(Part 2) Best fish food according to redditors

Equipment List
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• Lighting: AquaIllumination Prime set to 14k
  
  
• Lighting Mount: AquaIllumination Prime Tank Mount
  
  
• Filtration: Innovative Marine Media Basket
  
  
• Filtration Media: Chemi Pure Blue
  
  
• Filtration Media: Filter Floss
  
  
• Return Pump: Upgraded to Maxi Jet 900
  
  
• Flow: Only the Spin Stream for now
  
  
• Heater: Cobalt Neo-Therm 50 Watt
  
  
• Thermometer: HDE Digital
  
  
• Auto Top Off: Tunze Nano Osmolator
  
  
• Algae Scrubber: Two Little Fishies Nanomag
  
  
• RO DI Unit: Express Water 100 Gallon Per Day 6 Stage
  
  
• In Line TDS Meter: HM Digital
  
  
• Handheld TDS and PH Meter
  
  
• Aquarium Salt: Red Sea Coral Pro
  
  Chemicals and Food
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• Kent Nano Reef A & B
  
  
• Brightwell Aquatics Zooplankton
  
  
• Two Little Fishies ReVive Coral Cleaner
  
  
• New Life Spectrum 1mm sinking pellet
  
  
• I also feed frozen mysis occassionally, and I have a .5mm Hatchery pellet for Walter from Sustainable Aquatics.
  
  OnePlus 2 Manual Camera Settings
  
  
• Focus: Auto
  
  
• Aperture: 1/20
  
  
• White Balance: Cloudy (Very Bottom Option)
  
  
• ISO: 100
  
  For those interested my light is an AI Prime LED set to the 14k spectrum.

Hey that's cool trick (my Raiku can do jumps through hoops too!) however, I would recommend getting a lid on that tank asap, especially since you taught him to jump. Bettas can and do jump out of the tank for any reason, and it's pretty risky to leave the tank open w/out a lid like that especially if you taught your betta to jump. There's many sad posts on reddit about a betta that jumped out of its tank to its death or if the owner was able to rescue the betta it still ended up quite injured from going out of the tank. https://www.reddit.com/r/bettafish/search/?q=betta%20jumped%20out&restrict_sr=1

Another thing I wanna bring up, it looks like you're feeding the betta with flake food?

Unfortunately, flake food is among the worst quality of foods for a betta (tons of junk fillers). I'd recommend a high quality betta pellet like NorthFin Betta Bits, New Life Spectrum betta, or Fluval/Nutrafin bug bites. You should also consider adding other variety of treat foods to give the betta a varied diet rather than them eating only the same thing for every meal day in and day out.

- https://www.amazon.com/Northfin-Food-Betta-Pellet-Package/dp/B00M4Q5DQ4/ <-- my favorite go-to betta pellet

- https://www.amazon.com/New-Life-Spectrum-Betta-70g/dp/B077MG4JR2/

- https://www.amazon.com/Fluval-A6577-Tropical-Granules-Medium/dp/B07194GD1F/

- Bloodworms with vitamins added: https://www.amazon.com/Hikari-Bio-Pure-Freeze-Dried-0-42-Ounce/dp/B00025K1GQ/

- ZooMed Betta Dial-A-Treat is a decent 3-in-1 treat wheel container which has 3 different treats for betta diet variety. https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-Laboratories-AZMBP5-0-12-Ounce/dp/B003ZWCTZO/

- You can also try adding a vitamin drops to the food AND tank water - VitaChem Freshwater - Vitamin drops for aquatic animals - REFRIGERATION needed after first use/opening, to keep the liquid vitamin drops fresh. https://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Enterprises-ABE16708-Freshwater-Vitachem/dp/B00BS96V78

Beware of overfeeding, which is equally bad for bettas as underfeeding (they are gluttons and would eat till they burst if given the chance) https://i.imgur.com/4RR2LZ9.jpg. (save this pic for reference, feed betta as much as makes his belly match between 1st and 2nd photo, then let him digest back down to a normal belly before feed again.)

