In this section we will see how often the fish should be fed and with what kind of food. In general the fish should be fed twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. It is often the habit of beginners to feed the fish many times a day, especially whenever they go near the tank. This is a bad habit and this can lead to disease and water fouling. The feeding should be at regular time as far as possible. Even if you miss the feeding once a day or for a day it does not matter. But if you feed too much it will lead to bacterial problems and water clouding. Fish also need to digest the food they have eaten. If feed them twice a day and feed only what they can consume in 5 minutes, then the fishes will be healthy and active. Just feed them what they can consume in 5 minutes. Feed in small quantities, especially when you are feeding with dry foods. Feed them until they eat for 5 minutes and their stomachs are 3/4 full. This you can see by experience. For beginners, feed in small pinches, add a pinch and wait until it is consumed, then feed the next pinch and so on until 5 minutes or until they stop eating whichever is earlier. Dry food can foul the water very quickly compared to live food, which can survive in water.

   Like humans it is good to fast the fish once a month. One day in a month do not feed the fish anything, this would make them more active and lively. This also would help clean up their stomachs. This does not mean they will really starve, the fish can always eat algae and other matter which are present in the plants. These would help further in cleaning their stomachs. Over feeding can cause stomach problems and intestinal problems. This can lead to the death of many fish. Vegetarian matter is always good for the fish and occasional vegetable matter in the form of green peas, lettuce, spinach, spirulina algae etc.. would help the fish be healthy. But all fish even if they are vegetarians need live food in the form of worms and larvae. Other meaty foods are also accepted well. Some fish need pure meaty food diet. Without live and meaty food they cannot be healthy and cannot attain the full growth. Their primary food should be dry aquarium food with weekly supplements of live and meaty foods.

   Fish in general need a full range of vitamins, proteins and minerals in their diet, very much like the human beings. In nature they get their requirements by means of variety of foods. This has to be taken care in an aquarium, by feeding varied food. In general dry prepared aquarium foods available in pet shops are prepared keeping this objective. They preparations often consists of variety of ingredients and vitamin supplements. Prepared dry foods are available in Flake form and Pellet forms. Flakes are the best as they can be easily swallowed by the fish, big and small. They float in the surface initially so that it is easy for fish to consume. Pellets are suitable for larger fish such as Koi and Gold fish, as the size of the pellets are often big and smaller fish cannot swallow. Some Pellets float and some sink immediately. One must be careful while feeding even bigger fish with pellets. Pellets get enlarged after being soaked in water and often contain entrapped air. If the fish just swallow the pellets, they get soaked after entering the stomach and this can cause swollen stomachs leading to constipation and damage the intestines. The trapped air also can get into the intestines causing constipation. If you are feeding the fish with pellets, soak the pellets in a small container for 5 minutes before feeding the fish. This would eliminate all problems. You do not have this problem with flakes. Always buy good quality flakes, read what are the ingredients in the food. The more the protein content and vegetable content, the better it will be. You can feed frozen green peas by thawing them in warm water for a few minutes and removing the skin. You can also add cooked cabbage, spinach, lettuce etc.. But remember fish need a varied diet, and they need live food. We will discuss some of the live food you can buy and feed the fishes.

   You should also ensure that all occupants of the aquarium get their share of the food. Often the aggressive and bigger fish get to eat most of the food. You can feed in two places in the tank so that weaker fish can also eat in one corner. Sometimes you may have to drive away the bigger fish with a net and feed the smaller ones. Also some fish cannot eat food floating at the top as their mouth are not shaped for this and they need sinking food. You must allow some food to sink to the bottom for these fish. Cory cats are ones which cannot at all eat from the top. I always put the net inside and drive the bigger fish away and allow food to sink to the bottom in one corner where cory's and small fish can eat. After a while the smaller fish and Cory cats know immediately once you put the net in the tank that food is available in that corner and rush there. You must drive away the other fish which also try to reach that corner. After a few days the other fish keep away once the net is inside.

LIVE FOODS

• Blood worms : These blood red aquatic larvae of the midge are excellent live foods. They are best collected with sediment of old rain water butts, or from an old bowl or sink with water and dead leaves in a shady corner of the garden. The 1/2 inch worm like larvae build mud burrows and if the mud containing them is placed in a gauze tea strainer resting on top of a jam jar of water so that its bottom only just touches the water, in the course of few hours the blood worms will wriggle out clean of mud and drop into the jar of water. These are excellent food for young fish and grown fish. They normally do not carry any bacteria and are safe to use in an aquarium. But do not collect from ponds. You can leave a old bowl in the garden to culture these. The same bowl also will provide mosquito larvae, another source of good food. Easy work is you can buy from local fish stores, which do the work of culturing and cleaning these larvae and you can get in packets.

