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 3 of 15
A young goldfish needs two or three small protein-forward meals a day to grow steadily, an adult does best on one or two measured meals with plenty of plant matter, and a senior needs smaller, soft, pre-soaked portions that are easy to digest. Goldfish have no true stomach and pass food quickly, so small and frequent…
Young corydoras catfish need small amounts of fine sinking food two or three times a day while they grow, adults do well on one main bottom feeding a day, and seniors need softer food placed where they rest so they are not outcompeted. At every stage the food must actually reach the bottom and stay in front of these…
Young cherry shrimp graze almost constantly on biofilm and need only tiny supplemental crumbs, adult colonies do well with a small measured feeding every day or two, and older shrimp rely more on soft biofilm and easily reached food than on large meals. The real portion control for cherry shrimp is how much uneaten…
A young betta needs three or four tiny protein-rich meals a day while its fins and body are developing, an adult thrives on two small measured meals, and a senior does best with one or two softer, easily reached portions. The stomach of a betta is roughly the size of its eye at every age, so portions stay small…
A young angelfish needs several small protein-rich meals a day to fuel rapid fin and body growth, while an adult does best on two measured meals and a senior on smaller, softer, easily taken portions offered once or twice daily. The pattern to follow is frequent and generous in youth, steady and restrained in…
A white cloud mountain minnow takes to new food best when the change is made in very small mixed steps over a week or more, with every piece crushed fine enough for its tiny mouth. Begin with mostly the familiar food, add a little of the new, and raise the share only while the whole school is still feeding boldly and…
A guppy moves onto new food best over about a week, starting with mostly the familiar flakes or micro-pellets and a small pinch of the new food mixed in, then shifting the balance a little more every couple of days. Feed tiny amounts the fish clear in a minute or two, because uneaten new food fouls the water and can…
Move a goldfish onto a new diet by blending the foods: serve mostly the old flakes or pellets with a small share of the new food mixed in, then shift the proportions every few days until the new food stands alone after roughly two weeks. Soak any new dry pellets briefly so they sink and soften, since a goldfish…
Move corydoras onto a new diet by feeding the old and new sinking foods side by side in the group's usual spot, then shifting the balance over one to two weeks until the new food makes up the whole ration. Drop the food after lights dim so the corys feed without surface fish stealing the lesson, and judge acceptance…
Move cherry shrimp onto a new diet by alternating rather than replacing: offer the familiar food on one feeding day and a small piece of the new food on the next, shrinking the old food's share over a couple of weeks while the colony learns the new offering. Cherry shrimp graze biofilm constantly, so they will not go…
Move a betta onto a new diet by swapping a little at a time: offer mostly the familiar pellets with a few of the new ones mixed in, then shift the balance over a week or more until the new food stands alone. Feed one pellet at a time so you can see the new food actually being eaten rather than spat out and sunk, and…
You are feeding zebra danios too much when food is still drifting after two minutes of their frantic surface feeding, when the whole school thickens through the back, and when flake keeps turning up in the gravel during siphoning. Danios are fast, greedy eaters that will out-swim calmer tankmates to every morsel, so…
You are feeding guppies too much when crushed flake still drifts after a minute or two of feeding, when males develop round pot bellies, and when the water in a small guppy tank turns hazy or testy within days of a change. A guppy's stomach is tiny and its metabolism quick, so it does better on very small meals than…
You are feeding a goldfish too much when flakes or pellets are still drifting after two or three minutes of eating, when long pale trails of waste hang from the fish, and when the water clouds or the filter clogs far sooner than it used to. Goldfish beg constantly and will eat at every visit to the glass, but they…
You are feeding corydoras catfish too much when sinking pellets or wafers are still sitting on the substrate an hour after lights-out feeding, when a grey fuzz grows over leftovers in the sand, and when your corys grow broad and sluggish rather than busy. Corydoras should spend their evenings snuffling through the top…
You are feeding a bristlenose pleco too much when algae wafers sit half-eaten and fuzzy by morning, when slices of courgette or other vegetables come out untouched and slimy, and when long strands of waste trail from the fish or carpet the substrate. A bristlenose grazes algae and biofilm all day, so prepared food is…
You are feeding a betta too much when pellets sit uneaten on the surface or sink and soften on the gravel, when his belly stays rounded long after a meal instead of gently tapering, and when the water clouds or grows a film faster than it used to. A betta's stomach is roughly the size of his eye, so a meal is only a…
Never share bread, chips, processed meat, cheese, chocolate, spicy food, or anything with onion or garlic with a zebra danio, even though this active fish will eagerly mouth almost anything that hits the water. That enthusiasm is the risk: danios overeat, scatter crumbs through the tank, and leave rich waste behind.…
Never share bread, crackers, processed meat, cheese, salty snacks, chocolate, or seasoned food containing onion or garlic with a threadfin rainbowfish, because this delicate species has a very small throat and long, fragile fins that suffer quickly in fouled water. Even soft crumbs can be too large, break apart around…
Never share bread, fatty meat, cheese, chips, chocolate, spicy food, or anything containing onion or garlic with a rummy-nose tetra, because this tiny schooling fish needs clean water and foods that fit its very small mouth. A crumb that looks harmless can sink between gravel grains, rot unseen, and dull the bright…
Never share bread, processed meat, fried food, salty snacks, chocolate, onion, garlic, avocado, or dairy with a pearl gourami, because these foods foul the water, coat the surface, and are hard for this labyrinth fish to digest. Even a small crumb can swell, rot between plants, and leave an oily film that interferes…
Never share bread, cheese or dairy, processed or fatty meat, chocolate, onion, garlic, avocado, salty snacks, or seasoned leftovers with a kuhli loach. Kuhlis are shy, nocturnal scavengers that feed by smell after dark, so scraps dropped in by day rot in their hiding places before the fish emerge, and rich or salty…
Never share meat, cheese or dairy, bread, chocolate, onion, garlic, avocado, salty snacks, or seasoned scraps with a hillstream loach. This fish is a specialised algae grazer built for fast, cool, oxygen-rich water, with a gut made for constant thin grazing on biofilm — rich human food sits badly in it and decays in…
Never share bread crumbs, cheese or dairy, chocolate, onion, garlic, citrus, avocado, flakes of processed meat, or salty and sweet snacks with a harlequin rasbora. These small schooling fish feed on tiny insects and crustaceans in soft, leaf-stained water, so scraps are the wrong size and chemistry, and they break…
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