Different Sinking FISH FOOD for DISCUS

Aquarium - Dried foods for fishes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Beautiful and bright colored discus fish are very popular among novice as well as expert fish breeders. Both cultivated and local varieties of the fish are in great demand everywhere. They are also very easy to maintain, however like any other pet in your home the right discus food diet plays an important role in the well-being of the fish.

There are different types of discus fish foods, which mainly contains three categories:

Dry food, frozen food and live discus food. These can be further classified as sinking food, slow sinking food and floating fish food. Since discus, fish are mostly mid-water feeders slow sinking fish food for discus is most preferred.

Different types of sinking fish food for discus are:

Flakes: Flakes come under the category of top floating food but if you pinch them a big before feeding they sink down.

Pellets: Small and mostly round shaped, pellets are both sinking and floating. Giving dry pellets to fish can cause them to bloat, therefore, soak them in water for a little while before feeding.

Granules: These are smaller forms of pellets are can be fed in the same way you feed the pellets.

Wafers and tablets: These are one of the most popular forms of sinking fish food for discus. They have a very well balanced ingredient content. Although they sink rapidly but since they are small enough to be eaten in one bite the fish eat them up quickly. Also, they don't cloud the water.

Gels: These are preprocessed slow sinking food for fish. These then being thawed, then mixed with homemade food or other frozen food and then frozen again to feed the fish. They can be used to give your fish a varied diet.

Slow sinking discus fish food is preferred because then the fish can reach it easily. If the fish sinks too fast then they will not be able to reach it and it will rot in the bottom and can harm the fish. Discus fish follow a routine and therefore you have to keep in mind to feed them at fixed times every day.

Also, since discus fish like to follow a routine, therefore, feed them at regular intervals and give small feedings at a time. They like to eat frequently and hence if you give them to feed only once or twice a day, it will go waste and the fish will starve. Any variation from the routine will make them confused and disrupt their system.

By Harry Koots - Article Source: EzineArticles

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What to Feed SALTWATER Fish Aquariums

Anyone who has ever had a pet knows that one of the first things a responsible pet owner does is make sure their pet has a balanced diet. They know that the healthy their pets eat, the more likely they are to lead long and healthy lives. Fish kept in saltwater fish aquariums are exactly the same. The responsible saltwater aquarium owner knows exactly what types of food his fish needs to survive and makes sure they keep a ready supply of it on hand.

A dragon wrasse, Novaculichthys taeniourus is being cleaned by Rainbow cleaner wrasses, Labroides phthirophagus
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The first thing you need to know about feeding tropical fish is how much food they should be getting. The general rule of thumb is that when you feed your fish use a stopwatch and time how long it takes them to eat. It should take approximently two minutes for the fish to finish eating. If the fish in your tank finish their food in less then two minutes they probably aren't getting enough to eat. If after two minutes there is still food left over then they are probably getting over fed and you'll have to cut back. A more accurate way of measuring how much food that fifty adult tropical fish should eat approximately ten grams of food in one month, but that can carry with variety and growth.

A balanced fish food typically consists of ten percent fat, thirty to thirty-six percent protein. There should also be amino acids.

The first step in feeding your fish responsibly is knowing what type of food they eat. Some fish can not be kept in a tank that has coral because they like to eat the little invertebrates that make the coral their home. Predatory fish typically need to have frozen or live food. Bottom dwelling fish should be fed a type of food that is heavy enough to sink to the bottom of the tank, these fish do not do well with fish foods that float on the tanks surface. Aquarium owners who are interested in breeding their tropical fish often feed their fish brine shrimp, which they raise in their own brine shrimp hatchery.

Many saltwater fish aquariums caretakers like using automatic fish food feeders. Automatic fish food feeders are feeders that can be clamped to the side of the aquarium. Once the fish owner has loaded the hopper with food, the feeder will automatically dispense the food at regular intervals, this allows the fish owner to have more flexibility and not be forced to arrange their schedules around feeding their fish. The average automatic fish food feeder is not capable of dispensing frozen or live food, which does make them convenient for predatory fish. Some absentee fish owners place food blocks in their aquariums.

