What to feed baby tropical fish

How to Feed Aquarium Fish Fry

Shirlie Sharpe

Shirlie Sharpe is an aquatic expert and writer with over three decades of experience keeping and raising ornamental fish. She has consulted with The Minnesota Zoo and the National Aquarium. Shirlie has also authored a book on setting up aquariums.

Learn more about The Spruce Pets' Editorial Process

Updated on 12/02/19

Reviewed by

Nick Saint-Erne

Reviewed by Nick Saint-Erne

Dr. Nick Saint-Erne, DVM, is a highly accomplished veterinarian and writer who has treated zoo animals and exotic pets for more than 35 years. He has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve pet store animal care among other endeavors. Dr. Saint-Erne is part of The Spruce Pets' veterinary review board.

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Kai Schreiber / Flickr / CC By 2. 0

The key factors to keeping the fry alive and healthy are keeping the water and environment clean, protecting the fry from adult fish, and providing proper nutrition. Most fish owners already know how to take care of the first two, but feeding fry is often the stumbling block that new breeders run into. Newborn fish cannot eat the same foods as the parents, so the challenge is providing the proper food until the fry grow large enough to eat standard foods.

Fry Type

Keep in mind that young fish will eat different foods at different stages of their development. Likewise, different species of fish have somewhat different needs. For instance, newly hatched Discus fry feed off their parents' slime coat for the first few days of life and therefore do not need to be fed until they have grown past that stage. It is wise to study the species of fish you are breeding to determine if the fry have special feeding requirements.

Taking a broader view, there are two general types of fry, those that are hatched from eggs and those that are born live. Fry that are born live are larger and have developed more fully than those hatched from eggs. Consequently, these live-born fry have a larger mouth than the typical fry hatched from an egg, and can, therefore, eat larger foods from the start. It is quite common for live-born fry to eat a finely ground version of the same foods as parent fish.

Fry from egglaying fish are smaller when they hatch and often are not free swimming for the first few days. In these cases they remain at the site where the egg was attached, feeding off their yolk-sac until they begin to swim free on their own.

Feeding Stages

Fry that are freshly hatched have very tiny bodies, and can only eat the smallest of foods. However, they are growing rapidly, and have demanding nutritional needs. This stage is particularly critical, as newly hatched fry can starve to death quickly. Some of the best foods at this stage are infusoria, freshly hatched brine shrimp, and green water. These foods must be available immediately when the fry hatch, as they cannot wait even one day for foods to be prepared. If the previously described foods are not available at the time the fry hatch, egg yolk preparations, and commercially prepared fry foods are good alternatives that don't require a lot of time to prepare.

Once the fry have passed the first week or two of life, they are generally large enough to eat similar foods as the parents, just in smaller portions. Virtually all purchased foods, either flake, pelleted, or freeze-dried, can be ground to a fine size that fry can eat. This article describes simple steps for creating your fry foods, using simple tools that you probably have on hand. As the fry grow larger, you can make the food particles larger until they can eat the same size food as the parent fish. Keep in mind that although the fry may now be eating the same foods as the parents, they need to be fed more often due to the small size of their stomachs.

Fry Foods

There are several basic high-quality foods that most fry will do well on. As previously mentioned, these foods must be on hand at the time the fry hatch, and the supply must be continuous until they can eat traditional foods. So prepare ahead of time to ensure you have what you need. Aquarium clubs come in handy when rearing fry, as there are often members who can help you in a pinch. If you want to breed and raise fish, consider finding a local club for support.

