In this article, I am going to give you tips on how to feed a fish properly. I always recommend people to feed a varied diet to their fish because it just makes the most sense. Like you wouldn’t want to just eat cereal for your whole life and the fish are the exact same.
Basically, I’ve never really given an in-depth answer to how to actually do this. So in this article, I’m going to talk to you guys about all the things that I recommend to properly feed aquarium fish because sometimes people don’t really know what they’re doing and they don’t really know what kinds of foods to feed, the size and the way fish eat.
In this article, I’m going to try and give you guys seven tips to feed your fish properly and that will completely change the way you will feed fish and in turn, create a lot fatter and healthier fish for you.
Tips for properly feeding fish
1. Feed something different when you feed
You should feed them something new every time they eat. What I mean is to feed them something different every time they eat. So don’t feed them two of the same things in a row.
If the last time you fed them flakes, feed them either a different style of flakes, something like a spirulina flake, or feed them like a micro pellet. Even like live food or some frozen foods. Those are the main categories of foods that we like to feed.
This piece of advice is designed for you guys who already understand that there are different styles of food besides flakes. Basically, what I’m recommending is, that in the wild the chances that any of your fish that you have in any single aquarium find the same thing twice is very unlikely.
So what we’re trying to do in our aquarium is mimic nature and one of the best ways to do this is to feed them something new every time they eat. Every time you’re feeding a fish try and give them something different than what you did last time and that’s probably the best way to ensure a varied diet for your fish.
A varied diet gives them the best health and all the nutrients that they need to have a really good immune system and fight off disease and just be really active and colorful in an aquarium.
2. Understand the diet of the fish to properly feed them
The next tip is to understand the diet of the fish. If you’ve got plecos, they are a bottom-dwelling fish and they come from really high flowing rivers. Basically the way they find food is going to be completely different from the way a guppy finds food.
We have to understand what kind of foods they would find in the wild. So they’d be rasping on a lot of rocks and wood and we also have to understand the amounts of protein and stuff like that that the fish is eating.
So the best way to do this is just to do a really good amount of research to spend like an afternoon and read as many little things and watch as many little videos and see what people are feeding their fish.
Instead of seeing what other people are doing and all the products that they’re using, try and be the fish and understand exactly what that fish would be like eating in the wild. So my second tip is to understand the diet of where the fish comes from, and basically all the surrounding factors with that.
3. Feed the correct food size
Make sure the size of the food that you’re feeding is right. The reason is that people overlook this a little bit when they’re feeding fish. Most of the time when you buy flakes, they are quite big and a lot of the time we’re not feeding fish that can actually fit that in their mouth.
We often see a fish gulping a flake, chewing it up, and spitting it back out. They are trying to make the flake or the piece of food smaller. You’ve got to make sure that any food you’re feeding your fish can actually fit in their mouth and they’re not doing this.
Some of the best ways to do this are to crush the flake up and feed it and I’ll guarantee that little guppies and tetras can actually fit this inside of their mouth. The other thing is just to shop around and find food to actually fit inside their mouths.
Another really good example is trying to feed frozen blood worms to neon tetras because they can’t really fit in their mouth too. In general, this can cause problems but I find it to be just more of an issue.
Just keep this in mind when you’re feeding your fish try and feed them the right size food and it’ll just make life a lot easier.
Also, check out Things To Know Before Starting A Planted Aquarium
4. Check the expiry of the food
Make sure the food you’re feeding isn’t expired. This more applies to your dry foods because they are pretty easily expired the reason I say this is because we’re opening up the food every day and air’s getting in there and basically we’re doing this for over a year.
People buy large amounts of food to feed one aquarium and it’ll last two years. Now over two years of just opening a food packet and letting it be exposed it expires really quickly. Check the back of your food and make sure all your food is in date before you feed it because feeding expired food is a surefire way to get internal parasites inside your fish.
It’s really important not to feed old food to your fish because it’s just not safe. Another thing people do is like they’ll buy like a secondhand aquarium and it’ll come with like old flakes. Now people don’t even know how old those flakes are and they feed them to their fish. Save yourself the trouble and go and buy proper food.
If you’ve got like two or three aquariums, just buy smaller amounts of food more frequently than the huge amount because otherwise it’s just gonna eventually expire and you’re gonna waste your money.
When you buy smaller amounts of food you can actually try and experiment with different things and find which flakes your fish like the most.
5. Buy the best food
This might seem pretty obvious and this is to simply buy the best foods. There are a lot of people who just try and save money in the areas where it matters the most. Food is not something you want to skimp out on.
Buy the best quality food for your fish, buy the best brands, buy the most expensive stuff within reason, and don’t buy crazy stupid expensive stuff.
There are a lot of opportunities for people to sell snake oils and a lot of grocery stores make tropical flakes. The ingredients in them just aren’t designed properly for the fish that we’re trying to feed. Invest in the best quality foods.
There are a lot of foods that I use that are expensive but in the long term, they just are a lot better for the fish. It’s just one of the things I recommend heavily is to invest in the best foods possible.
6. Feed small amounts frequently
Feed small amounts of food frequently. The best way to feed fish is not to feed once a day and feed a huge amount but rather feed smaller amounts like five times during the day.
The best I recommend for people who are working is to feed three to four times a day and that seems to be a really happy medium.
I recommend feeding small amounts and making sure all the fish are eating within like 30 seconds of the food being delivered. Do that three or four times a day.
It’s the way they would eat in the wild because fish don’t normally just find a bunch of food and fill up their guts and bloat up themselves. Their bodies aren’t designed to go and get really big real quick. The best way to do this is to feed frequently but lots and lots of small times a day.
7. Make sure everyone is eating
This is another thing that gets overlooked quite a bit when feeding. The reason for this is because we have fish like corydoras and these fish stay down at the bottom of the aquarium and they don’t ever really go up to the top to eat flakes like your angelfish and Tetris. These guys can get out-competed for food in the aquarium.
This is common for fish that eat in the mid-ground. Normally the fish that go up the top and are really aggressive eaters will eat all the food and can cause problems long term. This isn’t really a short-term problem but it can become a problem over the long term if fish aren’t eating. They become skinny and they get health problems.
Just frequently watch your tank when you feed and make sure everyone’s getting a bite. One of the best ways to do this is to feed regularly.
If you have some quarries down the bottom that aren’t eating try and introduce the food down to the bottom first so they can get the feed first, or separate the fish. Do whatever you need to do to make sure that fish are eating.
With the help of these tips, I hope you will be able to feed your fish properly and keep them healthy and give them a longer lifespan. You can also check out other insightful blogs on animal care on our website.
