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.
351 answers in Feeding & Nutrition — page 12 of 15
Feed zebra danios twice a day, in amounts the whole racing shoal clears within a couple of minutes. Few common fish burn energy like danios — they are in near-constant motion, holding station in current and chasing each other through the top of the tank — so their fast metabolism suits two regular meals better than…
Feed a pearl gourami once or twice a day, offering food that floats or sinks slowly at the surface and mid-water where this unhurried fish likes to take it. Pearls are deliberate, somewhat shy feeders, so the real skill is making sure the ration reaches them before bolder tankmates clear it: feed at a quiet end of the…
Feed neon tetras twice a day, in tiny amounts they can finish in about a minute of active feeding — their mouths are so small that food size matters as much as frequency. Crush flake finely or use micro granules, because a neon will ignore or mouth-and-spit anything it cannot swallow whole, and scatter the pinch so…
Feed kuhli loaches once a day, after the tank lights go out — timing matters more for this fish than the amount on the packet. Kuhlis are nocturnal scavengers that spend the day hidden in substrate and plant tangles, so a daytime feed is eaten entirely by their tankmates while the loaches sleep through it. Drop…
Feed harlequin rasboras twice a day, in small amounts matched to their small, slightly upturned mouths and their habit of taking food at the surface and in mid-water. Anything that sinks straight past them is effectively never fed, so use fine flake, crushed lightly, or slow-sinking micro food, and scatter the feed so…
Feed adult guppies once or twice a day, in portions small enough to disappear quickly — their stomach is roughly the size of their eye, however hard they beg at the glass. Guppies are champion actors when it comes to hunger, and a tank fed by several soft-hearted people can be overfed three times over by lunchtime.…
Feed your corydoras a dedicated meal once or twice a day — food that actually reaches the bottom, served as the lights dim when the shoal wakes up and starts working the substrate. Corydoras cannot live on leftovers, whatever their cleanup-crew reputation says: in a community tank the flakes and pellets meant for them…
Feed cherry barbs twice a day, in amounts small enough for the whole shoal to finish within a couple of minutes. These are active little cyprinids with small stomachs, built for picking at tiny food items through the day rather than one heavy meal, so two modest feeds suit them far better than a single large one.…
Feed your bristlenose pleco one proper meal a day, in the evening, once the tank lights dim and the fish comes out to forage in earnest. Through the day it already grazes algae and biofilm off glass, leaves, and wood, so the evening feed is a top-up with substance: a sinking algae wafer or pellet, plus blanched…
Feed adult angelfish once or twice a day — two modest meals suit most community tanks — while fast-growing juveniles do better on three smaller feeds spread through the day. Whatever the schedule, keep each meal to the amount cleared in about two minutes, and let one lighter day a week do no harm at all. Consistency…
Feed zebra danios a small pinch of fine flake or micro pellets that the school demolishes in about a minute — and expect that minute to be frantic, because danios are fast, greedy surface feeders with high energy needs. Small meals twice a day suit their pace better than one, and the food must be fine enough for their…
Feed a pearl gourami small floating meals it takes calmly from the surface in about two minutes — a modest pinch of small floating pellets or flake, spread along the surface so this shy fish can feed without competing. Pearl gouramis are labyrinth fish that eat at the top, in unhurried mouthfuls, and they lose out in…
Feed kuhli loaches after the lights go out: a small amount of sinking micro pellets, a crumbled wafer section, or a few bloodworms per group, placed right beside their hiding spots. Daytime feeding rarely reaches kuhlis — faster fish take everything while the loaches stay buried in cover — so the amount that matters…
Feed a school of harlequin rasboras a small pinch of micro pellets or finely crushed flake, scattered wide so every fish in the school feeds, and size it to disappear in about two minutes. Individual rasboras eat very little, but a proper school of eight or more empties a surprising amount between them, so judge the…
Feed guppies a tiny pinch of crushed flake or micro pellets that the group finishes in about a minute — erring small, twice a day, suits them far better than one big feed. An adult guppy's stomach is minute, and a pinch that looks trivial to you is a full meal spread across a shoal. Crush food small enough for the…
Feed a goldfish small meals it finishes in about a minute — for a single adult, a few pre-soaked pellets or a modest pinch of flake — and prefer two or three of those small meals over one large one. Goldfish have no true stomach, so little and often suits their digestion far better than a single big feed. Soaking…
Feed a group of corydoras one sinking pellet or wafer portion per few fish — about one small sinking pellet per two or three cories — placed on the bottom where the group rests, and judge the meal by what reaches them, not by what you dropped in. Surface fish take their share first, so cory food has to be food that…
One bristlenose pleco needs roughly one algae wafer or a generous slice of blanched zucchini per feeding, offered in the evening as the lights go down, on top of whatever algae it grazes during the day. Tank algae alone is not a full diet for a bristlenose — a growing juvenile especially needs that deliberate meal…
A betta's stomach is roughly the size of its eye, so one meal is just a few pellets — typically three or four betta pellets, or the flake equivalent — and many keepers split that into two small meals a day. Soak dry pellets briefly in tank water before offering them, since they swell and a dry-fed betta can end up…
Feed an adult angelfish only what the whole group finishes in about two minutes — for one adult that is a modest pinch of quality flake or a small cluster of pellets, offered once or twice a day. Angelfish are cichlids that beg convincingly and keep eating past full, so the two-minute rule matters more than any…
Write the instructions as exact portions, not descriptions: before you leave, measure each tank's meal into its own small labeled container, one per day, so the sitter only ever tips in what you already measured. Under each portion write the time it goes in, matched to when your lights come on, and add one blunt line…
Set an automatic feeder up like equipment you trust: mount it on the rim with its outlet over open water, away from condensation and filter splash, then calibrate it over paper before it ever feeds the tank. Run it for days on the paper, comparing each portion, because feeders are generous or stingy by model and food…
A balanced week is built on a staple and rotated around it: a flake or pellet as the base most days, a day or two of thawed frozen food, a vegetable day for herbivores and grazers, and sinking wafers on set nights for bottom feeders. Match the day's food to the mouths: micro pellets or crushed flake for tiny tetras,…
Bottom feeders get enough only when food is sent to the bottom on purpose, because the crumbs that drift down from a surface feed are leftovers, not a diet. Give corydoras, loaches and their kind sinking pellets or wafers, dropped in their area of the tank, and time one feed for after lights-out, when bottom dwellers…
Can't find your question? Ask it here. We answer reader questions in KinsLe Answers — and we'll email you when yours is published.
KinsLe is launching soon — and the waitlist hears the date first. Join for launch updates and first access when the app opens.
We email you about the launch. Unsubscribe anytime.