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 2 of 15
Two tiny pinches, one before work and one when you get home, fit a guppy's small stomach and busy metabolism. Crumble flake or micro pellet finely, feed only what the group clears in a minute or two, and never leave a morning pile to dissolve through the day in warm water. If females are dropping fry, an extra small…
Two measured meals, morning and evening, work best for a goldfish whose owner is at work. Offer soaked sinking pellets before you leave and again when you return, each portion gone within a couple of minutes, and add a plant grazing item like a clipped leaf on some days to fill the gap naturally. Do not leave a day's…
Feed a corydoras group twice around your workday, with the bigger meal in the evening. A small sinking portion before you leave keeps the day ticking over, but corydoras forage most actively as light fades, so the main wafer or pellet serving should land on the substrate when you get home. Never rely on food dropped…
Cherry shrimp make a working owner's schedule easy, because they graze all day on biofilm and algae rather than waiting for meals. Drop one small portion of shrimp food in the morning before you leave, on only some days of the week, and remove anything still untouched after a few hours in the evening. In a mature…
A morning-and-evening split suits a working owner's betta best. Feed a few soaked pellets just after the tank light comes on, before you leave, then a second small meal when you get home, rather than dumping the whole day's food in one sitting. A betta's stomach is tiny, and one large morning meal mostly becomes waste…
No, not as his diet. A guppy is a tiny surface-feeding omnivore, and food made for dogs, cats, reptiles, or birds is far too rich, too large, and too fast to rot in a small warm tank. He will dart at crumbs out of instinct, but that enthusiasm hides the real costs: fouled water, missed vegetable matter, and pieces he…
No, not as a regular food. A goldfish is a plant-leaning omnivore with a long gut built for grazing, so rich dog or cat food, fatty reptile pellets, and even protein-heavy tropical flakes give him the wrong balance and foul his water as they break down. A single stolen flake will not poison him, but weeks of the wrong…
No, food made for other kinds of pets is not a safe choice for a corydoras catfish, even though corys will eagerly investigate almost anything that lands on the substrate. A corydoras is a small armored omnivore that needs modest sinking pellets or wafers it can mouth safely, while dog and cat foods are too rich, too…
No, it is not safe to feed a betta food made for other kinds of pets as anything more than a rare accidental nibble. A betta is a small carnivore built for insect-based, high-protein food in tiny pellets, while dog and cat foods carry fats, fillers and piece sizes its short gut handles badly, and even goldfish food is…
Store a white cloud mountain minnow's food in a sealed airtight container in a cool, dry place, matching the cool conditions these little fish themselves prefer. Their micro-pellets and fine flakes cake quickly if the pot lives above the tank or near a heater, so use a dry scoop, close the lid at once, and keep a…
Store a guppy's food in a tiny airtight pot in a dry cupboard, because guppy flakes and micro-pellets are used a pinch at a time and stale faster than almost any fish food. Keep the main container sealed as a reserve, refill the small pot only when it is empty and dry, and never leave the pot open on the warm lid of…
Store a goldfish's food in a sealed main tub in a cool, dry cupboard, and decant a week's worth into a small airtight pot for daily feeding. Goldfish food is served twice a day, so the container is opened constantly, and decanting keeps the bulk of the pellets or flakes from going stale in damp kitchen air. Keep both…
Store a corydoras catfish's food in airtight containers in a dry cupboard, because sinking pellets and wafers that absorb moisture swell, crumble and stop sinking properly. Keep the main tub sealed and a small weekly pot by the tank, always using a dry hand or scoop so tank water never gets into the corydoras food…
Store a cherry shrimp's food in small airtight containers in a cool, dry place, because shrimp foods are used in pinches and a big open tub goes stale long before it is finished. Keep powdered foods, pellets and wafers sealed separately, scoop with a completely dry spoon, and never store the containers on the damp…
Store a betta's food in its sealed original container or a small airtight jar, kept cool, dry and dark in a cupboard away from the warm, humid air above the tank. Betta pellets lose freshness quickly once damp, so take out a few days' worth at a time, close the lid immediately, and wash and dry hands or a scoop before…
An adult zebra danio usually needs one to two light meals a day, with two small feedings suiting its fast, active shoaling life best. A zebra danio burns energy constantly as it darts in the upper levels, but its stomach is tiny, so each meal should be finished within a minute or two and nothing should rain down…
An adult guppy usually needs two tiny meals a day, each small enough for the group to finish in about a minute. Guppies have small stomachs and quick metabolisms, so little and often suits an adult guppy far better than one heavy feeding that leaves flakes drifting into the plants. Crush food fine enough for their…
An adult goldfish usually needs two small meals a day, each eaten within a couple of minutes, though one modest meal can suit a slow, cool-water fish. Goldfish graze by instinct and will keep begging long after they have had enough, so the clock and the cleared food matter more than the performance at the glass.…
An adult corydoras catfish usually needs one main meal a day, with an optional tiny second feeding if the group is active and nothing is left uneaten. Because corydoras feed along the bottom, that meal should be sinking food dropped where they forage, ideally after faster tankmates have eaten so it actually reaches…
An adult bristlenose pleco usually needs one main feeding a day, offered in the evening when this nocturnal grazer becomes active, alongside the algae and biofilm it nibbles from the tank all day. That single deliberate meal — a sinking wafer, a piece of vegetable, or a similar portion — is enough because the pleco is…
An adult betta usually needs two small meals a day, each of only a few pellets or an equivalent tiny portion, spaced several hours apart. Two meals suit an adult betta because its stomach is very small, so a single large meal is mostly wasted while two little ones keep energy steady and water clean. Skip a meal…
An adult angelfish usually needs two meals a day, each about what it eats eagerly in two minutes, with the two feedings spaced across the daylight hours. This rhythm suits a fish that has finished growing and now needs steady maintenance energy without excess waste fouling its tall, deep tank. A single larger meal…
Young white cloud mountain minnows need several tiny meals of fine food each day, adults in a school do well on one or two small feedings, and senior minnows need finer, softer food scattered where they can take it without being jostled. Portions stay very small at every stage because these are little fish with little…
Young guppies and fry need several tiny meals a day of finely crushed food, adult guppies thrive on two small feedings, and senior guppies do best with smaller, softer portions offered where they can reach them without competing. Portions at every guppy stage are tiny — only what the fish clear in a minute or two —…
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