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Feeding Tropical Fish - Typical Tropical Fish Food Components and Supplements

>> May 10, 2013

A tropical fish is a delicate animal indeed. It is used to living in one of the world's most regulated environments: shallow tropical reef water, which is abundant with food and has access to an extremely predictable supply of sunlight and temperature. Consequently, the keeping of tropical fish in a tank condition, in a country hardly famed for its tropical climate, poses a major challenge to the amateur aquarist.


The core elements of tropical fish care are: temperature; access to UV light; oxygen and nitrogen regulation; and access to the right kinds of food. Some tropical fish, for example, feed on the larvae of insects indigenous to a specific part of the world. While every effort is made by the manufacturers of standard tropical fish food flakes to replicate the nutrients found in these creatures, some may be lacking - and so the fish keeper is sometimes required to add actual livestock to the diet of his or her charges.

Clearly the first thing the aquarist must be aware of is the natural diets of the species he or she is raising. There are several reasons why this is important.

If you don't know that some species in your tank naturally prey on the others (for instance) you're going to get quite a shock when you come down in the morning to find a tank bereft of all species barring the one, which is now a lot fatter than it used to be. On a more serious note, if promoting the best natural behaviours and colours, or even breeding new fish, is your goal then you need to understand the effects that nutrition has on the animals you care for.

Flaked fish food is multicoloured because it has a hugely complex array of nutrients and minerals in it. Each of these compounds is known to provide a specific service for tropical fish - for instance spirulina helps to promote the proper colour display. Some fish foods may even contain hormones that excite unnaturally bright colour displays, by convincing the body of the fish that it is always in mating season.

The average factory fish food will also contain amino acids; proteins; carbohydrates; and sugars. It is important to be aware of the effects that these can have on fish, and the possible problems the animals may develop if they are improperly delivered.

One of the most common ailments to affect captive fish is failure of the renal system. This is because the flakes and pellets that fish are fed can be hard to digest speedily, which causes a build up of already processed poisons - essentially damaging the filtration system of the fish's own body by building up a stock of corrosive material.

A sick fish may need to be fed medicated food - this is one of the best ways to get medicine into the right animal. Bearing in mind that water is an environment in which all compounds eventually disintegrate and disseminate, it is much easier to keep the treatment in the right place by removing a single fish from a tank and feeding it medicinal food, than it is to try to keep to a proper medical regime in the open tank environment. 

Author Bio: Mac Byrne is a tropical fish keeper and blogger. He writes a regular blog on the different types of tropical fish food.

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