Feeding Frenzy: Supplementing Frozen Foods in your Fishes' Diets.

The number one ingredient most people feed their fish is fish meal. This is only because fish meal is the number one ingredient in most fish foods. This is primarily because of the ease of processing and inexpensive sourcing of fish meal. However, the harvesting of fish meal is responsible for massive ecosystem and fisheries destruction.

The second ingredient is usually some kind of filler like wheat flour or barley. These are a poor sources of carbohydrates and only useful as roughage for herbivores like goldfish and koi. Some of the higher quality dry foods use whole ingredients like whole krill, shrimp or salmon and even add vitamins and minerals. These are great options and should be used several times a week.

High quality flakes, granules, pellets, and wafers are easy methods for feeding your fish, but so are whole, frozen options and they should be supplemented often. Frozen foods are cleaner, healthier, and closer to your fishes' natural diet. Let's break down what is in most common dry foods, higher quality dry foods, and frozen foods so you can make the most educated decision on how to customize your aquarium's diet to achieve the healthiest specimens possible.

Nutrition = Energy

Fish need protein, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals to thrive. Cheap dry foods have little to none or poor sources of these nutrients. So lets stop feeding cheap dry-foods right now.

The first two ingredients are trash. Even though fish meal is an excellent source of protein, there are other options that include every vitamin enriched part of the animal, not just the blend of viscera (guts) called "meal".

Wheat flour can be good for the digestion of a few species, but the vast majority don't need it, and it's a poor source of carbohydrates anyway. Finally, common dry foods rarely include added vitamins and minerals which are responsible for a fish's every metabolic function, not to mention their color.

High Quality Dry Fish Food

Dry food is convenient and there are plenty of good quality. Luckily, companies are producing dry foods of higher quality all the time. When shopping for dry food always check the ingredient list and the nutrient analysis. Here is what to look for in order:

1. Whole protein sources such as shrimp, krill, fish, mussels, brine shrimp, scallops, roe (fish eggs)

2. Whole carbohydrate sources such as spirulina, kelp, chlorella algae, ulva seaweed, rice starch

3. Additional nutrients like garlic, fish oil, beta carotene, vitamins a, b, c, d, e, k, and trace elements and minerals like potassium, magnesium, strontium, iron and zinc.

You will most likely still find wheat flour on the label, just remember the farther down the list it appears, the better.

Cheap dry foods are not ideal, but even the best brands still have some fillers, so now what? The best option by far is to supplement your fishes' diets with frozen foods.

A lot of aquarists will make their own foods from fresh ingredients and freeze it for a truly customized diet. For now, lets focus on which pre-prepared frozen foods to supplement and when.

Feeding Schedule

For freshwater and saltwater tropical community tanks you most likely have top, middle and bottom feeders. Amongst them are probably omnivores, herbivores and maybe strict carnivores.

Most fish benefit from eating every day. Fast moving fish with high metabolisms or fish that graze on plant material should eat multiple times throughout the day.

The saltwater fish, Anthias, for example, need to be fed throughout the day, every day. This is how they eat in the wild and its the only way they will acquire the level of nutrition and energy they need.

There is no right or wrong answer to how often to feed frozen vs dry foods. It depends on the type of fish you have and the type of frozen food your feeding.

If you are feeding a single ingredient frozen food like blood worms or mysis shrimp, then a few times a weeks is fine to supplement a high-quality dry food.

If you are feeding a blended frozen food with multiple ingredients, then you can feed every day, in addition to a smaller amount of dry food.

An example of a typical feeding schedule may look as follows. In a seven day week, feed a blended frozen food every day in the morning, skipping two non-consecutive days, and high-quality dry food every day in the evenings. Feed your grazers every day with dry spirulina or nori sheets (saltwater) or fresh cucumber or dried kale (freshwater). Spot, or hand feed your most active fish every day with their favorite food.

Frozen Fish Foods

When its time to feed frozen foods, there are tons of options.

Single Ingredient

For freshwater insectivores (most small tetras, bettas, barbs, etc.) I would recommend daphnia, brine shrimp, or bloodworms. For freshwater and saltwater carnivores I would feed whole shrimp, krill, sardines, mysis shrimp, and cyclops depending on the size of the fish. Be careful if you use shrimp or fish intended for human consumption. There is a chemical preservative in whole shrimp that is not safe for fish and coral, but can be leached out by soaking in RODI water. It is best to buy whole frozen foods intended for aquarium use.

Multi-Ingredient

In addition to these single ingredient frozen foods, there are dozens of varieties of frozen fish food blends. My favorites being Rod's, LRS Foods, Ocean Nutrition, and Piscine Energetics for saltwater, and Hikari and San Francisco Bay for freshwater. These blends achieve the same level of ingredient diversity as dry foods and are much cleaner.

Do your Research

When done properly, your fish will receive all the nutrition they need to thrive with vibrant color and healthy immune systems. The key is to determine what your fish eat and how often, then provide the closest whole ingredient source. Insectivores eat insects, piscivorous eat fish, herbivores eat plants, etc.

In the end feeding a customized diet can be as simple or as involved as you like. You can feed all your fishes' preferred foods separately, or you mix them together in a slurry and feed all at once. Your fish and invertebrates will be healthier, happier, more vibrant and active, and behave more naturally.

Photos

• Boodleshire LLC 2022

• mysis.com

• brineshrimpdirect.com