Fish food. What do you use/recommend?

[Sandra the fish rookie]

Hi All~

Once my parasite debacle is over in a few weeks. I want to start to feed my fish better quality foods. I currently have the flakes from TopFin that I am using because they came with my kit. I also have the Hakari Algea  wafers, and Hakari sinking wafers (for the cory cats). I also give them a zucchini once in a while as well. 

I have guppies, cory cat fish, Mystery Snail and a Ramshorn snail

What food experiences do you have? What do you like? Also, I saw a video once of someone that used a pepper mill for her flake food to feed her guppies? What are everyone's thought on that idea?

[H.K.Luterman]

Using a pepper mill to crush flake food is a cute idea. I could see that being a good option if you deal with lots of fry. I just crush them up with my fingers.

Food wise, I like Bug Bites flakes, Xtreme Nano pellets, and Repashy foods (especially Soilent Green). Those three seem to be my staples for my livebearers. I get the Repashy and Xtreme from the Co-Op. 

Your snails would probably love some Repashy food mixed with a crushed up Tums; my mystery snails come running for it! My limias peck at it as well, I figure the extra calcium is great for them. 

[Sandra the fish rookie]

@H.K.Luterman

Thank you so much! I actually have a wonder shell I have not put in there yet.. I was afraid to with all the medication that was going on. I still have another round of paracleanse to do.. but should I put the wonder shell in there?

When you have the Repash food.. your mean the gel right? so when/how do you add the Tums? and how often to do you give it to your snails.. I worry about them not getting enough.. so this is SUPER helpful.. They really seem to like the zucchini, I blanch it so it sinks to the bottom.

[H.K.Luterman]

I wouldn't think it would do any harm to put the Wondershell in there with the meds, but maybe someone else could offer input. 

Yep, Repashy is the gel food. This stuff:

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/fish-food/products/repashy-soilent-green

I also use the Repashy Community Plus, but if I were to pick one or the other, I'd use Soilent Green. 

I crush up a Tums into powder (I use the Assorted Berry kind), and then stir it into the powder. Then I add the hot water and mix it all up. I let it set inside a small Tupperware container, and then cut it up into little squares when firm. A single Mystery snail, I'd give a tiny bit daily. Just see how much and how long it takes them to eat it all and adjust from there. In my 29 gallon, I have Mysteries I'd like to breed, as well as my limias, so I drop 2 little half inch sized cubes in daily. I will probably end up feeding more as they get bigger. Of course my ramshorns are exploding with babies but that's fine. I love them.

[SWilson]

Do you have male and female guppies in the tank? I got the easy fry food from the Coop for my endlers, it feeds everyone from fry to adult fish to the snails.  My mystery snails will attach themselves to the tank at the water suface level to catch the food while it's floating.  So clever!  I also bought the Hikari guppy food for the adults, now I mix it into the ketchup bottle dispenser with the flake food so it dispenses pellet sizes for everyone.  I'm not experienced with Cory cats, but the fry food does sink to the bottom, so I suspect they would be able to get some too.  

I've recently started adding tums for calcium, but I'm nervous about it since I only have the peppermint flavor.  I like the idea of crushing it up and adding it to the repashy soilent green, I'll have to try that.  Thanks @H.K.Luterman !

As far as how much, I don't think there's a specific formula.  I started small with the tums, adding just a quarter first, then a half.  In my 16 gallon, I can add a whole one now and the snails (I have a lot of pest snails in addition to the mystery) will eat it in a couple of hours, it doesn't seem to affect the water.  But in a smaller 2.5 gallon tank I have that just breeds bladder snails for my pufferfish, I've had water quality issues after adding a whole tums tab to it.  Not sure if the tums was exactly the cause.  

As far as the wondershell and paracleanse, I think it would be fine to add the wondershell in, there shouldn't be any interaction with medications.  It might boost your PH up, which may be a problem if your water is already very alkaline.  I don't really notice much difference though when I add a wondershell bc it dissolves slowly.  

[KaitieG]

I have guppies, corys, snails, and neons in a tank right now, and they all love CommunityPlus Repashy as well.  It's a little shocking how many tiny pest snails come out to chow on it when I feed it though!  I'd like to try the Soilent Green as that seems to have lots of fans around here, just waiting until I have enough other things I need to put in an order!

I feed a rotation of:

X-treme Krill Flakes and Bugbites spirulina (you could get the X-treme community flakes and get a similar mixture without having to buy 2 foods--live and learn!)  

Hikari Fancy Guppy

Hikari Vibra Bites

and Repashy Community Plus gel

The least favorites for me personally with the small fish in this tank are the Vibra Bites.  They seem a little large and hard for most of the small fish in this tank.

I also have stuff to set up a brine shrimp hatcher, which has been on my to-do list for a few weeks.  Getting to that eventually!

 

 

 

 

[Sandra the fish rookie]

WOW.. so much good info here! As for the GH/KH I have been using the Tetra Easy strips and so the reading are in ppm but my GH is a steady 120 and mh KH is 110.. Here in NC, we have really hard water.. ask my hair.. LOL

I love the TUMs idea.. how cool! 

How do you all keep all this fish food fresh? I am so afraid all the varieties will spoil. 

 

[Celly Rasbora]

I just got the Hikari micro pellets, which the fish and I both like, but the packaging seems to lose its seal or at least fill up with air, which is frustrating. Xtreme nano pellets, Aquarium Co-Op Easy fry, Fluval Bug Bites for small tropical fish are all in rotation. After buying Hikari freeze-dried Daphnia, I realized my fish get more variety than do my dogs and cats. I have Ember tetras and several varieties of Boraras: merah, brigittae, naevus, which need slowly sinking foods. (Although, I've noticed the phoenix and the chili rasboras like the top portion of the tank and will eat from the surface.)

[KaitieG]

I keep mine in the fridge, but for larger quantities, the freezer is even better.  @Irene has a great video on her meal plan and keep-fresh strategy!

 

[MJV Aquatics]

I've been discouraged from posting links here but I have a comprehensive article on commercial fish foods with lots of  research if your interested in a deep dive...just search for my blog.

In the old days many fish foods were made using low quality fish meal with LOTS of grain/grain starch as binder/filler. These days there are many high quality commercial fish foods.

It's important to read the label as ingredients are listed by volume and can be quite revealing.

Of course you might also augment with frozen and/or live foods. I culture micro worms, white worms, daphnia but there are also many other sustainable cultures that are great for fish.

I typically blend two or three commercial foods for a good blend and store large quantities in the freezer to keep potent/fresh.

🙂

[H.K.Luterman]

I keep my fish food in the fridge. X3

[FrozenFins]

My angelfish go CRAZY for the New Life Spectrum Community Pellet. Fluval Bug Bites is a MUST for any betta, they love it. I also feed NorthFin Pellets, Hikari Pellets and Frozen Blood Worms. I have never used Xtreme but I have heard great things about there foods and it may be a better choice for you guppies if they decide to create some babies. I don't have any fridge space for my foods so they just stay beside each aquarium.

[MJV Aquatics]

7 minutes ago, H.K.Luterman said:

I keep my fish food in the fridge. X3

Where's the food?... More importantly, where does the beer go? LOL