Infusoria: Infusoria grows naturally in most tanks, particularly those with live plants. However, there may not be sufficient quantities to sustain the full hatching of fry. Therefore, it is helpful to culture your own infusoria to ensure having an adequate amount. This infusoria article from your Guide gives plenty of tips for growing your own culture.
Brine shrimp: Few things can rival the nutritional value of freshly hatched brine shrimp or the appeal it has to virtually all fish. If you choose to raise it yourself, you will have to start the culture before the fry hatch and keep it going for a while to ensure the fry have sufficient quantities. Another option that owners use is a commercially prepared live brine shrimp preparation, or frozen baby brine shrimp.
Green water: Green water is exactly what it sounds like, water with microscopic algae growth that turns it green. It makes excellent first food for young fry and is easy to grow. Simply take a gallon jar and fill it with aquarium water, scrape some algae out of your tank and add to the jar (if you have no algae, a bit of grass will suffice). Add a few drops of plant fertilizer, then leave the jar in full sun. Within a matter of days, the water should be green and teeming with microscopic nutrients that are ideal for your fry. Take a few ounces out of the jar for each fry feeding, and replace it with treated freshwater.
Egg yolk: Egg yolk is a power-packed food that is easy to make into preparation for newly hatched fry. Hard boil an egg, take the yolk and wrap in a small piece of gauze, compressing it so small portions protrude through the cloth. Hang it in the tank and the fry will feed off it. Remove and replace daily for the first several days.
DIY fry food: Live born fry, or fry that are a week or more old can usually eat finely ground foods, that you can prepare yourself.
Purchased fry food: Commercially prepared fry foods.

Find out What Happens Before a Female Live-Bearer Gives Birth

How to Raise Baby Fish Fry in Aquariums (and Increase Survival Rate) – Aquarium Co-Op

Home· Freshwater Aquarium Blog·How to Raise Baby Fish Fry in Your Aquarium

One of the most thrilling parts of the aquarium hobby is getting your fish to breed. If you are taking good care of your fish and feeding them well, one day you may spot a tiny baby darting around the tank. While accidental fry are always exciting, there are several ways you can increase their survival rate or boost your numbers if you plan on selling them for profit.

1. Protect the Eggs from the Parents

Many fish do not show any parental care towards their offspring and will happily eat their own eggs that they just laid a few seconds ago. Therefore, the first step is to save the eggs from being gobbled up. Use one of the following methods based on the species and their egg-laying behavior:

If the eggs are sticky, you can provide sites for the eggs to be laid, such as yarn spawning mops, dense plants (like java moss or frogbit), ceramic tiles, or spawning cones. Once the eggs are laid, you can move the spawning site to a safer location.
If the sticky eggs are laid on the aquarium glass or other immovable objects, you can remove the parents from the tank. Another method is to manually collect the eggs by rolling them off with your fingers or using a plastic credit card.
If the eggs are freely scattered around and don’t stick to things, you can use layers of marbles as substrate to allow eggs to fall in between the cracks where the parents can’t reach them. Another similar technique is to place a mesh screen or plastic mesh from the craft store just above the bottom of the aquarium floor to let the eggs fall through. Some breeders like to put mosses or other bushy plants underneath the mesh as additional protection.

Some fish like discus prefer to use spawning cones or tiles to lay their eggs on vertical surfaces.

Most cave-spawning fish (like plecos and dwarf cichlids) are good at guarding their eggs, but new parents are often prone to eating them. If you wish to hatch the eggs yourself, use an appropriate-sized pleco cave, coconut hut, Apistogramma cave, or PVC pipe for the fish to spawn, and then take away the cave as soon as the eggs are laid.
Certain African cichlid species are mouth brooders that protectively hold their eggs and fry inside their mouths. However, some breeders choose to strip the female of the eggs (or fry) to prevent the babies from being accidentally swallowed, stop the fry from being released into the main tank, and give the mother more time to recover from her duties. This is an in-depth topic that extends beyond the scope of this article, so do your research to learn more about stripping eggs and which method works best for you.

Once the eggs have been isolated, now it is time to hatch them. Eggs, especially unfertilized ones, are prone to growing fungus, which can quickly spread and ruin an entire clutch. Larger eggs that belong to African cichlids, plecos, peacock gudgeons, and the like can be placed in an egg tumbler that constantly blows fresh, oxygenated water onto the eggs and discourages fungal infections. Another method is to place the eggs in a small, plastic container of water with an air stone for circulation, and keep the eggs warm by floating the container in an aquarium or clipping it to the side of the tank wall. You can add a few drops of methylene blue (until the water turns slightly blue) or some alder cones as a gentle fungicide, and then do a couple of 50% water changes in the container once the eggs hatch. With both techniques, use a turkey baster to remove any eggs that have fungal growth.

