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Properly feeding the fish is one of your main responsibilities, and you must learn in advance the taste preferences of those fish and invertebrates you are going to keep, and only after that you can buy one or the other food. The issue of feed and nutrition is very extensive, so any attempt to fully disclose it will hardly be successful. Fortunately, most fish and quite a lot of invertebrates eagerly feed on food manufactured in an industrial way. Beginner aquarists do not need to choose those types of fish, pick up food which is quite difficult. It is better to start with simpler species in this respect and, as experience accumulates, complicate the task.
One of the main conditions for normal growth, development and reproduction of aquarium fish is proper and adequate nutrition. The composition of the feed should be proteins, fats, carbohydrates, as well as minerals and vitamins. If the mineral salts can be contained in sufficient quantities in water and soil (under optimal conditions of maintenance), then all other components of the fish are obtained only with food of both animal and vegetable origin. All types of feed can be divided into two groups: live and canned. Of course, preference should be given to all types of live food, although canned has a greater advantage in storage. The substitutes for live food can be artificial feed produced by specialized companies: Aquarian, Hikari, King British, Knitz, Neski, Nippon, Nutra Fin, Sera, Tetra, "Tropical", "Wita", "Wardley". The technology used by these firms allows for the preparation of artificial feeds for which natural ingredients are mainly used, to preserve their vitamin, energy and nutritional value during processing.
According to the nature of feeding, adult fish are divided into three groups: herbivorous, carnivorous and carnivorous. Vegetable fishes feed on aquatic plants. Animals feed on invertebrates. Predatory feed on fish, as well as other vertebrates. It should be noted that this division is arbitrary. Peaceful animal-eating fish sometimes feed on young and often their own.
Methods of feeding fish are different. Some species take food mainly from the surface of the water, most eat in the middle layers, many fish collect food from the bottom or find it, digging in the ground. Many of the fish are predators, they get their own food by various methods. Depending on the mode of feeding, certain species in the course of evolution have acquired the shape of the body and the arrangement of organs of nutrition that promote the production and consumption of food. Fish, eating at the surface of the water, have an elongated body, a straight line of back and an upwardly placed mouth, which enables them, maneuvering, to instantly grasp the insect that has fallen on the water. Fishes of bottom feed, for example catfish, etc., on the contrary, with a straight belly that facilitates movement along the ground, and a downwardly directed mouth, equipped with a mustache, are sensitive tactile organs for detecting food. In fish, whose diet includes mainly algae, for example, Mollies, the lower lip is wide, turned into a plate scraper, by which they carefully peel off the algal cover from the plants.
The fish part of the intake and digestible food is to maintain its vital functions: metabolism, movement, breathing. This food is called supporting. It is required the more, the more the fish itself. The producing food is used to increase the weight of the fish. At an older age, the fish have a drop in growth rate and the food consumed by it will be used to maintain vital functions, rather than to increase its mass.
Most species look for food throughout the day, others eat at dusk and night, predators can hide in shelters for a long time, waiting for the victim, and, after being saturated, do not resume hunting for many hours or even days. Fish contained in the aquarium adapt to the feeding regime, established by general rules developed in the course of practical experience. In aquarium practice, a normal regimen is a two-time feeding of adult fish - in the morning and in the evening. To feed fish, except for predatory large specimens, only once a day is impossible. There is an opinion among some aquarists that it is better to underfeed them to maintain the normal state of fish than to overfeed controversially. In any case, the first part. With the second one you can agree that it is really not necessary to overfeed the fish. However, fish should receive timely enough quality feed and be full. Establish some standard rates of feed consumption per fish is impossible. The amount of food consumed by the fish depends on many factors. Daily intake of food is different for individual species.
Pisces are living organisms, and the need for fodder in fish of even one species is, of course, not the same, not to mention the fact that in aquariums often, especially beginners of aquarium business, contain fish of different species and ages in common. For each type of fish you need a certain food. Let's talk about the basic rules of feeding.
The size of the fodder must match the size of the fish. If they do not cope with the food or chew, spit it, then this is the size of the feed for this species is unfit. The size of fry for fry should be approximately equal to the size of their eyes. Bloodworm, tubule and enchitrea, which we will discuss in more detail below, can be sliced ​​into small parts. Some aquarists do not feed valuable species of fish, fearing poisoning. This is really so. The quality of the feed is of great importance. Therefore, dry food should be really dry, and not stick together, living organisms - to be active.
Here are six important rules to observe when feeding aquarium fish:

• When feeding, follow the requirements of fish, not their own desires;
• Feed them preferably with a variety of feeds, making the most of the opportunities of each season. Even the best food is worthless if it does not alternate with other foods;
• Do not feed too much! The remains of food rot and spoil the water. In aquariums, fish are more likely to die from obesity than from malnutrition. Set how much live fish food is able to quickly eat, and never give them more than the norm. Fish that feed properly, without harm to health, can suffer a week-long hunger strike;
• If possible, feed the fish twice a day in small portions;
• The size of the feed should correspond to the size of the fish. Large fish will starve, if they are fed with small fodder, and small fodder can not be overcome by small fishes, they will not be able to swallow it;
• Observe the fish during feeding, at this point it is easiest to distinguish diseased fish from healthy fish.

The amount of food consumed by the fish per day depends on many factors. Daily intake of food is different for individual species. In the same species, this diet varies depending on the age of the fish, the quality of the feed, the season of the year, the state of the fish, the concentration of feeding fish. Usually young fish consume relatively more food than the old ones. The daily intake of food by the larvae of fish is equal to their mass, i.е. 100 %. The amount of feed consumed per day depends on the quality of the feed itself. A different amount of food eaten is in direct connection with its caloric content and sometimes digestibility. The intensity of feed intake depends on the state of the fish. During spawning, many fish stop eating. More well-fed eat less food than poorly-fed ones. Daily intake of food depends on the concentration of feeding fish. In this case, the juvenile at higher concentrations feed more intensively than at small concentrations. In adult fish, on the contrary, at significant concentrations, the intensity of nutrition decreases. It is known that the fish grows all his life, only at different speeds. In accordance with this, she eats.
To introduce new food components or change the "menu" should be gradually - every day up to 10 - 15% of the diet. New, previously unknown feed can not be used immediately. The best advisers in selecting feeds are the fish themselves, and to be precise their reaction to this or that food. Buying fish, you first need to think about whether you can provide them with adequate nutrition. There are quite omnivorous species that eat both live and dry food, others are difficult to accustom to dry food.
So what are the feeds currently used in aquaristics. Consider everything in order:

Live and fresh food

Large live food

For cichlids, for large hirakovidnyh and other fish the most suitable live food are: fry, tadpoles, smooth caterpillars, water insects and their larvae, lice, earthworms, flour worms, snails, fruit worms, bloodworms, flies and other flying insects.

Medium live feed

Live feed of medium size are: bloodworms, tubules, enchytraeids (earthworms), chopped or small earthworms, daphnia, small flies and larvae, leaf aphids.

Small live food

Small, live food refers to daphnia and cyclops, tiny mosquito larvae, small tubulars (mostly red), grindal worms, midges, drosophila, nauplii (Cyclops or Daphnia larvae) and other types of live food in a crushed form. When there is no live food at hand, you can replace it with scraped meat, chopped mussels or snails. Even those fish that are considered very picky in food (like, for example, different types of discus), gladly accept for a long time the so-called scraped meat, if it is properly cooked.

Chopped meat or heart

As a fodder for fish is suitable primarily muscular meat warm-blooded animals. The most commonly used beef heart is by buying a large piece and cleaning it. For feeding fish only lean pieces of meat of dark red color are suitable. They need to be cut into cubes 2 x 2 cm and freeze. For this there is a special reason: very much frozen, hard meat is much easier to crush than a soft raw piece. To grind meat, you can use a small mill with a round nozzle (for example, one that grinds nuts), and the holes should be no wider than a match. Pieces of crushed meat will take the form of worms (tubulars) and will be eaten by fish with the same pleasure. Unfortunately, this type of feeding over time reveals one drawback: very small meat crumbs settle in the gravel at the bottom and become snail's prey. And they are delighted with such a luxurious life and begin to "in gratitude" to multiply intensely.

