always looking for something new and different...

[Magnum Man]

right now, I'm bored with my fish foods... typically I'm feeding a mix of 2 or 3 different foods per day, ( I measure them out, grind them up if required, and add them to a long handled serving spoon, to place the food at the optimum spot in the tank, then the next day I do the same, with 2-3 different foods, on the 3rd day I try to do something different, but have already fed -4-5 different foods previously... assuming the fish don't want to eat exactly the same thing every day... I like steak, but even steak would get old, if I had it every other day... I feel like I'm struggling to provide the fish a variety, that has the proper nutrients... I mean, come on man, steak and broccoli 3 times this week???

 

[Beastije]

I agree with you that variety in food is important (well for me anyway). For fish hard to say. I need to make a schedule of my feeding, because I feed purely random, but I will do:

feed live microworms and live bbs once a week, smaller fish get it twice a week
feed frozen mosquito, daphnia, cyclops, adult brine shrimp, bloodworms - twice a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. I thaw a cube or two of two sorts (small like cyclops and large like mosquitos) and squirt both into my tanks
feed insect based dry food, feed pellets and algae waffers, feed hikari first bite, put bacter ae in the shrimp tank (tiny amount, I still dont trust it) - once a week or so (once a month for the bacter)
not feed at all a day or two or three
In the summer I scoop out live mosquitos to feed and provide fun for the fish.
But I will also add fruit to the tank, like a small piece of a banana or strawberry or an apple. handful of oak leaves. Alder cones. Dried/fresh nettles. Spinach leaves, cauliflower, leaves from the broccoli stem, piece of a carrot, snap pea, normal pea, frozen green bean. like once a month a tiny bit to all of my tanks, not just the one with the snails. Rummynose love salads, Kuhli loaches adore zuchinnis

It can be fun

 

[GaryE]

I think one of the reasons overfeeding is such a problem for us is that feeding the fish is a great interaction. If I fed my dog every time she asked, I'd have a dying blimp hound. It's the same with fish. But I enjoy caring for both, and try feeding them properly.

There's only so much prepared food though. I have a colour flake, a kelp flake, bug bites, spirulina discs, shrimp pellets... I can vary the diet, but I could give myself a varied diet out of the Costco freezer section, and die sometime soon from it.

I need about 5 minutes a day to manage my live artemia nauplii, and 15 minutes a week for my grindal/whiteworms, which I rarely feed to fish not being conditioned to spawn. I have frozen zucchini coins, which go to some fish. I took some time to grow them in my garden. In warm times, I harvest mosquito larvae, daphnia and live bloodworms.

I could make frozen mixes - I've done it a lot in the past. I could buy frozen foods.

I have spent enjoyable time learning what my fish eat. One size fits all gets you an ugly suit. I try to adjust the feeding to the fish species, and that takes a little time.

There are 2 smart young guys around here who want to find live foods out in nature, and I can see where I'll take a little time to go out into the woods this Spring. If you get to the mosquitoes before they hatch, that can be a lot of fun. Ideally, I won't buy Daphnia eggs this Spring, and will take a chance on that.

You would be surprised, @Magnum Man and everyone else, what a difference live foods make on fish in terms of colour and activity levels. That dopey looking insectivore Cichlid that cruises along looking bored can become a different creature if its hunting switch gets turned on.

Does all this take time? It does, but I was doing this long before I retired. It takes time to watch football, go fishing, play golf, crochet your own underwear, go to a movie etc, but if it's fun to you, it's worth it.

 

[Back in the fold]

It’s time for you to begin culturing a variety of live foods .