2. Remove the Fry

After the eggs have hatched, the baby fish still aren’t out of the danger zone. Separating the fry from the adults not only prevents them from being eaten, but it also allows them to grow bigger and faster because there is less competition for food. Additionally, it is best to keep the newborns in a smaller container so that they don’t have to expend as much energy swimming to reach their meals. A net breeder or breeder box with a clump of moss for shelter is ideal because it allows the fry to live in the same tank and water conditions as the parents. For livebearers that bear live young instead of laying eggs, you can place the pregnant female in the breeder box when she’s about to give birth and then remove the mother after all the fry have arrived.

A breeder box allows you to raise fry in the same aquarium as the adults while protecting them from predation.

When the baby fry are bigger and stronger, move them to a larger grow-out tank to give them more room to swim around. If some fry are growing faster than others, you may need to separate them out by size into multiple aquariums to prevent cannibalism and lessen competition for food. This sorting process is also an opportunity to cull any sickly fry if needed to prevent defective genes from spreading and to avoid giving customers unhealthy fish.

3. Provide Lots of Cover

For people who do not have the room for an extra grow-out aquarium, you can try colony breeding instead, in which the parents and young are raised in the same fish tank. While this approach may not yield the highest number of offspring, it is certainly easier in terms of time, cost, and space. To increase the fry survival rate, the key is to provide tons of little nooks and crannies where the babies can escape into but the adults cannot fit inside. For example, breeders often make DIY fish fry traps using floating pond plant baskets or craft mesh rolled into a tall cylinder using zip ties. This allows you to either place a pregnant livebearer inside the trap so that the fry can escape out the holes, or vice versa where the parents are outside the trap and the fry can swim inside for safety. A giant wad of Easter basket grass is also used by breeders to create a dense mass that only the tiniest babies can swim in between.

If you prefer a more natural-looking form of shelter, a thick jungle of live aquarium plants also serves the same purpose. Our favorites for colony breeding include java moss, Pogosteman stellatus ‘octopus’, water sprite, and floating plants with bushy roots (like dwarf water lettuce and frogbit). Some species prefer a pile of rocks with small gaps in between for the youngest fish to squeeze past. Finally, aquarium decorations and small artificial caves can provide additional hiding places for fry to dart behind if being chased.

For colony breeding, adding lots of aquarium plants can help hide your baby fish.

4. Keep Good Water Quality

Baby fish are less hardy than adult fish and therefore can be more sensitive to any toxins or excess waste in the water. Make sure to include gentle filtration like a sponge filter, and regularly maintenance the filter so that it doesn’t become clogged up with fish poop. If you’re using a hang-on-back (HOB) or other filter with an intake tube, cover the intake with a pre-filter sponge to prevent little ones from getting sucked into the motor.

Since you will be feeding the fry a lot, consider doing daily or multiple water changes per week at first. This part can be a little stressful because no one wants to accidentally vacuum up any babies. When cleaning a breeder net or small container, a turkey baster is a nifty tool for carefully removing small amounts of water. For grow-out tanks, you can also create a tiny aquarium siphon using a length of airline tubing. Attach one end of the tubing to a chopstick with rubber bands, and then place that end into the aquarium water. The chopstick allows you to easily maneuver the siphon and avoid the baby fish. Use your mouth to suck on the other end of the tubing to start water flowing through the tiny siphon, and then place that end into a white bucket for collecting dirty water. The white bucket allows you to more easily see any fry that accidentally escape so that you can retrieve them using a turkey baster or little shrimp net. You can also have the siphoned water stream into a fish net or breeder net clipped to the side of the bucket, which will then collect any fry that escape.

