Fish Food That Doesn't Sink(Checked The Newbie Forum)

[aMurderOfCrows]

Hello, new to keeping fish.

Have some pearl gouramis, tiger barbs, cory catfish, ghost tetra, redtail shark.

Ive been feeding flake food and as you all probably know a good bit of it hits the bottom. From what I"ve read this can cause alot of problems with water quality.

Today, just for the heck of it, I bought some blood worms to feed the fish. I didn't know anything about them but I found out they float and don't drift to the bottom. I was able to feed what I felt was enough for the fish without any of it going to waste.

My question, finally is, what other foods are out there that are well balanced nutritionally that I can alternate in the feedings that will float and not waste?

 

[onidrase]

Food hitting the bottom of the tank is food that you're over feeding. If the fish are still hungry, they'll pluck the pieces of flake off the bottom. Ultimately, you want to feed less, not buy food that doesn't sink.

 

[thereverendturtle]

Many pellets float and all packing for them will tell you what they do. Don't forget your cories and shark need food that sinks.

 

[Cossie1111]

Whats wrong with food that sinks? Your corys need food too, I purposely push flake food down so my corys get some too.

 

[moochy13]

Food hitting the bottom of the tank is food that you're over feeding. If the fish are still hungry, they'll pluck the pieces of flake off the bottom. Ultimately, you want to feed less, not buy food that doesn't sink.

i dont agree. many of my fish would never eat if food didnt get to the bottom. admittedly, if you're putting so much flake in theres loads on the bottom, probably too much. but generally you should have some sinking pellets or similar for your bottom dwelling fish.

check these out. meaty tabs that either sink, or can be stuck to the glass until they've been eaten almost totally. just press them against the glass till they stick.

novo tabs

also, if you brought the frozen bloodworm, you'll know it comes in little blocks like ice cubes. you can also get 'tropical mix' or whatever its called, where you get the same type of packaging, but instead of having 40 blocks of bloodworm, you will have 10 blocks of bloodworm, 10 blocks of daphina shrimp, 10 blocks of something else etc. be aware though that these other blocks contain LOTS of food. one block of anything other than bloodworm will totally engulf my 4ft tank, so i tend to share a block out with my other tank.

 

[CezzaXV]

Food hitting the bottom of the tank is food that you're over feeding. If the fish are still hungry, they'll pluck the pieces of flake off the bottom. Ultimately, you want to feed less, not buy food that doesn't sink.

i dont agree. many of my fish would never eat if food didnt get to the bottom. admittedly, if you're putting so much flake in theres loads on the bottom, probably too much. but generally you should have some sinking pellets or similar for your bottom dwelling fish.

check these out. meaty tabs that either sink, or can be stuck to the glass until they've been eaten almost totally. just press them against the glass till they stick.

novo tabs

also, if you brought the frozen bloodworm, you'll know it comes in little blocks like ice cubes. you can also get 'tropical mix' or whatever its called, where you get the same type of packaging, but instead of having 40 blocks of bloodworm, you will have 10 blocks of bloodworm, 10 blocks of daphina shrimp, 10 blocks of something else etc. be aware though that these other blocks contain LOTS of food. one block of anything other than bloodworm will totally engulf my 4ft tank, so i tend to share a block out with my other tank.

There needs to be a happy medium though. Yes, some food needs to make its way to the bottom so that bottom-dwellers can feed, but if you're adding food and it's still sitting at the bottom hours later then that's overfeeding. I feed my fish at night, the last thing I do before I go to bed, then make sure it's all gone in the morning.

 

[BettaAds]

Food sinking can also be affected by the current flow of the water, if it is too rough towards the surface it can make the flakes sink prematurely.

Take all of this into consideration when buying foods, some are easily disturbed by the current whereas others arn't so easily.

 

[aMurderOfCrows]

Thanks for the replies. Yes, I know some needs to sink for the cory's problem is they don't get much of it. I don't have fine gravel in the bottom of the tank its small stones...kind of. The food is falling into the rocks on the bottom and they're not getting it most of it.

They're still alive after 3 weeks, so I guess they're not starving. I'm really trying to keep from over feeding. Some one above nailed it, the current from the filters is pushing the flake around thats helping it sink prematurely. The plan was to start giving the cory's algae wafers and the other fish would get "top water" food then, maybe flakes once a week.

I'll check out some of cezza's suggestions. Thank you.

 

[moochy13]

sounds like the problem could be your gravel then. not only is food getting between the rocks very bad for yourwater, because it will just sit there and rot, cories shoudl really be on very fine gravel or preferabl sand. bigger, rougher gravel dmages their barbels.

 

[Proxo]

Hikari cichlid gold floats well, crush a few up to sink for my cory. That way i can slightly control what sinks and what doesn't.

 

[CezzaXV]

You could turn your filter off while feeding. It won't do any harm for the amount of time it'd be off, just make sure you turn it back on again afterwards!

 

[snazy]

What brand of flake food are you using?

I use the the tetra stuff and although some of it floats, the fish actually chase it down pretty quick.