Vegetarian food

Many types of fish necessarily require additional vegetarian food. Vegetable additives to the stern can be well washed salad leaves, boiled spinach water, soft leaves of the pond, as well as crushed and soaked oat flakes.

Dry food

The food in the form of tablets of different shapes is produced only by some manufacturers.
Cereal products are produced in different countries. Watch your fish: they will tell you what they like more!

Dry food includes not only ready-made mixtures that can be bought in small packages in a pet store, but also oat flakes, egg-boiled egg yolks and dry yeast.

Dry food in the form of powder, flakes or tablets is advisable to serve in the aquarium through the stern ring. But someone who would like to feed fish especially sparingly, can simply mix two fingers of a pinch of food in the aquarium water. Fish quickly scent tidbits and immediately leave their hiding places. True, predators most often do not pay any attention to this food, they are accustomed to more fatty chunks. But many cichlids with pleasure accept dry food - although, of course, this should not be for them the only source of nutrition!

Absolutely unsuitable for feeding fish are crumbs of bread, breadcrumbs, biscuits, flour products, waffles, dried pupae of ants and boiled potatoes - all this causes fish to have serious digestive disturbances, and also cloud and even poison aquarium water.

Feed for fry (the smallest food)

The smallest food (or "live dust") is necessary for fish juveniles only in the first days of life. For this, infusorians (primarily rotifers and slippers), small algae, crushed live food and powdered feed are suitable. Powdered food is called finely ground dry food (recently it is also sold in stores). Of course, from the milled food of any type, you can prepare a nutritious gruel. But in order to avoid uncleanness in the vigorous aquarium, you should wipe this food through a coarse linen cloth. In addition, for fry are suitable (by the way, they are most often used in such cases) Artemia salina larvae of Artemia . These larvae, taking caviar of artemia, can be obtained in a bottle of water with the addition of table salt. With the help of a membrane air pump, that is, due to the pumping air, the eggs are constantly in motion, and at the same time remain surrounded by water on all sides. Depending on the water temperature, the larvae begin to hatch after 24 to 26 hours. There are also special fry for fry ("Mikrozell"), so you can get from larvae and shrimps themselves - artemia. In natural conditions, Artemia salina lives in water containing a variety of mineral salts and trace elements in a specific compound. The crustaceans mainly feed on phytoplankton. That is why in the fodder for fry "Mikrozell" contains phytoplankton, vital for larvae. And that's why you can use ordinary table salt: this is a salt solution, the environment in which brine shrimp live. For 1/2 liter of water, take 1 full teaspoon of salt. When the larvae hatch, the water in which they are to grow should be three times more concentrated than the previous one. Therefore, the larvae, once they hatched, should be transplanted and started to feed. It is recommended to use only small vessels, where the water level is not higher than 8 - 10 cm. Thus, baby crustaceans can take food without having to spend too much effort on moving around the reservoir. Artemii belong to the so-called filterers; This means that they catch floating food from the water. When breeding artemia in small vessels, take the "Mikrozell" food literally on the tip of the knife and mix it into the water until it becomes slightly cloudy. When the water again becomes relatively clear, you need to add food. Here the same rule applies to our fish: it is better to feed them in small doses, but more often than once with a vengeance.

In some places in the Bay of San Francisco, the water is colored red: this is the color of Artemia caviar.

This figure shows the methods of breeding and growing Artemia using Hobby-Artemium (Dohse company) - incubator and separator: 1-set of adaptations Artemium; 2-reception of larvae from caviar; 3-washing of larvae in the outgrowing tank; 4-additive special feed Mikrozell; 5-catching of grown-up crustaceans for feeding.