Make a DIY fry siphon out of tubing, a chopstick, and rubber bands for cleaning grow-out tanks.

5. Feed Tiny Foods Multiple Times a Day

Fry have tiny mouths and tiny stomachs, and just like human babies, they must constantly eat all throughout the day. Newly hatched fish come with a yolk sac that feeds them until they are strong enough to freely swim and look for food. Then they require multiple small meals, up to 3-5 times a day if possible. You can set alarms on your phone or even use a automatic fish feeder for larger foods. The smallest newborns (e.g., rainbowfish and tetras) should be fed nearly microscopic foods like green water, infusoria, fry powder, and vinegar eels. Larger newborn fish (e.g., livebearers and African cichlids) can almost immediately eat crushed flakes, Repashy gel food, and Easy Fry and Small Fish Food.

Hatching live baby brine shrimp to feed your fish fry is the best way to increase their growth and health.

However, the #1 fry food that every veteran fish keeper and fish farm knows will bring out the best growth and numbers in your breeding projects is live baby brine shrimp. Not only are they packed with highly nutritious proteins and healthy fats, but they also actively swim in the water column, triggering your baby fish’s hunting instincts so that their bellies become filled with delicious, pink crustaceans. If you haven’t tried hatching your own baby brine shrimp, check out our step-by-step tutorial and give it a try.

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Tropical fish breeding, photo fish breeding, live-bearing fish, oviparous fish, farikan cichlids yulidochromis neolamprologus fish, mouth-incubating cichlids, fish breeding

Sooner or later every aquarist will want to breed his own fish . It doesn't matter for what reason you are going to do this, but you will need a clear plan, time and additional aquariums. Below, we outline the actions that will help you achieve your goal.

Viviparous fish

Our first exposure to young fish is usually through the fault of viviparous fish - guppies, mollies and swordtails are excellent examples of viviparous fish. The fry of these fish are very easy to grow. If you do not have a separate aquarium for fry, use a baby jig, you can buy it at any pet store. These plastic or mesh containers are attached to the wall or float freely in the aquarium. The pregnant female is placed in a jig, and after the birth of the fry, the female is released back into the aquarium. Put a sprig of grass or some plants in the nest box so that the fry can hide and feel safe.

Fry can be fed special fry food or regular powdered flakes. Feeding frequency 4-6 times a day. After 4-6 weeks, the fry will grow up enough to be released into the general aquarium, but it is better to use a separate "children's" aquarium for rearing the young. For these purposes, a 15-60 l aquarium with a mechanical filtration system and a sponge, as well as with a bare bottom, is quite suitable. A bottom without soil will allow you to see uneaten food and easily remove it with a soil cleaner. Use plastic plants with weights to provide cover for the young.

Egg-laying fish

Our first encounter with egg-laying fish usually happens when we meet cichlids. The first sign that eggs have been laid may be a pile of soil dug out from under the rock and a couple of fish chasing anyone who swims close. The females usually have a bright red abdomen and are considerably smaller than the males. The eggs usually lie near the rocks and the fry will hatch in about 3-5 days. Then the fry will be in the larval stage for a couple more days. During these days, you may notice that the parents collect their offspring in their mouths and carry them from place to place. There is nothing unusual about this, so the parents are looking for a safer place for the fry. After the fry begin to swim on their own, the parents will make every effort to prevent them from running away.

Again, if you want to purposefully breed fish, you should move the caviar rock to a separate tank. The water in the new aquarium must be poured from your main aquarium. Do not expose the stone or caviar to fresh air - use a sealed plastic bag filled with water when transporting. You can feed the fry with flakes crushed into dust or special feed.

Other oviparous African cichlids can be placed in a "species tank", often with excellent results. Julidochromis and neolamprologus can be placed in tanks with a capacity of 60-160 liters. You will need to place plenty of rocks and rocks in the aquarium to provide cover for the spawning pair. It's best to start with at least 6 fish so they can pair up. The breeding pair will choose a shelter and hide for about 10-14 days, and then, a cloud of small cichlids will suddenly appear in front of your eyes. Unlike other cichlids, African cichlids will not attack the young, and soon your aquarium will be filled with fish of different generations.