Hikari First Bites Semi-Floating Fry Food for Pets, 0.35-Ounce https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D6Y3K8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_LntRDbNZ5NSF0

This is good but be careful they don’t eat much at that age and you’ll need to clean out what they don’t eat or it’ll rot and you’ll get an ammonia spike that will kill them really fast.

10 gal is fine. I started my first SW tank a couple months ago and I got a 6 gal. Now, you will have to have to have live rock. Without it, it will be nearly impossible to have a stable tank. I suggest you get around 15 pounds. Get all the live rock you plan to have in you tank at once so your parameters don't get an ammonia spike if you have a fish inside. Aragonite sand should be fine. I would stay FOWLR (fish only with live rock) because corals are much harder. The cycle is also very similar. Set up your tank, add sand, fill with a few inches of water, add rocks and aquascape, fill up with water, add a deli shrimp, and you should be good to go. You will need some salt, a hydrometer, a good reliable heater, some lighting, a power head and test kit. And also a filter.
This is what I would get
http://amzn.com/B000260FUM
I would put the bio rings and carbon aside and replace with this,
http://amzn.com/B0002A5VK2
http://amzn.com/B004PBD4J4
Add the matrix when you start cycling, then add the purigen when you are getting fish. The reviews are speaking for the product. Purigen is simply a godsend
http://amzn.com/B00019JOSO
Go for a refractometer if you can afford it but this works fine for me as long as I tap it an there are no bubbles.
http://amzn.com/B001EUE808
The test kit.
http://amzn.com/B0036S4YZ0
This powerhead should do fine in a 10 gallon.
http://amzn.com/B003M7P9YU
This is one of the best most reliable heaters on the market. Many will fail and bake your tank but not the jagar.
http://amzn.com/B003EE5GUS
These make life a whole lot easier BN testing water or adding things like calcium. You get 10 so they should def last a while.
http://amzn.com/B008SJ1H7A
Get like 5 of these. They are extremely accurate and last around 3 months each. Wrap the wire around the tank and have one on at all times. They also help when doing water changes. You should also pick up an extra heater for water changes, via aqua and aqua top have good ones. These are made in china and sent out to companies like coralife to be package and sold for like 10 dollars, see
http://amzn.com/B0002DI4TO

Now, this is the salt I use for water changes,
http://amzn.com/B0002DJU0G
This should last you a year or two and is way cheaper then continually buying salt. I personally use tap water that has been heavily decholinated with this,
http://amzn.com/B00176CVK8
You should get your tap water tested for copper which can kill invertebrates. A 5 gallon bucket is really useful as is this siphon for water changes,
http://amzn.com/B002LL8BWU
This net is really fine and will catch most tiny debris
http://amzn.com/B008HPOCUE
You will probably find it cheaper in a store. I leave it in front of my powerhead for a hour or two every couple to days to catch debris and waste.
These tweezers help for when you don't want to get your hands wet.
http://amzn.com/B001CWDSYA
But they do start rusting after a lot of
use.
http://amzn.com/B0002E7ITK
This has been the best fish food in my experience but all fish should be fed a varied diet. This is a good staple and should be substituted with brine shrimp, mysis shrimp (frozen) and seaweed.
Not everything here is necessary, I'm just telling you what helped me make the jump to saltwater.
Here are some pics of my tank:

http://imgur.com/p3PP7X7
http://imgur.com/9kUaq1g
http://imgur.com/wtUfCb5
http://imgur.com/yl82GRn

One last thing, in a tank that size, draw a small line where you want you water level to be, when it goes below that due to evaporation, top off water. Test your salinity often in that tank. I use seachem marine buffer to deal with pH issues but chemicals and buffets should be avoided.

Of course! Oh! I'd also feed pellets over flakes, flakes are messy and hard to portion out. New Life Spectrum, Fluval Bug Bites and Northfin Betta Bits are all good foods, I personally feed my fish a mix of all 3 but the betta bits are probably my favorite of the bunch.

