| A fish needs to have all the right | | | | |
| ingredients in its diet to live a healthy | | | | Protein over 45 per cent Fat 3 - 6 per |
| life. These ingredients include amongst | | | | cent Fibre 2 - 4 per cent |
| others: vitamins, minerals, and trace | | | | |
| elements, as well as fats, fibre, protein, | | | | The typical analysis of a good quality flake |
| and carbohydrate. | | | | food, or a tablet or wafer type food for |
| | | | Herbivore fishes, i.e. vegetarians, should |
| Calcium and Phosphorous can be found in | | | | read something like: |
| fishmeal, which is a major ingredient in fish | | | | |
| flakes; these two components are particularly | | | | Protein 15 per cent Fat 1 - 3 per cent |
| important for the development of a fish's | | | | Fibre 5 - 10 per cent |
| bony skeleton. Not all foods are designed as | | | | |
| a staple diet. Some foods such as: dried | | | | However you will be hard pushed to find flake |
| daphnia, bloodworms, or tubifex worms, as | | | | food with such a low fat content as these |
| well as live and frozen foods do not | | | | guide figures. So you will have to compromise |
| necessarily contain all the vitamins and | | | | between flakes that are as low as possible in |
| trace elements. | | | | fat content, find flakes that your fishes |
| | | | will take readily, and decide on a product |
| They are fine to supplement a staple diet, | | | | that you are happy with. |
| but should not be the only food you feed to | | | | |
| your fishes; otherwise you will be faced with | | | | As with all animals, fat is very unhealthy, |
| dietary problems developing through | | | | even more so for fishes. I'm sure that you |
| deficiencies of these components. These | | | | are aware of what happens to fat when it gets |
| problems can be corrected by regular feeding | | | | cold, it turns into a solid. Do you see my |
| with a high quality flake food. | | | | point? Fishes are cold-blooded animals! |
| | | | |
| The major manufacturers of dry fish foods | | | | Therefore, the fat that is consumed by the |
| will have formulated their flakes from | | | | fish will coagulate more readily and lead to |
| natural ingredients, which will include | | | | fatty deposits in the tissues, which in turn |
| vegetable matter; therefore there will be | | | | will cause degeneration of internal organs |
| sufficient quantities of all the important | | | | such as the liver. I would not be overly |
| trace elements. | | | | concerned by feeding my fishes with flakes of |
| | | | a reputable well known manufacturer. |
| Most manufacturers display a list of | | | | |
| ingredients as well as a typical analysis on | | | | As with most foods, either animal or human, |
| their packaging; you should look for this | | | | there is little to indicate how rich the food |
| label when buying food for your fishes. It's | | | | is in vitamins. There is usually a list of |
| the foods that are labelled as complete | | | | vitamins on the label, but this, as a rule, |
| balanced diets that you need to look for. | | | | doesn't mean very much to a normal person |
| | | | reading it. |
| The typical analysis of a good quality flake | | | | |
| food for a general diet, i.e. fishes that | | | | Having said that, I've been using dried and |
| like a mixed diet (Omnivore), should read | | | | flake foods for about twenty-five years, and |
| something like: | | | | my fishes have always been lively, colourful, |
| | | | and healthy. My experience shows, with |
| Protein 35 per cent Fat 2 - 5 per cent | | | | confidence, that you can provide your fishes |
| Fibre 3 - 8 per cent | | | | with dried, and flake foods which have an |
| | | | adequate quantity of all the vitamins, |
| The typical analysis of a good quality flake | | | | minerals, and trace elements, as well as all |
| food for Carnivorous fishes, i.e. meat | | | | the other necessary ingredients that are |
| eaters, should read something like: | | | | needed for a staple diet. |