When you buy tropical fish online, it follows that you must be ready on how to school it with proper feeding and what fish food to provide them. Just like human beings, fish need to sustain daily activities. Good Lord, it’s not a difficult task to be feeding fish. Numerous flake and freeze-dried foods are out in the market. Nourishing your fish must be on top of your priority to encourage longevity. Aquarists and fish culture experts share that feeding flake foods alone will make a dynamic and healthy breeding. But not all freshwater tropical fish can thrive on flake foods. Others prefer the freeze-fried ones while a few are very well attuned to live and homemade freshwater tropical fish foods.

Freshwater tropical fish foods: Flakes, Spiriluna-rich, freeze-dried

The most familiar brands for flake fish foods include Warley, Tetra and Aquarian. You might get other brands but these are the top choices among freshwater tropical fish caretakers. Depending on your budget allocation, you might want to pick the least expensive or high-priced. Wardley comes as the cheapest among the three mentioned brands, but if you are too meticulous about the more vegetable components, then settle for Tetra or Aquarian. Majority of vegetable-rich flakes has Spirulina which is abundant in protein, thus making it a great provider of amino acids. Spirulina flakes are ideal for vegetarian freshwater tropical fish and mollies. Tetra and Aquarian flakes also comprise of thin crispy cookies where Spirulina is contained. You can pour the flakes straight to your tropical fish aquariums.

Other than flake fish foods, you can also feed your freshwater tropical fish with freeze-dried foods which come in large compacted pieces that usually contain either worm or mosquito larva. Freeze-dried foods won’t be enough to complete a freshwater tropical fish diet plan, though. But when you incorporate them with a standard flake food plus Spirulina-loaded flake food, a total package of effective fish diet is achieved.

Buy tropical fish online – homemade, frozen and live fish foods

An alternative to the basic freshwater tropical fish flakes are the homemade ones. Yes, homemade freshwater tropical fish foods are more practical, less expensive and creative. You can make foods that can be consumed in 4 to six months. You don’t have to be doing it every week or so. It’s a must that you secure a food processor to make homemade freshwater tropical fish foods. Your recipe is most likely to include veggie matter, flavorless gelatin, some multivitamins, red meat or beef heart. You can also include some spinach leaves, small summer squash and uncooked carrots. Process all your ingredients before you add a bulk of fish, say minnows. You can also explore the supermarket to see an array of frozen sea foods that you can include in your recipe. You can pick some shrimp fry, capelin (which is rich in nutritious roe for your freshwater tropical fish), mosquito larvae and freshwater fleas. Every ingredient passes through your food processor. Mixing a liter of water into them and boiling it lowly follows next. Then you are to mix them into the dissolved gelatin when it’s cooled down. Let it stay overnight before you can divide them into portions. If you can buy tropical fish online, you might want to include these ingredients right along.

Stores also offer some commercial frozen food such as aquatic insects, shelled animals, fish, snails, octopus and slugs. If you can find some brine shrimps and blood worms, they would be healthier for your freshwater tropical fish. Blood worms are endorsed to be very good supplements for all fish. Live foods can also be purchases from local pet stores. Goldfish, feeder guppies, mature brine shrimps and black worms are the common choices. You must, however, be careful about not over-feeding your fish with black worms as they are very rich in fat and protein. Too much of these nutrients can lead to problems. These live foods should be stored in freezers.

Also, there is such thing as culturing some live freshwater tropical fish foods at your own home. Compost worms, for one, are ideal for bigger fish but will need to be broken down to feed smaller fish. Raising them in a decayed plant matter is suggested. Aside from compost worms, you can also rear white worms if your fish are quite smaller. Good news is that you can buy tropical fish online these days. Other types that can be cultured live are wingless fruit flies, baby brine shrimps, and micro-worms or nematodes. Flies without wings can be cultured by placing them in empty jars with a foam rubber. You can mix yeast, molasses and potato flakes. Store them in a few days until they multiply. Tetra fish on your tropical fish aquariums would love to eat baby brine shrimps. Brine shrimps can originate from dry eggs that are sold in local stores. You can raise these eggs in salty water so that brine shrimps can be hatched properly in a few days or weeks. To raise the small worms, you will need plastic containers filled with a combo of corn meal, water and yeast. The Paramecium culture has emerged in the culture of raising live freshwater tropical fish foods. Paramecia can be bred in cold or warm water and add them with wheat seeds and yeast.

If you want more adventure and fun in getting foods for your freshwater tropical fish, you can go hunt for some in ponds or seas. Collected live foods are an option to those nearby water areas flocked by small fish and crustaceans that can be eaten by their fish. Foremost, you ought to select a good fish pond that’s not possibly sprayed by chemicals. To get mosquito larvae, you have to wait for a good storm because that’s the usual season when they flock in ponds. Long-existing ponds are also potential sources of Daphnia or freshwater fleas which can be mixed with a yeast and ground spinach for them to reproduce. Bugs are also good to catch for your fish enjoying the days of their life in a tropical freshwater fish aquarium. But you have to be wary about some threatening bugs. Filter the bigger ones as they can harm your small fish unless you are taking care of bigger fish species.

Veggie diets for your freshwater tropical fish and tips on feeding fish

Now that you are well-informed about fish foods, you must also learn some good vegetable diets for your fish. Most popular freshwater tropical fish that require veggie diets are the South American algae eating catfish called plecos, some piranha-related termed as silver dollars, and rock-residing chichlids called mbuna. The flavorless gelatins are also source of vegetable matters that all fish need, and so are properly boiled zucchinis. Romaine lettuce is also a perfect veggie diet for fish.

Frequency of feeding your fish can vary. But of course, all fish are fine when fed two times a day especially schooling fish which can consume food in five minutes. Territorial fish like cichlids are more monopolizing than others, so tendency is that you might be over-feeding them. This is something you have to be in control of. Bottom feeders like catfish and loaches, however, will need more than five minutes of feeding to avoid starvation. They are also best to be fed when it’s dark because bottom feeders are nocturnal. The general rule is that you just make sure there’s enough food your fish can eat but do not ever feed them beyond the suggested amount.

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