1. Axolotls are usually about 10+ inches long when they are an adult
   
2. He needs to be fed earthworms
   
3. Keep him in a tank alone with no other fish or snails.
   
4. Is the tank cycled? Do you know how to cycle? Or what a cycle is? I will help you + explain if you need me to. Cycle needs to be 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and less than 40ppm of nitrate at all times. If it is not, or nitrates rise. You can kill him/give him chemical burns which is probably why his gills look bad/short. Chemicals burns can burn gills off and no cycle can stress them into being suseptible to disease and bacterial infection.
   
5. Does he have any hides? Axolotls do NOT have eye lids, they need dark places to hide. Do not invest in a lighted tank. Also tank needs to also be kept under 70 degrees. Preferably 60-64 degrees. Get a fan + thermometer and point fan water to cool it via evaporation if you haven't already.
   
6. Yes this is a waiting game. His gills look very very pale. They shouldn't be this pale at all. They should be red or bright pink. He looks sickly. But if he's eating still, then that's a good sign.
   
7. Based on his size he should be able to eat at least half an earth worm daily..until he is 10+ inches long he should be fed daily. After he bulks up and is older, he can be fed a whole earth worm every other day.
   
8. Sand is bad for any baby axolotl. They will eat it and it will basically constipate them to death ( impacted). Gravel is a terribly idea as well because they will eat it and get impacted and die. Anything double the size of their head is usually okay, so huge rocks are okay as long as they are smooth and have been cleaned properly. Sands a mess anyway though. You have to wash it, it can have gravel mixed in and sometimes comes with bacteria ( I got a bad batch before with gravel mixed in, and a couple hundred at the vet I finally saved my axies life. We believe the sand had a bad bacteria in it. . ) Also fake plants, mine tried to eat fake plants. So that was a nope.
   
9. Reptile tweezers. If you have a Petco/PetSmart near you I recommend fluval tweezers..They are black with grippy red tips. Usually near snake stuff. You "hand " feed him with these. Wiggle a earth worm in front of him and he'll snap the food right off of it. I recommend getting some earth worms. Walmart sells live ones in the fishing section fridge if you are in the US. He looks like he could eat at least a half of one. Id start by cutting one in 4 pieces, and try and see if he can eat two of the pieces ( yes this is gross but it's the most nutrition for them. Blood worms/shrimp are treats usually once or twice a week at most.) You can also get repashy meat pie ( it's basically meat jello mix) and feed him. I recommend getting a small super small ice cube trays online and freezing repashy if you go this route. Also you can do axolotl pellets to feed him too. But once again, worms are gold for them. Any pet store should have a jar of repashy meat pie in the reptile section. I can't find it on Amazon for you. I tried. But I have the link to the pellets. Maybe a teaspoon of these daily at his current size? I fed mine these off of a plastic spoon. They sink but axolotls don't usually go for unmoving food. So you gotta wiggle the spoon a bit tilt hey suck the food of it.
   
10. He needs at least a 10 gallon tank, but a 20 would be best for space for him.
    
    Please reply back if you have any other questions. I will answer you best I can.
    
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0787T25J1/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1549782616&sr=8-1&keywords=axolotl+pellets&dpPl=1&dpID=61VlsfZaI2L&ref=plSrch
    
    
    
    
    

>Do they conform to the rule of 20-30 gallons for the first and 10-20 for each one after?

They do but they can still get big. Personally, despite wriing the wiki and saying the 20-30 rule of thumb all the time, I don't like the minimum sizes. In my own tanks, I found that 30gal for every two with no less than 40gal works out great. Basically, I wouldn't get a 40gal for three. Two will work, but if you're getting 3 I'd swing for a 55gal. The bigger the tank and the more understocked it is, the easier it will be to care for and your fish are more likely to be healthier. But figure out what is in your budget and what space you have available for a tank. If you can only fit a 40gal, I still recommend sticking to two rather than three.