So find out what kind of cichlid you have, give them the right conditions, and then sit back and enjoy your fish.

Sergeant Major fish (Abudefduf Saxatilis)

Mouth incubating fish

The next step in the complexity of fish breeding, perhaps, will be cichlids incubating eggs in the mouth. The main problem here is to prevent the males from killing the females and to provide the fish with a large enough aquarium where they can breed without problems. If we are talking seriously about African cichlids, then your task is to provide enough hiding places for females in the aquarium. It is best to use PVC tubes with a diameter suitable for females, but too small for males. If aesthetics are important to you, then you can easily run PVC pipes along the bottom of the aquarium and sprinkle them with soil and sand in order to give a more natural look. You can also use epoxy and glue small stones to the tube to give it a more irregular shape.

Related article What stimulation is used to induce spawning in fish?

Most of these fish require several females for each male. And usually there is only one male in the aquarium. After breeding, the female will carry the eggs in her mouth for 2 weeks. It will be most convenient to catch the female and put her in a separate aquarium about a week after spawning. If the female drops the cubs during the carrying, she will collect them back in her mouth. During this period, females usually refuse to eat, although some of them manage to eat with fry in their mouths. Again, the bare bottom of the aquarium will help you clean up excess food, but the soil will make the female feel "at home". To achieve this effect, use PVC pipes and plastic plants.

As soon as the female has released the fry, you should transfer her back to the community tank and feed her well for 1-2 weeks. This will help her recover from a forced hunger strike while carrying fry. As a result, the cycle repeats itself again. Now the fry can eat bottom food. Frequent water changes will help speed up the growth of the pups.

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What food do aquarium fish eat, how to feed aquarium fish

How to choose food for fish, not to get lost in a huge variety of species and brands, to choose a good composition that will serve as a disease prevention and give a long life to the inhabitants of the aquarium? Our review will help answer this question: you will find out which products are recognized as the best and are most in demand among experienced aquarists.

Feed varieties

Food for fish should be selected depending on their size, structural features of the oral apparatus. As you know, both predators and herbivores can live in aquariums, which will eat differently. It is customary to single out:

Feed in the form of tablets - intended for feeding bottom dwellers with a lower mouth, as well as for snails and shrimps.
In the form of flakes, chips - it will be appreciated by the fish in the aquarium, accustomed to swimming in its middle part, for example, cockerel fish. Experts recommend adding ornathus chips or flakes to gourami, including feeding guppy fish, despite the fact that it is considered an omnivore.

In our online store you can buy granular fish food from leading manufacturers:

250 ml

695 ₽

636 ₽

250 ml x 2 pcs

1 390 ₽

1 210 ₽

250 ml x 6 pcs

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9000 35 GR 9000 9000 72 ₽ ₽ ₽

66 ₽

35 g x 2 pcs

144 ₽

128 ₽

35 g x 10 pcs

720 ₽

619 ₽

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100 ml

526 ₽

481 ₽

100 ml x 2 pcs

₽

915 ₽

9000 100 ml x 6 pcs 9000 9000 9000 show everything Proposals

100 ml

100 ml x 2 pcs

100 ml x 12 pcs

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1 l

550 ₽

504 ₽

1 l x 2 pcs

9000 1 100 ₽

958 ₽

1 l x 4 pcs

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500 ml

1 241 ₽

1 137 ₽

500 ml x 2 pcs

500 pcs

show all sentences

In the form of granules, sticks. When in contact with water, the food increases in size, suitable for feeding large representatives of the aquatic world. It is important to organize the correct dosed feeding of aquarium fish, not allowing them to eat outside the schedule.
Microfood - they are fed to fry and small fish (including newborn bettas, guppy fry), unable to grab a large piece. It requires timely cleaning of the environment, as it settles at the bottom, polluting the water.

