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 6 of 15
Feed a boesemani rainbowfish a quality small tropical pellet or crushed flake as its main everyday diet, sized for a mid-water mouth and offered in meals the school finishes quickly. Boesemanis are omnivores whose wild diet mixes insects and plant matter, so the staple should carry both protein and a plant component…
A yoyo loach eats almost anything it can find on the bottom: sinking wafers and pellets, frozen bloodworms and daphnia, blanched vegetables, and the small snails it famously crushes and extracts from their shells. It forages by digging its barbels into the substrate, so food needs to reach the floor rather than being…
A peacock cichlid eats a protein-leaning but plant-inclusive diet: a quality cichlid pellet as the base, supplemented with frozen mysis and krill, plus spirulina and softened vegetable matter to keep its digestion on track. These Lake Malawi cichlids sift and hunt small invertebrates in the wild, so variety matters…
A nerite snail eats algae and biofilm, grazing almost constantly across glass, wood, rock, and plant leaves, with a particular reputation for tackling hard green spot algae that many other grazers leave behind. In a mature tank that growth may be all it needs, but a spotless or newly set up aquarium can quietly starve…
A kribensis eats as an omnivore that works the lower half of the tank, picking at sinking pellets, softened vegetable matter, and small frozen or live foods such as daphnia and baby brine shrimp. Offer a small sinking staple as the base, then rotate the protein and green foods across the week instead of serving the…
A ghost shrimp eats almost any fine organic matter it can pick up: algae, biofilm, detritus, shed skins, leftover fish food, and soft decaying plant material, supplemented with sinking shrimp food, algae wafer fragments, and blanched vegetables. Offer those supplements in tiny amounts in a dish or sheltered corner,…
A firemouth cichlid eats an omnivorous mix of small sinking pellets or flake, thawed frozen foods like daphnia and brine shrimp, and regular vegetable matter such as algae wafer or blanched greens. Feed adults once or twice a day in modest portions, delivered low in the tank, because this relatively shy Central…
A discus eats a protein-rich, varied diet built on discus pellets or granules, supplemented with thawed frozen foods such as brine shrimp, mysis, and insect-larvae items, plus a little vegetable matter. Feed adults two or three small meals a day and juveniles more often, removing leftovers promptly, because discus…
A convict cichlid eats almost anything offered, thriving on a base of small cichlid pellets or flake plus regular plant matter and occasional frozen protein such as daphnia or brine shrimp. Feed adult convicts once or twice a day in portions finished within a couple of minutes, and lean into the vegetable side,…
A bamboo shrimp eats microscopic particles suspended in the water, sweeping fan-like hands through the current to trap phytoplankton, tiny organisms, and fine detritus, then licking the fans clean. In most aquariums that natural supply is thin, so supplement it with finely powdered shrimp food, crushed flake dust, or…
Feed yoyo loaches once or twice a day with food that actually reaches the bottom, making the main feeding a sinking one just before or after lights-out when these loaches are boldest. A small wafer, sinking pellets, or a portion of thawed frozen food dropped near their hiding places feeds the group far better than…
Feed adult peacock cichlids one or two small meals a day, each cleared in about a minute or two, and give growing juveniles two or three smaller feedings spread across the day. Keep the menu centred on cichlid pellets with spirulina and vegetable content rather than rich, fatty foods, because these Lake Malawi fish…
Feed a young, fast-growing oscar twice a day, an adult once a day or every other day, offering only what it can finish in about two minutes at each meal. Judge the portion against the fish itself rather than its enthusiasm, because oscars beg convincingly at the glass long after they have eaten enough, and excess food…
Most nerite snails need no scheduled feeding at all while your tank grows soft algae and biofilm, but in a spotless or newly set-up tank offer a small algae-based supplement two or three times a week. Place a wafer fragment or blanched vegetable piece right beside the snail in the evening, remove leftovers within a…
Kribensis do best on two small meals a day, each eaten within a couple of minutes, mixing a quality small pellet or flake with regular frozen or vegetable offerings. Feed at the cave end of the tank where a pair holds territory, and reduce the scatter if a male is driving tankmates away from the food, because…
Feed hillstream loaches a modest algae-based offering once a day, in the evening, while letting them graze natural biofilm and algae on rocks and glass the rest of the time. Put a small piece of algae wafer or a smear of gel food directly on a flat rock in their flow path, because these flat, shy loaches lose out…
Feed ghost shrimp a very small supplemental amount once a day, and skip a day whenever the tank still offers plenty of algae, biofilm, and leftover fish food for them to scavenge. Drop the food where the shrimp actually gather, in a calm corner or feeding dish, so faster fish do not eat everything before these slow,…
Feed Endler's livebearers once or twice a day in tiny amounts they finish within about a minute, because these small, busy fish have fast metabolisms but stomachs easily overloaded by generous pinches. Finely crushed flake, micro granules, and small live or thawed foods suit their mouths, and the fry that appear…
Feed adult discus two or three small meals a day and growing juveniles four or more, always in amounts the group finishes within a few minutes, because their warm water speeds digestion while punishing any leftovers. Offer a varied rotation of quality staple food and thawed protein-rich items, dropping it in a calm…
Feed adult convict cichlids once or twice a day with as much sinking food as they clear in about two minutes, because these hardy cichlids eat eagerly and will happily take far more than they need. A quality pellet sized to their mouths covers most meals, with softened vegetable matter and thawed foods rotated in,…
Feed a bamboo shrimp a small amount of finely powdered food once a day, or twice in a sparse, very clean tank, because this filter feeder eats particles drifting in the current rather than meals on the substrate. Dissolve crushed flake or powdered food in a little tank water and release the cloud just upstream of its…
Feed apistogrammas twice a day in small amounts they finish within a couple of minutes, favouring protein-rich foods that sink to the bottom territories where these dwarf cichlids actually live. A morning portion of fine sinking granules and an evening offering of thawed or live small foods suits most adults, with an…
Feed amano shrimp a dedicated supplement only every other day or a few times a week, because they spend the rest of their time grazing algae, biofilm, and detritus around the tank and rarely need a daily meal of their own. Offer a single small shrimp pellet, a piece of algae wafer, or a bit of softened vegetable per…
Threadfin rainbowfish need several very small meals a day, usually two or three, each made of fine floating food they can finish within about a minute, because their throats are remarkably narrow even for their size. Powdered or finely crushed food, tiny floating granules, and small live foods suit them, spread over…
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