>And are the tubs of fish flakes a complete diet for them or will I need to suppliment this with other foods?

I'll be frank, flakes suck. I know there are good brands out there but for the most part they're nutritionally lacking and muck up the water like no other. Not to mention the fact that a lot of people have swim bladder problems when feeding goldfish flakes. The best diet is a nice varied diet. Right now, my fish are eating mostly repashy soilent green, some Saki Hakari red, New life Spectrum Gold, blood worms, and veggies. They aren't fed all of that every day but having variation in their diet can make up for any short comings of any one food. If you can only pick one of those, I would get the soilent green and supplement with veggies like zucchini.

I highly, highly recommend Repashy's super gold gel food for goldfish. It's the pre-prepared only food I'll feed my goldie's now. It's also important to supplement with fresh veggies like cucumbers, lettuce, etc.

As for the danios and minnows- a variety of food, again, is ideal. I'd do a mix of brine shrimp, bloodworms, and a high-quality omnivore pellet like this one.

Hope this helps!

Ideally you want to look for whole ingredients when you're looking at food. I have used Hikari and like it but I would consider it a mid-grade food, honestly. But I've had bettas live several years on it so it's not terrible. I consider things like soybean meal and rice bran to be more filler material. Brands like Tetra are cheaper and use more fillers; for example, on Amazon you can see these Tetra betta pellets; the first four ingredients are wheat flour, fish meal, wheat gluten, potato protein; you have to go several ingredients down to get another meaty ingredient (shrimp meal).

In comparison,Hikari Betta Bio-gold pellets have fish meal as the first ingredient, but it's followed by fillers (wheat flour, soybean meal, rice bran) and takes a couple more ingredients to find another meaty one (krill meal). Having an actual meaty ingredient first (meaning it's the most percentage wise, probably by volume but I'm not positive) makes it better but it's not great.

Lastly, let's look at my current preferred food, Omega One Betta Buffet pellets. The kind I have is slightly different from what's on Amazon (mine lists whole salmon, halibut, shrimp, and wheat flour as the first four ingredients), I got it at Petco a while back. The one on Amazon has salmon, whole herring, wheat flour, whole shrimp as its first four ingredients. Three of the four are whole ingredients (well, I assume the salmon is since it doesn't say salmon meal but not positive) with only one filler. This indicates a much higher quality food. The Northfin pellets someone else linked are similar.

So basically, you want to look for the first few ingredients to be a whole food product; meals are ok but whole ingredients are preferable. You want minimal fillers in the first few ingredients (corn, soybean, rice products are commonly used as filler in many animal foods, same with brewer's yeast). This was stuff I learned when I got a hedgehog and had to suss out high quality cat and dog foods for her but the principles are the same (I hadn't spent too much time on fish food, just knew brands to avoid and looked for reasonable quality ingredients anytime I had to choose a new one). This was actually a good exercise for me to take a closer look at my fish food and also remember why I avoid certain brands.

Looks like he has plants. A nice set of aquascaping tools?

Maybe some high-end fish food, like NLS or Repashy?

If theyre tetra theyre garbage.

Repashys community plus is a great staple, but if your heart is set on pellets check out northfin

Harlequin rasboras are predators, feeding on small crustaceons, insects, and other microfauna. Your tank could easily thrive on a blackworm staple.

I wrote this in a thread a month ago or so, it's late and Im straight copying it over.

Buy crickets in bulk online. Get a big storage tub, some egg cartons and toss them in. I try to keep dead ones out when transferring from box to tub. I use 2 tubs, I dump them into one, shake them all off the cartons they come with to clear out debris. Then, place the cartons back in, they will swarm and climb all over them. Use the cartons to transfer them from the dirty to the clean tub. This may take may take a few minutes.

Get cricket food and cricket quencher, on amazon for like 5 a piece.

Put some holes in the lid. The box they ship In will have a screen, cut that out and use that to cover the holes.

