Feeding Marine Tropical Fishes

Feeding marine tropical fishes can be easy depending on the types of fishes that you keep. Several species will eat flakes and frozen foods, such as damselfish, clownfish, wrasses, surgeon fish and some varieties of angelfish. Sometimes they are eating these foods at the pet shop. If they are not, here are some suggestions.

First of all, make sure the fish you are buying is eating something that you can obtain, such as live brine shrimp or live tubifex worms. If the fish will not eat at the pet shop do not buy the fish. Lack of appetite may signal illness or injury.

Next, feed lightly once or twice daily whatever the fish likes. Overfeeding is one of the main causes of tank problems such as high ammonia and nitrite levels.

After a week, you may want to introduce a new food to the new fish. For example, if you were feeding live brine shrimp you may want to try some frozen brine shrimp. Put a few thawed frozen brine shrimp in the tank and watch if the fish eats them. If you have any vitamin drips, it is a good idea to put a few drops on the frozen food as the drops enhance the appetite of the fish. If the fish eats the frozen shrimp add a few more. If the fish won't eat the frozen food go back to the live food for a few more days. In time, the fish will eat the frozen food. After the fish is eating frozen brine shrimp it is time to introduce some of the many other frozen foods. As before, introduce some of the many other frozen foods: introduce a new food once a week with a few vitamin drops added. Some of my fish's favorites are Prime Reef, Angel Formula, Silversides and bloodworms.

Introducing flake food can be done after a few weeks and should only substitute one of two feeding for a balanced diet. I have had good results with O.S.I. Marine Flake and Wardley's Spirulina Flake, but there are many other good flake foods on the market that you might like to try.

If you are in for a challenge, there are many butterfly fish that can be encouraged to feed on frozen foods, but they may take longer to adapt than the species I mentioned above. For butterfly fish I feed them a few live tubifex worms from a baster. After a week, I substituted frozen blood worms with a few vitamin drops added in the baster. If they eat the frozen worms then I follow the same schedule as above. If they don't, I continue to feed live worms for another week and then try again. I have had great success with Saddleback, Florida Common, Vagabond, and Banded Butterfly fish. I have even had success with a jackknife fish which can be more difficult than butterfly fish to feed.

One last point to remember is to feed a variety of foods once the fish are eating. Somebody once told me not to feed the same frozen food because its like feeding your family spaghetti every night. Fish like a variety and they get a balanced diet from a variety of frozen foods.