fish flake food

[woodboys]

Is there some way to keep the flakes from breaking into little pieces when you get half way thru a canister of food? It seems like the small pieces sink quicker and doesn't get eaten.

[jamie1972]

The fish don't care what size the pieces are. If they sink, it just gives them something to hunt for! Remember....in the wild, fish aren't hand-fed. They have to scavenge for food constantly.

Even our danios and neons will scavenge on the bottom.

Just be sure not to over-feed! I try to feed LESS than what I think they need.

[YoFishboy]

LOL....Jamie is right.....BUT IT IS IRRITATING! the little stuff settles lower in the canister, so that's why the small pieces are at the end. It also helps if you shake the food out and don't grab with your fingers.....ok....I can't believe I felt that was worth posting.......I will speak no more of this OCD trait of mine......thanks a lot for bringing it up.....

[echoofformless]

I use a small spoon to get my food. That seems to reduce some of the disintegration.

Certain foods are more prone to it than others - Omega One flakes are very light and brittle. But this is not to say they aren't high quality - they could be about the highest quality on the market. Therefore I wouldn't change foods just to avoid the breaking. That's how inconsequential it really is.

So yeah - a small spoon. Shaking the food out can be a bit risky.

I would hate to have to vacuum a whole can of food out of a tank...

[rhardy]

Keep an old container and put half the contents of the new container in the old container. By doing this you handle the food container less often and therefore the flakes don't break up as much.

[Mgamer20o0]

LOL....Jamie is right.....BUT IT IS IRRITATING! the little stuff settles lower in the canister, so that's why the small pieces are at the end. It also helps if you shake the food out and don't grab with your fingers.....ok....I can't believe I felt that was worth posting.......I will speak no more of this OCD trait of mine......thanks a lot for bringing it up.....

your right... you all have OCD with fish food. i dont worry about it.

[wataugachicken]

actually for some fish the sinking flakes can be better for them - fish like goldfish and bettas can easily have swim bladder problems from eating off the surface and ingesting air bubbles along with their food. sinking flakes means no air intake in sensitive fishes.

[jm1212]

doesnt really matter to me as long as my tetras and corydoras pick them all off (which they are pretty good at... black skirts can jet)

[TimmyB42386]

Try the "granules". There usually barely any ash in these, or buy freeze dried food stuffs and you won't have to worry about it so much.

[Looks_Fishy]

My fish won't take flakes that are bigger than their mouths, they just ignore them (chewing is too hard :rolleyes:) and they eventually sink to the bottom for my plecos. So I have to pick out the flakes and crush them with my fingers into tiny (but not too tiny) bite-size pieces.

THEN they go crazy for it.

[johnlarson66]

I crumble the flakes in the tank into small pieces. I really thought the fish prefer the smaller flake bits than a big piece of flake. I really thought this was how you were supposed to do it. Maybe I learned this from Mr. Rogers...

I guess it really does not matter. Either way the fish are going to eat it. I guess I will keep crumbling, until I am told it is bad.

[echoofformless]

Crumble away. All that seems to matter is that the fish eat, and very little, if any goes to waste.

Though I think I question the idea of bettas being better fed a sinking food - it goes against their physiology - these are top dwelling fish with upturned mouths for the express purpose of getting their food from the surface. And my bettas will often ignore any pellets that sink. Instead I just end up with a betta looking back at me as if to say, "Um yeah buddy that one sank...so you need to give me another."