Use cardboard tubes from paper towels, they run right up those. Take the tube, hold it in the tub at a 45 degree angle and they run right up. Dump the tube in a tall cup.

Next you need cricket calcium and vitamin powder. Sprinkle a dash of each in the cup and shake them up. Calcium each morning, vitamin at least 3 times a week in the morning.

https://imgur.com/HDwCqB1

Thank you! I feed them tiny bit of flakes, but the whole tank loves the sinking pellet food from aquatic arts. I feel like it really has made both the shrimp and fish all healthy. Pretty good all in one food!! here’s a link if you’re interested

Going to refer back to here
buy some de-encapsulated brine shrimp eggs or Fry starter

As far as survival rate, it should be pretty good as long as you have nothing else in the tank that will eat them. The parents will protect the young, and each spawn will also help protect the next and so forth. As far as the breeding cycle, it takes 6 to 7 days from egg laying to hatching. And they spawn about every 3 weeks in ideal conditions. So expect the next spawn about 3 weeks after the first sighting of little fish. And the spawn size will likely get bigger each time. Hopefully you have something lined up with your LFS or have a way to sell them, unless you plan on getting multiple tanks or just one really huge tank.

Depending on what you have for filtering, I would look into getting something to put on the filter intake if you want to minimize babies getting sucked into your filter. While I've had baby plecos survive and grow to a good size in a filter, I don't believe the same would happen with baby Daffodils. My local LFS sold me some foam like this and I cut it to size to put around the intake. You'll need to clean it periodically as it acts just like an additional pre-filter filter.

Such an awesome fish! I HIGHLY recommend NLS Ultra Red. I've been giving this to my Geos for a few months now and the difference is amazing.

It is a 75 gallon tank. The LED light in the middle is this: BloomBoss PANEL Enhanced Spectrum 32 Watt LED Grow Light https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C31JM1M/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_4uhlub1S9G7BT every two weeks I add 1 teaspoon of chelated iron. (I mix it in a cup of water, I just don't dump powder in the tank) once a month I add 1 table spoon of Epsom salt. This is my magnesium supplement. I also dissolve that in a cup of water before I dump it in. The fish food is: AquaOrganic Aquaponics Fish Feed 5lbs https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7CPFWE/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_nzhlub0ESWTYP and yes my friend, they will be eaten once to size. I also have two other tanks with tilapia and getting one more for breeding. Between those and my large outdoor Aquaponics system I'm working on, I should have a nice rotation of tilapia for the family.

The plants will absolutely help however expect the sword to get nibbled on. I had to pull my swords from my tank into a grow out tank because my fish were decimating them. In a month or two I should be able to replant their tank. Anubis is one of the best plants to put in with them as the leaves tend to be more leathery and they don't like that as much.

​

As for food the best on the market is probably Repasy Super Gold which I will provide two links for. I would not use carnivore pellets as the protein content is way too high for them and will cause constipation. If you do feed a pellet New Life Spectrum makes a sinking pellet for goldfish / koi that is good.

Amazon

Repashy

It is a gel food but comes to you in a powder. All you do is mix 2-3 parts boiling water to the gel and let it setup. Then you cut it into cubes that you can feed them. I prepare fresh food for them about every two weeks or so as you just keep the extra in the fridge and pull it out for feedings. They also get some fresh veggies like shelled peas, romaine lettuce, and broccoli to supplement their normal diet.

https://www.amazon.com/Rangen-Salmon-Pellets-Sinking-Axolotls/dp/B0787T25J1/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522788502&sr=8-2&keywords=axolotl+pellets

These are good pellets. I supplement mine with theses. One of mine hates them, one likes them. Its hard to feed them though since mine are used to hand feeding with tongs so I bent a plastic spoon and drop them into the spoon and kinda hover it near the axolotl to get her to eat them. She loves them, and they smell like the best cat treats ever, if you have cats, be sure to get a tupperware to put these in, otherwise your cats will tear through the bag.