• Brine Shrimps : For young fishes past the Infusoria feeding stage, freshly hatched brine shrimps are useful food. brine shrimp eggs can be purchased from pet shops, use shallow bowls with water and a table spoon of salt and sprinkle a pinch of eggs on the surface, keep it on top of the aquarium at 70 F and the eggs hatch in two days. Strain off the shrimp in a fine mesh net and feed them to the young fish. There are also ready made kits available for culturing these and siphoning out the shrimps into the tank containing the fry. These can be expensive.

• Earthworms : Easily the best natural food for fishes. These pink or reddish small types are best and a good plan is to dig them up when they are plentiful during spring and to store them in wooden boxes filled with moistened leaf mould. Boards or wet sacks placed on the ground in a shady corner will induce worms to gather under them, tipping a solution of Potassium permanganate on to the lawn surface usually causes a few worms to appear above the ground. Bigger worms need to be chopped to feed smaller fish, provided the owner does not mind this nasty work. These are easily the best source of food. You can also culture these worms by keeping large wooden boxes filled with garden soil and leaf moulds and keeping it moist and in a shady place. You can introduce a few worms into the box from the garden soil and these would quickly multiply and soon you will have a continuous source of food. You can place wet sacks and boards on the soil to gather the worms. You can add some decomposed leaf mould from your garden waste every week to keep worms healthy. Earth worms must be washed free of mud and must be left in a moist tissue in a small box for a day. This would get the mud in their stomach to come out. Then they must be washed again before feeding them to the fish. Smaller varieties are the best.

• Egg Yolk : Yolk from hard boiled eggs are excellent for small fry. You can get a suspension of this into your fry tank by squeezing the yolk through a fine mesh cloth. Beware this food can rot very fast and must be fed in small quantities only. You can prepare a suspension in a small bowl and keep it refrigerated and add a few drops to the tank every hour.

• Mosquito and Midge Larvae: These free wrigglers will be found in the garden container suggested for cultivating blood worms. They can be netted and fed to the fishes. Fish like them very much and provides great nutrition. Be careful in areas where dangerous mosquito varieties like Dengue and malarial types occur. In such areas never leave water bowls in garden as this can be deadly for you. I would suggest to leave this culture out of your activity.

• Meat : If you are a meat eater, you can feed your fishes finely chopped meat and beef can be fed to the fish. Any non-vegetarian food you consume can be fed to the fish raw provided these are chopped to fine bits. Cooked meat is also accepted by fish.

• Tubifex worms: Most of the aquarium suppliers sell these long thin red worms that live in mud of rivers and sluggish streams. These need to be kept in a shallow bowl under dripping water or the worms would die soon. When they die they generate a lot of stink which can be unbearable. But they can be kept alive by a few tricks. One is to keep them in a shallow dish under dripping water tap. This can make your bathroom messy. Another way is after washing them thoroughly drain out all the water and leave the wet worms in a dish with flat bottom. You can put an old dried leaf, after washing over the worms. You can use old aquarium water for washing which keeps the worms from dying. May be they feed on bacteria present in the old aquarium water. The trick is there shall not be much water left in the dish. Drain out all water after washing. You must then wash the worms before each feeding and again drain out all water from the dish before leaving the worms until the next feed. People claim that Tubifex can carry germs that can easily spread to your fishes. But so far I have not had such incident. The chances of germs spreading from a new fish added to the tank is much more than through the worms. But remember to wash the worms thoroughly as soon as you bring them home and also before each feeding. This way the worms are also fresh and do not die. I would prefer to buy a small stock that lasts a couple of days then buy fresh after a couple of days of dry food feeding. These are relished by the fish very much. My fish recognise the dish I use for keeping the worms and as soon as I approach the tank with this dish they just swarm the surface near the glass begging for food. Fish can be intelligent to some extent. Tubifex also make good food for small fry of Live bearers which are big enough to eat these. While buying these ensure that you buy fresh stock. Fresh good worms look reddish and lively. Spoiled and dying ones look like having a lot of fish excreta and they smell badly. Reject them and buy after a few days when your store gets fresh stock.

• White worms : A culture of these earth living worms can be started by introducing a few worms bought from a supplier into a shallow wooden box filled with garden loam. The loam must be kept moistened and food for worms - mashed potato, porridge or milk-soaked bread, is placed on its surface. White worms can be obtained from the loam when the culture is established by placing the loam containing the worms in a dish resting over a pot of boiling water. The heat drives the worms to the surface and they can be picked by forceps and put into another dish and washed. The box must be covered with glass to retain moisture and kept in a dark place where temperature is not high. These are very high in protein and fat content and must be fed once in a while only as they can fatten the fish too much and can cause digestive problems. These are very good for growing fry which need fat more. They are very safe and no risk of germs entering your tank.

• Other food : There are other food available that include, fly's, small frogs etc.. which are food for bigger fish such as arrowanas, big cichlids etc.. They are not beginners fish and we will not discuss them in detail here.

  --------------- END ----------------