The Best Fish Food for Your Pets

Photo by: Bigstockphoto
Photo by: Bigstockphoto

Different types of fish have different nutritional needs. That’s why it’s important to check what type of food you should feed your pet fish. In today’s post, we are listing down the most popular of all fish foods to consider:

Freeze Dried Fish Food

Freeze-dried fish food offers balanced nutrients and fiber to keep your pets healthy. This type of fish food can be used as the main fish food or as a supplement to pellet or flake fish food. The process used to preserve the fish food helps kill pathogens that could harm the fish so freeze-dried foods are relatively safer than other fish foods out on the market. Most fish also find freeze-dried foods palatable. The only downside is the cost. This is more expensive than average pellet or flake fish foods.

Frozen Fish Food

Frozen fish food is raw, unprocessed so it’s high in nutrients and fiber. Because the ingredients are a part of a fish’s natural diet, it is readily accepted by most aquarium fish. Frozen food is also relatively safe to eat though it’s not 100% free from pathogens. The only downside to frozen fish food is you can’t use it as your pet’s main food. This type of fish food is best used as alternative foods to pellets or flake fish food.

You can get frozen fish food from your local pet store. This fish food is typically made from zooplankton or whole fish. Some pet stores offer customized food combinations as well as added greens. Seafood fit for human consumption may be used as an ingredient for frozen fish food too.

Feeder fish

Some fish are natural predators in the wild. They hunt smaller fish to live. Feeder fish is served as food for predatory fish. Unfortunately, most fish owners do not use feeder fish because these fishes are reared in cramped, squalid conditions. They could carry parasites and diseases that could harm the other fish. Some feeder fish are overly fat that they do more harm than good. Overtime, predatory fish that eats fatty feeder fish will suffer from organ damage because of its thiaminase content.

Live Food

Live food – such as worms, insect larvae, earthworms, and river shrimps – makes an ideal food for the fish but at a cost. Some live food carries pathogens and microbes that could harm the fish. Live food is also deemed as inconvenient by most fish keepers because they move all over the place. But if you must use live food, we recommend brine shrimp because it’s the safest among all other live foods. But don’t use brine shrimps as the main food source for your pets because they are not as nutrient-dense as other live foods.

Aquatic Plants

Aquatic plants like algae can be used as fish food too. Green vegetables like iceberg lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, and peas may be used to feed herbivorous fish. Of course, you have to process the vegetables before feeding it to your pets. Just slice the vegetables up or shred them finely and sprinkle a little bit in the aquarium. Don’t go overboard or the aquarium water will become dirty, fast!