Infusoria also belong to the smallest types of live food; They usually become the first food for fry. Nature itself has provided for the fry of the first days of life a yolk sac. It stores the supply of food. However, fry, equipped with this pendant, is really swimming with great difficulty. Only after 2 - 3 days, when the yolk sac breaks, they begin to move freely. And then they immediately need a small and abundant food. Fry really have to swim in the middle of the feed so that they can only grab it. For this reason, the water level in the growing aquariums is usually very low. It is not recommended to start the infusoria in a vigorous aquarium; It is much better to breed them in one or several vessels (by 1/2 liter). The shoe can be obtained by pouring rye rye ears (or cut cabbage kohlrabi, turnips, etc.) with rainwater or water from a standing water and placing this mixture in a bright place. After two or three days, there are so many infusoria that they will appear pink clouds to the skylight. After that, water can be pipetted or by a spoon to add to a vigorous aquarium. Dosage should always be minimal, as infusoria quickly die in warm water. Nevertheless, feeding should be done constantly. It is impossible to move algae from a vessel for breeding infusorians. And if all this seems too complicated for you, then go to a specialized store: there are infusoric additives in the form of powder.

Frozen food

Freeze-dried food

Freeze-dried food for ornamental fish appeared in the late 1960s, but it does not easily penetrate the aquarium. Gradually, the producers switched to canning in this way almost all types of live food. Most fish devour this food with great pleasure, and there is nothing surprising, because for its preparation the best raw materials are used: prawns, artemia and daphnia, tubers and bloodworms. But one drawback of this food is: it swims, not saturated with water, on the surface - and in fact many fish do not rise to it. What is sublimed food for fish? To understand the process of its preparation, it is necessary to imagine how dehydration occurs (splitting of water). Let's remember how in the winter clothes are dried: things hung in the open air, freeze. They dry, without thawing! The transition of ice into steam, passing the liquid state, is called sublimation. This is the basis of drying by freezing. At the same time, no heat is generated that could affect the taste and value of nutrition; There is no hot liquid that would damage its structure. The ice turns into steam and is blown out in the air. There remains an easy porous mass. Only water was removed - nothing more. Such processing is not costly; Sublimated fish food has emerged as a by-product of the industry. Working on space research.

Production of freeze-dried food in Taiwan
Washed live food is evaluated by specialists	After production cleaning, live food is ready for further processing
The food is rapidly frozen and dehydrated	After weighing it is placed in vacuum packing

Low temperature freezing

Decorative fish are also offered as deep-frozen foods. Those who wish can purchase frozen types of almost all types of food. Since this method of preserving feed and its distribution is associated with the use of electricity, frozen fodder is more expensive than most other equivalent types of fodder for ornamental fish. But it is this feed that readily accepts those species of fish that in principle feed exclusively on live food. Since almost every house has a freezer, this type of food can be considered a valuable addition to the menu for fish - perhaps, all the same, too monotonous. Motyl (red and black) and washed brine shrimp ("shrimp"), like krill, are among the sorts of ice cream forage that are most popular. For large (10 - 14 cm) cichlids, daphnia are an ideal food, but when comparing prices, everyone will notice that this type of food for fish is really very expensive. Even larger cichlids (from 16 cm) can be accustomed to eating sea prawns, although at first the brackish food and hard shell are not to their liking - well, it's a matter of habit! After comparison of coloring (for example, in fish with red parts of the body, like Cichlasoma synspilum) proves: fish that often get shrimp feeds are distinguished by more bright, catchy hues than fish not accustomed to this food.

On the shore of the lake, on the sediments of bizarre forms, one can judge the high salt content.

Do you know that there are farms for the production of red bloodworms? The larvae are washed from the soil of specially dug ponds.	The catch is shifted from the nets to the buckets for transportation: a slippery business!
This is how the cleaned live food looks before further processing (packing and freezing).	It looks like a network with a pre-cleaned and ready for further processing of the moth.

