fish go crazy for it. 

[knee]

Omega One pellets sink slow. I do use a pepper grinder because their smallest pellet is still too big for my fish. Northfin is also the same way.

 

Don't go for NLS because their pellets sink quick!

Edited March 23 by knee

[Sora]

I love feeding frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms 👍

[nabokovfan87]

On 3/23/2023 at 4:01 AM, GCH said:

What is a good food for mid tank feeders like rasboras and tetras ?

It was in one of the older vlogs and it's very difficult to find which one. 😞

There was one when he is feeding cyclops and the tank had a sponge filter.  It's slightly different than a tank with a HoB filter as far as keeping the food in the water column.

For mid-water feeders it's a good food.  Powdered foods also should have a similar affect depending on what it is and how well it stays suspended. 

Something like xtreme nano is the right size, but I cannot confirm it's use.  I had the standard size "semi-floating" pellets and those things essentially never sank for me.  I would have to go back hours / days later (experiments) and it would still be floating around.  A new food I got to try out now, 1mm pellets (good size, too big for a lot of nano fish) and it's labelled yet again as semi-floating.  NOPE. sinks immediately.  Vibrabites, works well, especially when you crunch it up, but it sinks immediately.

I would look into discus food.  It's got the right size / shape and should stay somewhat suspended.  check videos and see what you can see that might work for your fish.  Maybe the "best" for your situation, given variables in setup, would be taking the community flakes and crunching them up a little bit (or feeding a small amount so it can spread out the floating time).

The real goal is that if you're seeing issues, feed less, but add another feeding.

[Jackson]

On 3/23/2023 at 1:05 PM, Guppysnail said:

I don’t use flake. I prefer granules. Xtreme nano, kens foods makes granules in every size from fry to Oscar size. And for different dietary needs. My fish go crazy for it. 

Do they sink fast ? Doesn't say in the description . Looks good for a try . Some of the that stick to the tank wall food looks like maybe a try too .

[Jackson]

On 3/23/2023 at 2:13 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

It was in one of the older vlogs and it's very difficult to find which one. 😞

There was one when he is feeding cyclops and the tank had a sponge filter.  It's slightly different than a tank with a HoB filter as far as keeping the food in the water column.

For mid-water feeders it's a good food.  Powdered foods also should have a similar affect depending on what it is and how well it stays suspended. 

Something like xtreme nano is the right size, but I cannot confirm it's use.  I had the standard size "semi-floating" pellets and those things essentially never sank for me.  I would have to go back hours / days later (experiments) and it would still be floating around.  A new food I got to try out now, 1mm pellets (good size, too big for a lot of nano fish) and it's labelled yet again as semi-floating.  NOPE. sinks immediately.  Vibrabites, works well, especially when you crunch it up, but it sinks immediately.

I would look into discus food.  It's got the right size / shape and should stay somewhat suspended.  check videos and see what you can see that might work for your fish.  Maybe the "best" for your situation, given variables in setup, would be taking the community flakes and crunching them up a little bit (or feeding a small amount so it can spread out the floating time).

The real goal is that if you're seeing issues, feed less, but add another feeding.

Think I will try it  ...

[Guppysnail]

On 3/23/2023 at 4:23 PM, GCH said:

Do they sink fast

I have different blends and sizes. The smaller sink slower. This is my gourami one which is the largest I use. Some sinks quicks while some stays suspended in each blend. Some also stays floating on top then sinks a piece at a time for about 10 minutes so topfeeders mid water feeders and bottom feeders all get some with 1 feeding for me. I just made this so you can see what sinks and what stays suspended. The rest is floating but like I said will all sink inside 10 minutes. 

 

[rockfisher]

I hate say this but flake is really the only thing that makes it way through the water column at a slow to medium pace. For that other than flakes live foods would be the best but you might have to add something that sinks most of the foods mentioned do that. I know powered food were mentioned and they do work. There is a tendency to over feed with power. You may have to use a few foods. A mix of 3 is something I would suggest. It seems like I a lot but buy smaller amounts it will lasted. Flakes have been the go to for the average hobbyist for years. If you only have shrimp, snails and plecos most foods are going to be ok. I would try to get some foods that hit each of those species and rotate them. @Guppysnail can help with all those. She keeps all those very well.