Separately, it must be said about live food, it can be coretra, daphnia, cyclops, bloodworm, tubifex, large predators eat squid or shrimp with pleasure.

What kind of food do aquarium fish eat

Choosing dry food for guppies, motley cockerels and other species should be based on a combination of the most important characteristics - composition, shape, price. Modern brands use dried insects, vitamin supplements, healthy algae as raw materials. In cheap feeds, the protein component is negligible, most of the composition is represented by useless chitin, which inevitably leads to frequent morbidity and shortens the life expectancy of pets if fed on an ongoing basis.

The shape and size of the food should correspond to the size of the fish. Manufacturers indicate on the packaging for which varieties this or that food is intended. The price of feed usually corresponds to its quality, well-known brands value their name and reputation, produce a quality product, the price of which is slightly higher than the average.

Feed storage

Food has an expiration date. An open jar can be stored for no more than 2-5 months, in order to avoid damage, try to buy the amount that you will use up in the near future. Otherwise, the added vitamin complex will collapse and the fish will not get good nutrition.

Live food should be stored in the refrigerator using a damp cloth. The term of keeping the larvae is limited by their lifespan, which is usually no more than 2-3 days. When using jelly-like food, care must be taken to ensure that the production date is fresh to ensure maximum nutrient content.

How to feed

The main rule is not to overfeed or exceed the recommended feeding frequency. Most of the inhabitants of the aquarium (swordtails, cockerels, barbs, guppies) are not able to control the feeling of satiety, they will consume everything that you pour. This will certainly lead to obesity, and subsequently, to the death of guppies and other pets. Follow the recommendations:

Adult bettas and other fish should eat 1-2 times a day;
you need to feed so that the fish eats the pellets in 2 minutes;
do not allow components to sink to the bottom, except for special tablets.

Feed manufacturers indicate on the product packaging how much to feed at a time and how often to replenish fish stocks.

Our range includes universal feeds, diets for goldfish and other ornamental species:

20 gr

134 ₽

124 ₽

20 g x 2 pcs

268 ₽

240 ₽

20 g 10 pcs

1 340 ₽

1 159 ₽

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66 ml

350 ₽

320 ₽

66 ml x 2 pcs

700 ₽

608 ₽

9000 ml x 6 pcs

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9000

75 ₽

2222 69 ₽

10 g x 2 pcs

150 ₽

134 ₽

10 g x 10 pcs

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The best products for fish

Among the huge variety of food for representatives of the aquarium world, there are brands whose quality deserves special attention: TETRA, sera, Zoomir. Learn more about each manufacturer.

TETRA

TETRA is a German-made food that satisfies the highest needs of aquarists; in the branded line you will find all possible types of diets. The composition includes the manufacturer's patented BioActive formula for a healthy and long life of aquarium pets, as well as 40 varieties of high-quality raw materials, minerals, vitamins and nutrients.

Complete food for aquarium fish and crustaceans can be found here:

100 ml

452 ₽

414 ₽

100 ml x 2 pcs

904 ₽

786 ₽

ml x 6 pcs

2 712 ₽

2 272 ₽

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100 ml

290 ₽

265 ₽

100 ml x 2 pcs

100 ml x 12 pcs

5 Show all offers

0002 15 g x 10 pcs

15 g x 25 pcs

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Advantages:

reasonable price;
large selection;
availability;
disease prevention;
the presence of Omega-3 in the composition.

There are no shortcomings, judging by user reviews. Although on the Internet there are rarely comments and reviews with negative conclusions.

SERA

The products of the company sera (Germany) are produced in various forms, there are small and large packages (from 10 g to 10 kg), which can be stored in a box. Most aquarium inhabitants like the taste of food, it is possible to choose a diet for predators and herbivorous fish. Aquarists note good pet health, no side effects, good digestibility (up to 80%, according to the manufacturer) and obesity prevention if the granules are poured according to the schedule. The composition contains selected high quality components, including animal protein obtained from bloodworm, krill, daphnia, etc.

Product advantages: