Just curious... do fish need time to adjust to a different food? I normally feed my angelfish and bala shark some flakes, and bloodworms once in a while to change it up. I recently purchased slow sinking granules thinking my fish (being mid level feeders) would thank me for the change. Ive tried now three times to feed them the granules, and they eat it quick, then spit it out a few seconds later. I went back to flakes but was curious if fish need adjusting period?
PS: brand of granule was same as flakes.... Tetra... and no, they arent that slow sinking
for tropicals i recomend color bits... it's like hamburgers to them... sounds like you have some finiky fish...
i don't give my fish any adjusting time... i feed them whatever in any random time... i feed from spirulina flakes, brine shrimp flakes, shrimp pellets, color bits, frozen bloodworms, daphna, hikari saltwater pellet food, new life spectrum cichlid small pellet, and new life spectrum saltwater flake formula to my tropical fish tank... they still eat it, and aren't gettin sick of any of it... i also give them freeze dried stuff from time to time...
i used to feed my goldfish oranges, peas, spinach, tomatoes, squash and other veggies... it all depends on what you want to feed them... you could even make your own food with flavor-less jello, flakes, peas, dried shrimp, spirullina flake, pellets and zoe multivitamins or any kind of fish safe vitamins... put it in a blender, flatten it out in a tray, then cut it up into little squares and freeze it for storage...
I use freeze dried krill for my larger fish who gluttonize on food because krill takes a while to soften up and these fish can't swallow it so fast. I feed my Florida gars live goldfish but will try to ween them to a processed food at some point for the bulk of their diet. My Amazonian gars switched over from live fish to krill or Hikari sticks a couple years ago and that took less than a week. I think as you and your fish get to know each other, some fish more than others will associate your actions and triggers in their environment such as the turning on of the lights as the time to eat and this can aid in getting them used to eating whatever you feed them to some extent. I keep going back to Tetra brand flakes like you spongebob for the smaller fish and bottom dwellers. This stuff is good crumbled up for fry and it seems IMO to be preferred over granules and other hard foods with my fish. I also like Hikari red carnivore sticks for carnivores, but it gets eaten so fast my fish end up over stuffed. When I had diskus I fed everyone live blood worms (they're the black ones). I'd use a funnel feeder so big clumps of worms didn't fall to the gravel and escape into it. I've switched up the food with most of my fish and they each seem to have a favorite, but I've read and been told it's good to mix it up for nutritional reasons. I watch for a few days or more depending on the fish to see if they'll switch over and if they really won't eat something over time I don't starve them.
There is a lot of live food out there for example bloodworms,daphnia,brine shrimp and even live earth worms. I usually feed my fish either flake or dry blood worms, cichlid formula and some pellets for my frogs. If you have a pleco you can feed them cucumber but that increases there growth. Bala sharks love flake and live food.
I would mix up the diet sometimes just to keep them healthy and active. If you do not feed them different foods it could result in symptoms, weight loss and unactivness leading to deathly sickness tat could result in death. About 1 time every week don't feed them.
Freshwaterpleco. I agree with you about maybe not feeding one day of the week, but I prefer to actually feed most of my fish, esp the ones with high metabolisms, less than they would prefer to eat, every day. I think it's best to keep them a little hungry than to let them be gluttons, but have you ever heard of that guy Ghandi? He's the bald peaceful guy from India who had a big influence on the work for a peaceful world. I mention him because he didn't eat one day every week. It's good for some people, and possibly not for everyone. My gars don't need to eat every day, but my Arowana looks panicky if he doesn't get some food every day. Now, my tilapias! They're kind of like cichlids I think. They are such gluttons that they poop every time I feed them, and it's like they do it right before I put the food in! They will stuff themselves so much that no more food will go in. Their mouth will be totally full with food sticking out and they will still try to eat more. The food goes right through them like a speeding worm. If I fed them what they wanted to eat my tank would be a rotton pond of poop in no time.
I have 3 female Bettas and 4 male Guppies who are pigs and will eat as much of whatever I give them. I mix it up between Betta Bites (Guppies like these too), freeze-dried Brine Shrimp, freeze-dried bloodworms, and frozen bloodworms. They love them all and will eat them at any time. I feed the frozen bloodworms to my African Dwarf Frogs (with a turkey baster to get to the bottom past my gluttonous fish). My two male Bettas will eat all of it too, with one being a little picky about the frozen bloodworms...he eats the freeze-dried ones faster and they sink slower. I've got to get a worm feeder because the frozen bloodworms sink fast. Although, my Bettas and Guppies are such pigs, they'll dive for them, sometimes eating them right off the bottom.
I have found that picking up small quantity sample size foods will show you what your fish will go after. Nearly every fish in my tank goes after algae wafers (which are aimed at the algae eaters, pleco, and corys). The biggest part of their diet is flakes. We also throw in dried bloodworms and brine shrimp, and the occasional treat of frozen brine shrimp. I have even fed them the occasional veggie every once in a while. Small peices of Romaine lettuce and Spinach are a good change of pace.
i feed my guys cichlids pelets and they do fine on it and somtimes brim shrimp blood worms feeders krill a veraty i think is better its like u eating eggs every day u woulnd like that
Just on a side note, pellets, wafers, and even flake food can become "stale". If you've kept your food for some time or even if its just been sitting on your LFS shelf for a few years it'll take a long time to soften when placed in water. I doubt places like Petco/smart use their staff to frequently check dates either. lol Sometimes this will lead to your fish spitting it out or just ignoring it altogether. I accidentally poked a hole in a bag of frozen bloodworms breaking chunks of them up which led to freezerburn...my puffer refused to eat from that bag unless he was really hungry. Immediately after giving him some of the fresh bag there was no hesitation to munch away.
yeah i have been using granules... when my angels think its too tough, they suck it in, spit it out, then suck it in, then spit it out, then suck it in after softening it up a bit.... most granules they eat on the first go around, but they have wisened up to the method. And they only do this if they are hungry, so i keep them hungry... if they are fat and full they spit it out and let it settle to the floor and wait for a juicier tidbit.
I really like freeze dried krill for most of my big fish. The krill is hard to swallow without a bit of gumming and softening and it's not very dense, so my fish can eat as much as they want without over stuffing themselves. I used to use Hikari carnivore sticks and these are the opposite. They're very dense and swell up in my fish's stomachs allowing them to get too full.
Krill is very nutritious too, and it's vitamin enriched. Even my pleco loves it.
