3,895 answers about fish & aquatics
A healthy aquarium is a balanced one — water chemistry, filtration, stocking and feeding all work together, and most fish problems start with the water. This page gathers the fish and aquatics library of KinsLe Answers in one place, organized by topic for freshwater and saltwater keepers alike. Every answer is original, written by KinsLe, and tied to a real KinsLe feature.
562 answers in Choosing & Adopting — page 13 of 24
A pearl gourami's day is slow and graceful: a morning surface feed of small floating food, long calm hours drifting among tall plants with those thread-like feelers exploring, and an evening check that the water surface is calm and the tankmates are peaceful. Gouramis breathe air at the surface and build their whole…
A kuhli loach day is inverted: by daylight your loaches are ribbons hidden in the plants and under wood, so the morning job is just confirming the tank is sealed and the water steady, while the real care happens after lights-out, when a sinking pellet or wafer goes in for the group to forage. Expect to see them draped…
A typical harlequin rasbora day is brief and peaceful: lights up on a school holding together in the mid-water, one or two pinches of small food they can take from the surface and upper levels, and a check that the school is schooling — a tight, calm group is the sign all is well. These are undemanding fish whose main…
A guppy day is bright and busy: lights on to a tank already in motion, a small morning feed of flake or micro-pellets, an evening feed, and a daily count that includes checking the plants and filter sponge for new fry, because guppies breed constantly. Males display all day, females graze, and your daily work is…
A goldfish day is hands-on for a fish: he will be at the glass begging the moment you walk past, gets two small meals he can finish in a couple of minutes, and needs a daily once-over of water clarity and filter flow, because goldfish produce heavy waste. Most of the day is his, spent rooting in the substrate and…
A typical corydoras day revolves around the bottom of the tank: a morning watch as the school wakes and starts sifting the sand, one or two small feedings of sinking food that actually reach them, and a check that no one is sitting alone or breathing hard at the surface. Corydoras are social, active foragers, so the…
A day with cherry shrimp is measured in minutes: a morning look for grazing shrimp, berried females, and tiny shrimplets on the glass, a pinch of food only every other day or so, and a check that the filter intake sponge is clear and the water level steady. These small red shrimp largely feed themselves on biofilm and…
A typical day with a bristlenose pleco is quiet and mostly observational: a morning glance to confirm he is tucked against his driftwood or cave, lights on a steady schedule, and the real feeding saved for the evening, when an algae wafer or a piece of blanched zucchini goes in as the tank winds down. Plecos graze and…
A betta's day is short and personal: a morning greeting at the glass — a healthy betta swims up expectantly — a temperature check on his warm water, and a small breakfast of a few betta pellets, about the size of his eye. Midday is for noticing: fins spread or clamped, a bubble nest under a leaf, energy normal. A…
A typical angelfish day starts with a lights-on check: temperature steady in its warm range, every fish upright and interested, fins unclamped. Then comes a morning feed of quality pellets or flake, a midday glance for bullying or a pair defending a corner, and an evening feed — frozen food a few evenings a week —…
Zebra danios are quick surface feeders built for catching insects, so their menu is small floating or slow-sinking food: crushed flake, micro pellets, daphnia, baby brine shrimp and mosquito larvae spread across the surface where the school can race for it. In the wild they work the upper layers of streams in northern…
Swordtails are hearty omnivores that do best on a vegetable-leaning flake or pellet staple, the algae they graze off plants and hardscape, and regular small helpings of protein such as brine shrimp, daphnia or bloodworms. Wild swordtails work Central American rivers for insects and plant matter alike, and their size…
A true siamese algae eater earns its keep on algae — including the stubborn black beard algae most fish refuse — plus hair algae and the soft growth on leaves and wood. That grazing is a job, not a complete diet, so supplement lightly with algae wafers, blanched zucchini and the odd sinking pellet, keeping rich foods…
Platies are omnivores that thrive on a quality flake or small pellet as the staple, with the algae they graze from leaves and glass filling the gaps between meals. Blanched peas, zucchini and soft vegetables support their plant-leaning digestion, and baby brine shrimp or daphnia make a protein treat a couple of times…
Pearl gouramis are surface-leaning omnivores that take small floating or slow-sinking pellets and flake, mosquito larvae, daphnia, brine shrimp and finely chopped soft vegetables. In the wild they cruise swampy, plant-choked water picking insects from the surface film, and those long thread-like feelers are tasting…
Otocinclus are specialist grazers whose real food is the soft algae and biofilm coating plants, wood and glass — in the wild they rasp this growth, called aufwuchs, off surfaces for most of the day. That means a brand-new, spotless tank can genuinely starve them, and even in a mature tank they need supplementing with…
Neon tetras are tiny insectivores with mouths to match, so everything on their menu has to be small: micro pellets, finely crushed flake, baby brine shrimp, daphnia and other foods that drift slowly through the middle of the water column where the school feeds. Wild neons pick insect larvae and minute crustaceans out…
Mystery snails eat soft algae, biofilm, dead plant leaves and leftover fish food, but that scavenging alone does not feed them — they also need deliberate meals. Offer blanched zucchini, green beans, kale or spinach, algae wafers and snail-formulated foods, plus a calcium source such as cuttlebone, because that…
Mollies are grazing omnivores with a strong vegetable lean, so their staple is a plant-based flake or small pellet, backed up by the algae and biofilm they pick at on rocks and leaves all day. Blanched peas, zucchini rounds and spirulina-rich foods suit their digestion, while baby brine shrimp or a few bloodworms…
Kuhli loaches are bottom-feeding scavengers, so their menu is whatever rich food reaches the substrate: sinking micro pellets and crushed wafers, frozen bloodworms and daphnia, baby brine shrimp, and blanched zucchini or other soft vegetables. Because they stir after dusk, drop their share in once the lights dim and…
Buy the life-support kit and leave the fish for last: a tank on a stand that takes its weight, a filter rated for the tank, a heater and a thermometer for tropical fish, a lid, a light, substrate, and water conditioner to make tap water safe. Add the maintenance set — a test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, a…
Harlequin rasboras are mid-water omnivores that hunt small insects, worms and crustaceans in their streams, and in an aquarium they need food sized for small mouths: crushed flake or micro pellets as the staple, with live or frozen daphnia, mosquito larvae and baby brine shrimp in rotation. Feed the school once or…
Guppies are omnivores that pick insects, larvae and algae from the surface and mid-water all day, and at home they thrive on a base of crushed quality flake or micro pellets with a vegetable element, plus baby brine shrimp, daphnia and finely chopped frozen foods for condition. Females carrying fry and growing…
Goldfish are grazing omnivores with no true stomach, built to process plant matter and invertebrates in frequent small passes, so their staple should be goldfish-specific sinking pellets or gel food, backed by blanched peas and leafy greens and the occasional bloodworm. Tropical flakes are a poor fit — they are…
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