# What kind of fish food is best?



## rachpreach (May 23, 2006)

I feed tetra min flakes. I used to feed the tetra min crisps but they stopped carrying it where i get it. I was just wondering what kind everyone uses and what is the best?


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## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

The best is a variety of different types of foods: Frozen, live, freeze dried, flakes, pellets etc. 

I personally started switching all my foods over to Hikari because this brand does not contain any copper, which is bad for shrimp.


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## dyckster (Nov 28, 2006)

I also use Tetramin flakes but I alternate that with frozen bloodworms.

Why is there copper in any fish food? It's not there on purpose is it?


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Tetramin tropical flakes (brown cap) because its cheap and saw no real benefit over the Tetramin Crisps flakes. Also, I feed the ocassional frozen bloodworm cube.

-John N.


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

If you're asking what the best dry food is I've found it to be the Tetra Tropical Crisps and the Spectrum foods.


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## Satirica (Feb 13, 2005)

I'm with Aaron on Spectrum. One comment on the Spectrum foods -- the regular variety of Spectrum Community Fish Food is a little large for some smaller fish to handle so I feed a mixture than includes Spectrum Grow and Spectrum Small Fish Forumula. I have also had great luck feeding Sera food but it can be hard to find.


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## Mud Pie Mama (Jul 30, 2006)

Hey, how, or what parameters are we using to define 'best'? Are you asking the fish? Is it how quickly they're dashing to the surface at feeding time? Is it if they don't spit it out at first bite???

Actually I'm wondering if what's best in terms of fish health may be different than what's best in terms of tank parameters? I.e.., surface scum, detritus and algae control???

Myself, I do use a variety of different foods. I have two reasons. One, I'm thinking that if one brand of food is short or lacking one essential nutrient than when I'm feeding the other choices hopefully my fish will get a well balanced diet. Second, although I'm sure its anthropomorphic on my part; I think my fish like variety, they'll always be wondering what's for dinner, they'll not be bored and they'll be happier!

Still, sometimes I find myself wondering if something else would be better or best? Sometimes I try to compare the ingredients on the label and if I see a lot of flours i.e., wheat or corn meal and not many seafoods (fish or crustacean meats) listed I put those back. 

A few things:

Yes, I use the Tetra min crisps, it gets a pretty good rating with most of the fish.

Not all the Hikari products are free from copper, I have their Cichlid Gold Pellets, it list copper sulfate. I also remember the last time I was shopping a few of their other products had it in the ingredient list.

Recently I've been trying some of the HBH brand foods. They seemed to have a great range of ingredients. "Flake Frenzy-cichlid flakes", "African Cichlid - Attack! Pellets" (sinks fast and great for my Rams and Checkerboards who pick around the bottom, BNP loves it too), and most recently "Super Soft - Frozen Food Alternative" (they gobble this so fast I almost never see it hit the water with my own eyes!). Unfortunately they do have copper, but my tanks with the big guys have no shrimps.

Now my pickiest eater of all is my one Koi Angelfish. She'll spit out half of what everyone else will fight over! Her all time favorite is Aquarian "Bottom Feeder Shrimp Pellets". She loves them so much that she'll take them right from my fingers. (I break the pellets in half for her so she doesn't drop and loose them to the crowd.)


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## duchessren (Sep 16, 2006)

*Fish food and Copper sulfate*

I agree with trenac in that a perfect fish would need a variety of form of food available to them: live, flake, pellet, frozen, freeze-dried, wafer, whatever. Variety is good.

I agree with Aaron on the quality of Spectrum. That's some good stuff, but it does contain copper...

Also:


dyckster said:


> Why is there copper in any fish food? It's not there on purpose is it?


Copper sulfate is an all-purpose fish and tank treatment and fish preventative. It functions as an algae-cide, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and fights protozoa and other parasites. Its added to fish foods as a commonality for its many uses. However, it is toxic to shrimp, so its vital to check those labels. One feeding isn't going to kill them, but read the labels...


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I too feed a variety, with flake, frozen, pellets, and different bottom feeder foods, depending on what I have in the tank.

For flake food, I used to feed mostly OSI, but lately I've been going more and more to the different Ocean Nutrition formulas. They have a Cichlid formula that they just go wild for. 
I also got some of the HBH foods at the Cichlid convention last summer, and that was well taken by all of the fish.


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## joephys (May 9, 2006)

I agree for the variety as well. But I don't have enough fish to justify spending so much on food since it shouldn't be used a month after its opened (it goes stale). Generally I use nutrifin. My fish seem to like it the best.


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## rachpreach (May 23, 2006)

so do you think that my angels and rainbows would like the cichlid pellets?


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

rachpreach said:


> so do you think that my angels and rainbows would like the cichlid pellets?


Both Angels and Rainbows have smaller mouths, so you'd need to get a smaller pellet, if they have it.


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Feeding the fish results in increased N or P, but rarely (if ever) both. In a planted tank the increased N maybe of little concern, but if there's excess P (by itself or in combination with the N), a lot of CO2, and a lot of light then we must know how the food that we use affects the N and P.

On some Dutch sites one can find a table that shows how different foods increase N or P. That may seem completely useless to some because here in the US we like to dump spoons of dry chemicals in our tanks, change oceans of water twice a week, and generally believe that we know exactly how to calculate fertilizers we provide to the plants. The Dutch use a variety of very natural approaches to maintaining a planted tank and battling algae. The fish waste is a variable that seems important to them. Strange people, I tell you... 

I'm away from home now and I will have to post the Dutch food fish table in a few days if someone doesn't do it before me. 

From what I've observed (but not tested precisely) dry foods tend to raise P a lot and not increase N much. I do not know if there's a difference if the food stays uneaten or it "passes through" the fish. Another good question is if the amount of N and P in the fish waste depends on the species of fish.

As a general "good housekeeping" practice I personally try to never let any food fall on the bottom and stay uneaten. I just feed carefully with a pipette, but one can assure that no food remains uneaten by having different species of fish and/or different sizes of fish.

--Nikolay


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

NewLifeSpectrum


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Here's the Dutch page with the table showing the N and P percentage of different *live* foods.

Stikstof in het aquarium

I wish there was info on dry foods too because from what we see in the table one may conclude that there could never be an excess of P as a result of adding fish food to the tank.

--Nikolay


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## mkeevil (Oct 22, 2006)

I purchased 4 small containers of different types of food, pellets, flakes ect and combined them all into 1 container... some of the shrimp pellets I broke up with a spoon because my fish are on the smaller side... but I find that when I add a pinch of food... I get a variety every time. 

I have also been told that feeding frozen blood warms on a regular basis is bad because they don't contain a lot of nutrients... They are only good as a snack every now and then... I believe its because of when they are frozen... it's like buying crickets that are half starved and you need to feed them gut load before you give them to your pets.


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