So I have a 1 gallon jar with 10 Malaysian Trumpet Snails and three RCS.


Yesterday, I did a water change and fed a bit of small fry starter formula that I recently got.


I noticed today that there was a hint of algae growing on the walls (which wasn't there before yesterday) and tons of white 'bugs' crawling on the wall.



What are they, and what caused them to suddenly appear out of nowhere? They weren't there yesterday.


Also, are they harmful? If so, what should I do? More water change / shorter period of light?


I'm wondering if my shrimps will eat them..

4 pellets a day or 4 pellets per feeding session? I only fed my betta boy 2-3 pellets twice a day, so that's not too bad. Better to underfeed a little than over!

For blind/visually impaired fish, it's best to stay to a pattern. Try to feed him in the same spot every day; they have little suction-cup feeding rings you can buy online to help with this, or you could probably DIY your own too. You may be able to train him to react to a signal (such as lightly tapping the water or something) that he can connect to being fed. Alternatively, you can get a small breeding box to put him in to feed him, but that may stress him out.

Another thing you can do is dip/soak his pellets in garlic juice, which will help him be able to smell his food and also acts as a small appetite stimulant if you feel like he is not eating enough. You can mince your own garlic and put it in tank water in a separate container to create a dilute garlic solution, or you can by pre-minced garlic in a jar and use the fluid from that, or you can buy garlic guard.

I've always wanted to try this product in this sort of scenario. Might be worth checking out.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000256DV8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apis_1505141004997

I use flukers cricket quencher and powdered food, and a cricket keeper. I have very little die off, and can avoid going to the store weekly for crickets, woo!

http://www.amazon.com/Lee-20078-Kricket-Keeper-Large/dp/B0002DHAWQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411860796&sr=8-1&keywords=cricket+keeper

http://www.amazon.com/Flukers-16-Ounce-Cricket-Quencher-Fortified/dp/B0002DHPDA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411860797&sr=8-1&keywords=cricket+water

http://www.amazon.com/Flukers-High-Calcium-Cricket-11-5-Ounce/dp/B002DWTJBO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1411860804&sr=8-4&keywords=cricket+food

tried their orange food/water and it smells awful when it dries out. The water pillows don't last long and I had alot of death with them. Potatoes or apples work, but they dont stay damp as long as the quencher does. So after much trial and error, thats the best combo I found.

Also for food, I use New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula 1 mm sinking pellets. I get 250g at a time, and it usually lasts a couple months at least.

https://www.amazon.com/New-Life-Spectrum-Cichlid-Formula/dp/B0002E7IRW

The biggest problem illness-wise that Cichlids can get is what's called "Malawi Bloat". It causes their digestive systems to swell, and they usually die quickly. No one knows precisely what causes it, but poor quality food or overfeeding can be to blame. There are a number of other good foods that will work, but I've had this recommended to me by a number of big aquarium keepers as the best, and I've never had a single issue with my fish being sick. It's a bit hard to find though, so I usually just order in the mail. PetCo and Dr. Foster's and Smith both carry it. This formula also has ingredients in it that encourages brighter colors in cichlids.

http://www.amazon.com/New-Life-Spectrum-Cichlid-Formula/dp/B0002E7IRW/ref=sr_1_3?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1426712984&sr=1-3&keywords=new+life+spectrum+cichlid+formula

Is this it? Or are there pellets specifically for cories?

She's pregnant! Unlike other shrimp, ghost shrimp larvae aren't able to move on their own, and just drift in the water column, relying on food to come to them.

We used Hikari "First Bites" when our ghosties bred, and raised a few shrimplets to the point that they could take care of themselves and become foragers. Basically, it's food powdered into tiny particles, designed to be consumed by very young aquarium critters. Here's a non-sponsored link to the stuff on Amazon.

Here you go.

