What you need to know about selecting and feeding Tropical Fish Foods

Your fish need to eat to survive. But, in order to thrive, have beautiful colors, and be healthy - like us they need to maintain certain nutritional requirements.

Fortunately, it is easy for you maintain that balanced diet your fish need. Manufacturers in the pet industry have responded to our busy lifestyles and have developed many special types of Tropical Fish Food formulae that are designed to meet the needs of your specific fish.

To fully understand the nutritional requirements of your fish you must first begin by looking at the types of fish you are keeping. All fish can be classified into three main broad categories:

CARNIVORES: They are meat lovers, and are a good choice for you if you want a planted aquarium. They will not attack or chew away at your flora. However, you may notice from time to time smaller, defenseless fish disappearing from your aquarium. That’s because carnivores are meat lovers and may occasionally treat themselves to one of your smaller fishes.

Recommended Tropical Fish Foods For Carnivores Include:

Among the Tropical Fish Foods we sell here at Mail Order Pet Supplies that are specifically designed to meet the needs of your carnivore are:

HERBIVORES: Are the human equivalent of "Vegetarians" and love to graze on your plants and foliage. If you plan on keeping lots of herbivores you better forget about planting your tank. You’ll be more than disappointed to awake in the morning only to find your flourishing aquatic garden eaten by your fishes. Fortunately, we carry a wide selection of plastic and synthetic plants to simplify your life and enable you to enjoy the beauty of real flora.

One good thing about herbivores is that they also enjoy snacking on algae, and will help keep your tank algae free.

Recommended Tropical Fish Foods for Herbivores include:

OMNIVORES: Are a fun and easy kind of fish to feed and care because they eat practically anything. The trouble with omnivores is that eating "practically anything" sometimes will include plants and small fish in your tank. And, because they like to eat you may have a tendency to overfeed, as they will continue eating as long as you continue to feed.

The thing to remember about feeding fish is that because water is buoyant swimming requires very little effort, and they don’t have to stand or walk, they just float around the aquarium. Like if you and I were floating around a swimming pool, it’s very relaxing and doesn’t require much effort. Therefore fish require very little food, their stomachs are small and you must be careful not to overfeed them. Excess food in the aquarium will turn it into a toxic waste dump.

A good rule of thumb for feeding your fish is to only feed as much as they can eat in three to five minutes twice a day. However, this rule of thumb was developed before there were advances in technology. Today, we have automatic fish feeders like the one manufactured by Rainbow Lifegards, that will feed your fish up to as many as four times per day automatically. They aren’t just for when you go on vacation, they actually make your fish healthier with smaller more frequent feedings while you are at work and at times when you can’t.

The recommended Tropical Fish Food for omnivores is a combination of the herbivore and carnivore diets.