Vitamins

The industry, which produces food for our fish, has developed tasty and useful mixtures. Of course, they include vitamin supplements. But many vitamins are volatile substances and are not suitable for long-term storage. If you happened to observe the behavior of fish in natural conditions, then, of course, you noticed that they do not try to fill the bellies, as it is often seen in the aquarium - as if they have a lunch break for ten minutes! In their native space, they dive back and forth, nibbling something here and there, at first they try, then spit out if they are not tasteless. In nature, a variety of nutrition is guaranteed a sufficient amount of minerals, vitamins and trace elements. It is hardly possible to provide the same composition of necessary substances in the usual feed of factory packaging, because of the limited shelf life, and that is why manufacturers increasingly offer micronutrients and vitamin preparations packaged separately. As with all other additives, the aquarist should also beware of an overdose: many are not better than few. The digestive system and metabolism in fish can only be loaded up to a certain limit. Therefore, it is never harmful to carefully read the manufacturer's recommendations that buyers (honestly, you agree with this!) Do not always do it. Vitamins to fish are absolutely necessary, otherwise they can begin "avitaminosis" - a disease that occurs as a result of insufficient supply of vitamins. And what are vitamins? The name consists of a combination of the words "Vita" (life) and "Amin" (an indication of the chemical compound). Vitamins are vital substances of organic origin that can not be synthesized (which means: they are produced) by a living organism, and therefore must act along with nutrition. There are fat-soluble (A, D, E, K, F, P) and water-soluble vitamins (B group, nicotinic acid and others, C, H). Nutrition experts working in the field of fisheries conducted research related to commercial fish; The results of these studies should be used when feeding ornamental fish. Professor Hans Mann compiled a table explaining the role that certain vitamins play in metabolism in fish and what symptoms of diseases occur when these vitamins are deficient:

Vitamin supplementation should be combined with preparations that do not contain any impurities; It is best to dissolve them in distilled water (if this is not done in advance by the manufacturer). In Germany, drugs of this type are considered medicamentous and therefore are sold only in pharmacies. Multivitamin preparations, which are offered to aquarists by specialized pet stores, differ considerably in their concentration.

In aquariums it is customary to add vitamins to fish food. Especially suitable for this live food, for example, red bloodworm and other species; Before feeding it is necessary to sprinkle the larvae with a vitamin preparation so that the liquid can settle on them. If the drug is mixed in a solution containing vegetable oil or sugar, then live food should be sprinkled to them in the minimum amount: larvae or midge may suffocate.

For vitamin supplementation in combination with inanimate food, in principle, the same methods are used: spraying or blending. On the eve of the fish do not need to feed. The faster they devour food shed by the drug, the faster vitamins reach their stomach and spread throughout the body. But if the vitaminized food remains in the aquarium for long minutes, the vitamins, of course, will dissolve in the water. Often, the feeding of food cooked in this way is difficult because more quickly floating or sturdy fish intercept the best pieces in front of the other aquarium inhabitants. There can be only one solution: the fish of a particular group must be kept separately. Sometimes the authors of articles on aquaristics say that vitamin preparations should be added directly to aquarium water. But this method is inefficient, not effective enough! After all, the necessary substances are diluted too much; Fish do not know how to filter water, and therefore can not perceive these substances in full.

Live daphni aquarist is best to get yourself. These water fleas can easily be caught with a net with a very fine mesh in reservoirs where ducks are swimming.	We need to take buckets with us and separate the daphnia from the dirt that got into the net.
Black bloodworm is caught most often near coastal vegetation. To determine whether the necessary larvae are found here, it is possible only after several attempts: the net should be lowered into the water halfway and pulled along the water.	Then you need to check the contents of the net and decide whether you should change the place.

So let's sum up all of the above:
Proper feeding of aquarium fish is one of the most important problems in their content. If the number of fish in natural reservoirs depends, in particular on the availability of food, then in an aquarium such an equilibrium is violated, and the number of fish placed in it is determined by a number of other factors. To the selection of fodder for fish, taking into account the age, the establishment and observance of the norms of feeding should always be treated very carefully. Excess feed affects the purity of water, the content of oxygen in it, which leads to a violation of biological equilibrium. Lack of feed, in turn, its low quality leads to a decrease in the vital activity of fish. Aquarium fish also need to provide a variety of food.