Just Omega One brand color enhancing flakes. I bought mine at Petsmart. I actually originally bought them with the intent of phasing out the TetraMin flakes I'd been using, since they contained fish meal. The fish seem to like it, since they now resolutely refuse the TetraMin.

I love when that happens! :)

I have this fish food on my "Extra High Priority" (default) list. It's currently $7.90, with prime, and fulfilled by Amazon. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B002J7NHIY/?coliid=I14DX6FV1R7FBI&colid=7MO62SYJ8X49&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

Here are some links to the food

https://www.amazon.com/Omega-One-Super-Color-Flakes/dp/B005MPS2DU/ref=sr_1_21?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1504830514&sr=1-21&keywords=omega+one+flakes

same food different size:
https://www.amazon.com/Omega-One-Super-Color-Flakes/dp/B002J7NHIY/ref=sr_1_5?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1504830514&sr=1-5&keywords=omega+one+flakes

https://www.amazon.com/Spectrum-Small-Formula-Sinking-Pellet/dp/B00176CSYW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504830617&sr=8-2&keywords=new+life+spectrum+small+fish

Ideally you want to feed a mix of both, but just one will do.

They can definitely grow up some more. They'll hit a growth spurt once you start feeding some more and changing the water. They should color up much more as well with the new food. Best of luck! please ask away if you have any more questions.

I feed him Zoo Med Gourmet Aquatic turtle Food
and iv tried Romaine and Lettuce he is on his 2nd day of not eating so I think Im going to try and just feed him Green pallets I Really wanted him to try and eat greens but he just refuses to touch them. I think I will try to give him a couple Pallets and mostly greens Thank you ~

He has a 55 gallon long with a fairly high waterlevel 3/4 tank filled. The filtration has been giving me some trouble lately -- it's an emperor 400 w/ biowheel (the impeller started giving me trouble last wednesday, only moving a fraction of the water it was before, but that doesn't fit the timeline of the issue). Foam basking dock, water temp is fluctuating between 76 - 79 in the day to night cycle.

I use the big rubbermaid basket in the picture as a feeding tub, filled with aquarium water.

His diet before I got him was 1-2 shrimp and about a tablespoon of turtlefood 5 times a week. That seemed like a lot to me.

I'm cutting that way back to a teaspoon of turtlefood every 4 days with treats once a week. I leave dried cranberries in his main tank for 2 days at a time, but that's part of his diet inspection. And I plan on doing a once a week calcium supplement, since this guy seems to be packing on 5-15% more new grown than what the literature says I should be expecting.

I'm considering switching him to goldfish since I'm so worried about his shell growth, but realistically I won't be able to tolerate that for more than a few months. Messy eaters.

The aquarium lights are special but I don't know their spec. Nor do I know the spec of the heating lamp. I know the previous owner was well aware of the lighting requirements, I'll try to get that info as soon as possible.

Spirulina 20 is great, my fish eat it right up.

Here's a really good review and ingredient analysis.

I switched to hikari for about 2-3 weeks now. i've noticed a change in their color. i talked to some friends and they also recommend supplementing spirulina and new life spectrum ultrared. i've noticed the colors pop when i went to hikari and even more so once i supplemented spirulina. just thought i'd pass that along.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003I5QRDS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

http://www.amazon.com/New-Life-Spectrum-UltraRED-Enhancer/dp/B00B4FTME0

These http://www.amazon.com/Omega-One-Betta-Buffet-Pellets/dp/B0040BJBC8 are fantastic. My girls love them and they're made with great ingredients. I would suggest floating any type of freezedried food in tank water in a cup for a minute or two before you feed the pellets because if not the pellets will expand in their stomachs. How would you like it if a loaf of bread rose in your stomach? As well, with these pellets take care not to over feed because they're small and it's tempting to put a lot in

NLS is a good one. Omega One is not too bad.

