What kinds of ornamental fish feed are there?
Like food fish, ornamental fish need comprehensive and balanced nutrients; the difference is that ornamental fish are valued for health and color, while food fish are valued for growth rate and feed efficiency. Feed can be divided into two types: natural feed and artificial synthetic feed. Let us take a look below!
Natural feed for ornamental fish
Natural feed includes live bait and its frozen or dried products. Live bait includes water fleas, bloodworms, brine shrimp, tubifex worms, small river shrimp, mealworms, silkworm pupae, etc. For ornamental fish, live bait is the best food and source of nutrition, but live bait also has many disadvantages.
1. It is not easy to preserve for a long time.
2. It easily carries parasites and bacteria.
3. The source and supply of live bait cannot be guaranteed.
4. Long-term use of a single type of live bait alone easily causes nutritional imbalance in the fish body, leading to illness or death.
Artificial feed for ornamental fish
1. Flake feed: The artificial feed developed early in Europe and America was mainly flake-based and is still used today. Flake feed is more suitable for small fish and is convenient to feed, but leftover feed disperses on the bottom of the tank and is not easy to remove, and over time it easily causes water pollution and leads to fish disease.
2. Extruded feed: Based on the floating or sinking needs of various types of ornamental fish, extruded pellet feed products suitable for their growth and vivid coloration are manufactured. Extruded feed should remain in the water for at least 3 h or more, so extruded feed is the feed that pollutes water quality the least. Its particle size can be manufactured from micro-particles of 0.5 mm to large particles of 7 mm, so from fry to adult fish, and from small fish to large fish, there is extruded feed suitable for their mouth size, and the pellets of extruded feed can be placed in an automatic feeder for timed rotating feeding, making it the most ideal feed for raising ornamental fish at present.
Comparison of artificial feed and natural feed
1. The source of artificial feed is relatively stable and can be supplied continuously throughout the year, while natural feed is restricted by the seasons. It also eliminates the hardship of using a large amount of manpower to catch fish insects and reduces costs.
2. Artificial feed can be adjusted at any time according to the different nutritional needs of ornamental fish at different stages of growth and development, which both meets the nutritional needs of ornamental fish at different stages and reduces costs.
3. Artificial feed can have a certain amount of medicine added according to seasonal changes to prevent and treat some common fish diseases and increase the survival rate of young fish.
4. Artificial feed can have some biological pigments added artificially to deepen the fish body's coloration and enhance the ornamental value of the fish.
5. Artificial feed undergoes a certain high-temperature treatment, which can kill some bacteria and pathogenic bacteria.
6. After artificial feed is scattered and put in, it floats on the water surface for a short while, and then sinks at varying speeds, thus taking into account fish in different activity and feeding areas. It can be said to be an all-around fish food.