Tropical fish owners should store their extra fish food in a cool dry place in containers that won't allow moisture to seep in. Frozen fish food should be disposed of after three months.

One of the dangers in overfeeding fish is that the wasted food can wreck havoc on the pH levels of your aquariums water. If to much discarded food is contaminating the water it can contribute to the death of your fish.

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Aquarium FISH FOOD Tips

A balanced diet for your aquarium fish is essential to thier survival. Most of the commercially available dry fish foods are almost always unbalanced. In many cases, the vitamin content will gradually decline at room temperature and since majority of the dry food for tropical fish commonly used will only keep for about three months, it is always advisable to buy fish-feeds in many small packs rather than in one large pack. 

Aquarium - Dried foods for fishes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The feed could preferably be kept absolutely dry in a refrigerator. However, all fish appreciate a change of diet and will thank you for your consideration with more interesting behavior, better colours, and greater readiness to breed and better general well -being. This change of diet should be supplemented with live food; majority of which now come in irradiated freeze dried forms to make sure that they are disease free. 

I will mention a few that could be found handy in some major aquarium shops and I will group them into two. And they are flake foods and freeze-dried foods 

Flake foods 

Most popular and highly recommended brands are Aquarian®, Tetra®, and Wardley®. They are varying in cost and quality. Wardley is the least expensive among the three. However, the Aquarian and Tetra are richer in specialty flakes compare to Wardley. 

Freeze-dried foods 

You will also find freeze-dried foods available in aquarium stores. They are favorite foods for aquarium fish. They have single animal-ingredient like mosquito larvae, blood worms and Tubifex worm each. Aquarist should note that freeze-foods are not in themselves complete diet but they can be combine to flake food or other type of freeze-dried foods. We shall discuss more about Tubifex as a popular freeze-dried food. 

TUBIFEX - This is a traditional favorite food relished by most fishes. They are small red worms that live at the bottom of streams and rivers particularly where large amounts of organic matter are present. Therefore, it is difficult for the aquarist to collect them life from their habitat. It is therefore preferable to buy Tubifex from pet shops where they are already clean, freeze-dried and concentrated into cube forms. 

From personal experience, Tubifex tubes could probably be the most exciting feed to use for fishes. The cube can be stuck to the front inside wall of the aquarium. The fishes in the tank will immediately come forward and bit off pieces of worms excitedly until satisfied. 

You need not bother to remove the rest worms since they seldom pollute and in most case fishes return to the feed for further fill.

Feeding Tips for DISCUS FISH

Discus fish have a reputation of being difficult to look after. They can be creatures of habit and don't tolerate change well. However anybody can keep or breed them as long as they are equipped with the right knowledge.

Live brine shrimps (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feeding Discus Fish can be quite a challenge. They have no unique nutritional needs and can be raised on most high-protein fish food. However, their cautious nature and reluctance to adapt to new foods and surroundings can create problems.

They have been known to go for weeks without eating before trying and accepting a new type of food.

After about a month they will begin to accept new foods you need to bear in mind the starvation period could slow or stunt the growth of young discus.

It's a good idea to ask the breeder/owner what type of food they are use too and what exactly have they been feeding them. This will help the discus settle in a lot more quickly in there new home.

You can introduce new food at a later time it's a good idea to slowly mix in the new food with the old food and over a period of time increase dosage of the new food until they grow accustomed to the new diet.

If you are breading and have babies you should start feeding the babies while they are on the parents. This is important in means of helping the parents and getting the babies used to the foods you will give in the future.

My recommendations: Start feeding them with live bbs (baby brine shrimp) on 3rd day of free-swimming. During 10th day, start giving some dry food little by little.

Discus fish do not like new foods and surroundings at the same time, remember discus to not like sudden change slowly is the best way.

Keeping &Breeding Discus Fish Guide Article Directory: EzineArticles

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