Weelllll...the best setup is the biggest you can afford. The bare minimum for 2 fancies would be a 40 gallon breeder, but the more space you can give them the better. If you live in the US you can get a pretty awesome discount on aquariums up to 75 gallons (varies by store) fairly often when they do "Dollar Per Gallon" sales. Petco does the most frequent DPGs but Petsmart and Pet Supplies Plus also do them. Petsmart sometimes just has heavily discounted sets also. Anyway, $40 is the least it will cost if you buy a new tank, but maybe you can find a great deal for a secondhand tank on a resale site if you prefer that route.

Filter...maybe go with a SunSun as they're quite cheap for their quality. I use this one and while the UV sterilizer is generally unnecessary I guess it might be helpful in an ich outbreak or something. It's actually slightly below the 10xph flow rate for my 55g so I supplement it with a HOB filter that I keep spare media in in case it's ever needed. For media in the canister I have sponges of varying coarseness, generic ceramic rings (for nitrifying bacteria), and Seachem Matrix (for nitrate-consuming bacteria).

The best water tester is the API Freshwater Master Test Kit. It may seem expensive at first glance, but it's actually cheaper over time - AND more accurate than strips. For water changes, since I don't have a faucet that can support a Python auto-changer, I use a pump stuck to the bottom of the bucket to push water up through spare tubing. Saves me the trouble of lifting heavy buckets or trying to gradually scoop the water out.

The best foods are New Life Spectrum, Repashy, Saki-Hikari, and if you need a cheaper option Omega One. You should also supply plenty of leafy greens; the fiber is very good for their digestive tract.

I personally started with mosquito fish and a few koi. I originally had an issue with mosquitos because the water had been sitting a while before I got my system going. I buy this organic food off of Amazon. While the fish were young and after I got some tilapia fry I crushed up the pellets. Now when I feed them they go crazy almost jumping out of the water.

I'm still really new to aquaponics but I would like to eventually do duckweed as well. Unfortunately since this is my first time I have nothing to compare it to but it's organic and easy to obtain.

Edit: fixed link

I use these: Aquatic Arts Pellets
I purchased them on December 6th, 2017 and I have barely made a dent in them. They should last you a long time. The algae wafers I use are Hikari.

When getting a kit, be careful, sometimes the filters/lights they come with aren't that great. If you have Amazon Prime I would just get the stuff online, but going to a LFS or pet store is great too.

I feed my betta these pellets and he loves them. I also feed freeze dried bloodworms and shrimps occasionally.

Definitely look for a good heater, and try to make sure it's adjustable. I tend to try and spend a little more on a better quality heater because I don't want it to fail and kill my fish.

His fins will be fine once he's in a warm environment :)

Cory's were added a couple months ago and the betta was mostly fine with them and not acting weird like he is now, so I don't think it's anything they brought into the tank.

However, now that I think about it I forgot that I did add some different food to the tank recently. I tried some smaller Hikari pellets for the betta because the rasboras can be like piranhas at times and would occasionally steal the bigger Zoo Med betta pellets I have which are WAY too big for them if the betta was slow on grabbing it.

Ugh... my memory is bad I completely forgot about the new food. I don't feed them any frozen food (sorry boys). On a regular basis it was usually just TetraMin Tropical Flakes for the rasboras, Zoo Med Betta pellets (2-3 pellets 2x daily), and Hikari sinking wafers for the Cory's. The Hikari Betta Bio-Gold pellets were the only recent experiment. If it's possibly from food, that would likely be the culprit.

What I added to the tank when I got the Cory's (Hikari Sinking Wafers): Amazon link

What I recently added within the past 2 weeks from Petco (Betta Bio-Gold Baby Pellets): Amazon link

I used to break it down and throw in the tank, but it got messy after a few days. I now use Seachem Prime Garlic Guard (link below). I use a dose syringe to place some drops on my Goldfish’s food. I also cut one garlic clove in half and throw it in the tank water to hover.



Seachem Garlic Guard 500-Ml https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000256DV8/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qn0xDb7SS3430

Found it on Amazon. By the picture it's definitely grams, not gallons.

Regardless, I want to know what's up with the original price haha.