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 4 of 15
Never share bread crumbs, cheese or dairy, chocolate, onion, garlic, citrus, avocado, processed meat, or sweet and salty snacks with a guppy. Guppies are tiny, constantly nibbling omnivores with small stomachs, and rich or seasoned scraps bloat them quickly while the leftovers foul the warm, busy tanks they live in.…
Never share bread, crackers, cheese or dairy, chocolate, onion, garlic, citrus, avocado, processed meat, or sugary and salty snacks with a goldfish. Goldfish will beg for and swallow almost anything, but they have no true stomach and a long gut easily upset by fatty, seasoned, or swelling starchy foods, and fancy…
Never share bread, cheese or dairy, bacon and processed meat, chocolate, onion, garlic, avocado, salty snacks, or seasoned leftovers with a corydoras catfish. Corydoras are often wrongly treated as a clean-up crew that can eat anything reaching the bottom, but they are insect-and-worm feeders whose delicate barbels…
Never share bread, cracker crumbs, cheese or dairy, flakes of processed meat, chocolate, onion, garlic, citrus, avocado, or salty and sweet snacks with a celestial pearl danio. These miniature fish have mouths too small for scraps and stomachs built for micro-prey, so human food either goes uneaten and rots in a nano…
Never share bread crumbs, cheese, processed or fatty meat, chocolate, onion, garlic, citrus, sweet or salty snacks, or any seasoned scrap with a bumblebee goby. This tiny brackish-water carnivore hunts small moving prey and usually ignores dead food entirely, so human scraps simply rot in a warm brackish tank while…
Never share meat, bacon or sausage, cheese and dairy, bread, chocolate, onion, garlic, avocado, salty snacks, or canned vegetables in brine with a bristlenose pleco. This is a rasping herbivore whose long gut handles wood fibre and vegetables, not animal fat, salt, or seasonings, and rich scraps foul the bottom where…
Never share bread, pasta, cheese or other dairy, fatty or processed meat, chocolate, onion, garlic, citrus, avocado, or salty and spiced snacks with a boesemani rainbowfish. These fish have narrow throats and an omnivore's gut built for insects and algae, so starchy lumps, fats, and seasonings risk choking, bloating,…
Never share bread, crackers, cheese or other dairy, chocolate, citrus fruit, onion, garlic, avocado, salty processed meat, or anything sweetened or spiced with a betta. A betta is a surface-feeding insect hunter with a small stomach, and these foods either swell, carry fats and seasonings it cannot handle, or rot in a…
Zebra danios do best with tiny live or frozen treats such as baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and grindal or microworms, plus an occasional small pinch of finely crumbled bloodworm. Offer treats two or three times a week, in place of — not on top of — a regular meal, and only as much as the whole school finishes in about a…
A scarlet badis suits live treats it can inspect and snap up, especially baby brine shrimp, small daphnia, grindal worms, and tiny mosquito larvae, because many individuals refuse dry food entirely. Offer a few pieces three or four times a week, pipetted beside each male's plant cluster so dominant fish do not take…
A rummy-nose tetra suits fine scattered treats such as daphnia, baby brine shrimp, and the smallest mosquito larvae that spread through the school's swimming lane. Offer them twice a week, thawed into a loose cloud in two small releases, so every fish in the tight formation gets single-bite pieces without leaving the…
A pearl gourami suits slow surface treats such as daphnia, mosquito larvae, and thawed brine shrimp released gently in its calm, planted corner of the tank. Offer them two or three times a week in small observable portions, scattering across two spots if a pair is kept so one fish does not monopolise the feed. This…
A kuhli loach suits sinking treats such as thawed bloodworm, daphnia, and baby brine shrimp pipetted onto the sand in front of its shelter after lights-out. Offer them two or three evenings a week in a small line the group clears within about twenty minutes, having fed the rest of the tank earlier elsewhere. Daylight…
A harlequin rasbora suits small slow-sinking treats such as daphnia, baby brine shrimp, and tiny mosquito larvae that the whole school can pick off together. Offer them twice a week, thawed and scattered in a wide arc so shy fish at the edge feed too, in an amount cleared within about three minutes. Pieces must stay…
A guppy suits tiny moving treats such as baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and small mosquito larvae taken at the surface, offered two or three times a week. Keep each portion small enough for the visible adults to clear almost immediately, because a breeding colony is always larger than it looks and overfeeding fouls its…
A goldfish suits fibre-rich treats such as blanched shelled peas, daphnia, thawed brine shrimp, and duckweed, offered two or three times a week instead of part of a normal meal. Serve everything soaked or blanched and drop it below the surface, because this greedy fish gulps air with floating dry food and will steal a…
A corydoras catfish suits sinking treats such as thawed bloodworm, daphnia, and baby brine shrimp placed directly on an open patch of sand where the shoal rests. Offer them two or three evenings a week, spread over a hand-sized area so every fish can sift shoulder to shoulder, and feed after the rest of the tank so…
A celestial pearl danio suits mouth-sized treats such as baby brine shrimp, the smallest daphnia, and young mosquito larvae, because it abandons anything it cannot swallow in one peck. Offer tiny amounts two or three times a week, scattered across several planted pockets so shy fish and smaller males are not shut out…
A bumblebee goby suits small moving foods it can strike from its perch, especially live baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and finely chopped thawed bloodworm. Offer a few pieces three or four times a week, pipetted low right in front of the fish, and watch until it actually swallows because bolder tankmates steal food meant…
A bristlenose pleco suits soft vegetables it can rasp overnight, especially blanched zucchini, sweet potato, and cucumber clipped beside its cave or driftwood. Offer a vegetable treat two or three nights a week, remove what is left in the morning, and keep rich meaty foods as only a rare extra for this mostly…
A boesemani rainbowfish suits small meaty treats such as thawed baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and mosquito larvae, with chopped bloodworm only now and then. Offer them two or three times a week in place of part of a meal, in an amount the school clears in about two minutes so nothing rots in the plants. Scatter the…
Good betta treats are small animal foods that echo its insect-hunting diet: frozen or live bloodworms, daphnia, mysis shrimp, and brine shrimp, offered in a portion of just a few pieces. Keep treats to once or twice a week in place of part of a regular meal, not on top of a full one, because bettas overeat eagerly and…
A white cloud mountain minnow's main everyday diet should be fine flake or micro pellets as the staple, regularly joined by small live or frozen foods like daphnia, baby brine shrimp, and mosquito larvae. These stream fish are unfussy omnivores that snatch insects at the surface and pick through the water column, so a…
A sparkling gourami's main everyday diet should combine finely crushed micro pellets or flake with small live and frozen foods such as baby brine shrimp, daphnia, and microworms. This little gourami is an insect-picker that feeds at the surface and among plants, so pieces must be tiny and the menu varied rather than a…
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