A Detailed Guide to Feeding Ornamental Fish and Their Lifespan

Many people like to keep some beautiful ornamental fish at home. There are many kinds of ornamental fish, and the common ones include goldfish, koi, arowana and various tropical fish. Although ornamental fish are especially beautiful, they can be rather troublesome to feed, so do you know exactly how ornamental fish should be fed? How long can ornamental fish live? Let's find out together below!

How to feed ornamental fish

Choose suitable feed and pay attention to the number of feedings and the method. When buying fish feed, choose products made by reputable manufacturers that meet quality standards, so that the fish can easily digest and absorb the feed after eating and will not get sick. When feeding, note that during the day it is generally about 3 times, once every 6 hours. Feed as little as possible at night.

How long is the lifespan of ornamental fish

Take tropical fish, for example; there are many kinds, and it depends on which fish it is. For example: a well-kept silver arowana lives 15-17 years, a blood parrot has a lifespan of about 8 years, and a fortune catfish about 15 years.

Goldfish can live up to 30 years, guppies have an average lifespan of about 2~3 years, and flowerhorn cichlids have a lifespan of about 5 years. So the lifespan of ornamental fish varies depending on the species.

How to keep ornamental fish well

1. Do not change too much water in the fish tank at one time, as that will cause water quality discomfort. Water quality includes pH value, hardness, chloride ions, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, sulfides, protein and turbidity, etc.

2. How to feed. In an ornamental fish tank, the most important thing is to control feeding, and it is best to feed once or twice a day, with the food eaten within 3 to 5 minutes. Feed less on rainy days, and do not feed at night. Fish need to consume more oxygen when digesting food, and on rainy days and at night the air pressure is lower, so the dissolved oxygen in the water is also low; feeding fish at such times may lead to severe oxygen deficiency in the water and kill the fish. Most fish deaths occur at night, and severe oxygen deficiency in the water is one of the main reasons.

3. The bait must be clean, which is the thing beginners most easily overlook. Feeding unclean fish bait can very easily lead to fish disease. It is recommended to buy brand-name frozen fresh food produced by professional companies, such as bloodworms, brine shrimp, etc. Although live worms such as tubifex and bloodworms are what fish like most, live worms grow in polluted water environments and can very easily die and rot during temporary holding, so releasing live food should be done with caution.

4. Keep the water clean. After fish eat, they consume a large amount of oxygen and discharge a large amount of waste, which pollutes the water and breeds bacteria. In order to keep the water clean, a highly efficient filter must be installed. If fish are kept in a bare tank, every day you should also siphon out the waste from the bottom of the tank while changing one tenth or slightly more of the old water, and this must not be neglected especially in summer. For an ecological tank with fish and aquatic plants kept together, changing 1/3~1/4 of the water once a week is enough. It is best to use a filter with an aeration design, so that filtration and aeration can be carried out at the same time, both purifying the water and replenishing oxygen. However, a planted tank should not be aerated.

How to choose healthy ornamental fish

1. Do not buy thin fish. Because from the front of the fish we can clearly see whether the flesh on the back lacks a healthy sheen, we usually choose healthy, lively fish with shiny backs.

2. Do not buy sick fish. White spot disease can be seen, but other diseases are very hard to see with the naked eye, so this can only be judged through fish-keeping experience. If a fish hides in a corner and breathes rapidly, it has very likely contracted ichthyophthiriasis, so do not buy such a fish.

3. Do not buy fish whose body color is poor, whose fins cannot spread out, and whose swimming posture looks like floating.

4. First observe how the fish reacts to bait, and only then buy. Among fish of the same kind, the fish that rushes over when it sees bait has a good appetite and is certainly a healthy fish with strong vitality.

As described above, there are actually many kinds of ornamental fish, and you can choose according to your own situation. If you do not have much time to care for them, you can choose ornamental fish that are easy to keep and have relatively strong vitality!