guidelines of fish

With thousands of different species of fish around the world, it's nearly impossible to match the exact dietary needs of every fish in your aquarium, and even more difficult to exactly match their food in the wilderness. However, by following a few common guidelines, you can keep your fish in good general health, and they will eventually adjust to the new diets you provide. While these guidelines won't work for fish with highly specialized diets, it is meant to handle the dietary needs of a vast majority of freshwater species.One of the greatest developments in fish care is the development of dried, high nutrition fish foods which can generically feed most breeds of fish. These come in a variety of forms, from pellets to flakes. These dried fish foods, no matter the form they take, will provide equal nutrients to your fish. The biggest factor to consider between flakes, tiny granulated bits, or larger pellets is the actual eating habits and size of your fish.Use flakes for feeding your smallest fish, granules for feeding midsized fish, and pellets for the larger breeds. These sizes are made for the mouths of various fish, and it's best to stick to the type suited for your fish; aside from the obvious difficulty of feeding a tiny fish like a guppy with a pellet that's as large as it's head, flakes, meant for tiny fish, will often be ignored by larger fish.Fish food is also differentiated into "sinkers" and "floaters", meaning they will, once dropped into water, tend to either sink slowly towards the bottom of the tank, or keep floating upwards towards the surface. Get a type that suits the natural eating habits of your fish; bottom-feeders will need sinkers, shallow water fish will often prefer floaters. If you're unsure about the eating habits of your fish, experiment with both types and find out which they prefer. This is more than just a matter of instinct for your fish; some breeds of fish have mouths that are unsuited to feeding on the surface or bottom of the water, so even if they tried to bite at the food they would be unable to.Another consideration for your fish food is their dietary pattern. Are they plant eaters, carnivores, or omnivores? Fish food generally come in plant or animal based varieties, meant to supply nutrients for herbivores or carnivores. If your fish are omnivorous, you won't have much of a problem, though you'll probably have to buy both kinds of fish food to keep your pet's diets nutritionally balanced. Feeding an herbivorous fish an animal based fish food or feeding a carnivore plant based fish food will both result in eventual death, as your fish won't be able to digest it.Over and under feeding fish is also a source of problems if you're not careful. Both can cause your fish to sicken and die, though for different reasons. Underfed fish will grow thinner and weaker, and be more prone to disease. Overfed fish, on the other hand, won't be directly unhealthy; the problem lies in the excess fish food that remains floating around the tank. Unconsumed fish food will decompose, and mix with the fish's excrement (which will also be at a higher level in the tank than it should be) and poison the aquarium's environment past the filter's ability to handle.On the average, a good rule of thumb is to feed your fish three times a day, using amounts that will get fully consumed in about 5 minutes. Also keep in mind that some fish are diurnal, others nocturnal, so you may have to separate the two or add a fourth feeding time per day to make sure all your fish get well fed.Lastly, remember to "spice up" your fish diets with occasional treats, which would be to feed them the real things they would consume in nature. Dried seaweed or chopped aquatic fronds for herbivores, and little earthworms and insects for your carnivores, will keep your fish healthy and happy. Admittedly, while they will suffer no real ill effects from never eating anything but processed dried fish food, they WOULD get bored eventually, and long for the food that they are instinctually suited for. A few finicky breeds of fish have been known to starve themselves to death, refusing to eat fish food after a while unless they get a bit of "real" food from time to time. Throwing in "real" food for your fish about once a week keeps this from happening.
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