Finding the right fish food for aquariums can be extremely difficult, especially depending on the type of fish you have. For this reason, we’ve compiled a list of the five best fish foods for aquariums at your money can buy. Let’s get to it and help you find the right type of food for your fish.
Best Fish Food for Aquariums
- Aqueon Tropical Fish Food Flakes
- New Life Spectrum Optimum All Purpose Flakes
- Omega One Betta Combo
- API Algae Wafer Fish Food
- API Goldfish Pellets
Top 5 Best Fish Foods for Aquariums: Reviews
If you need fish food for your aquarium, these are the top 5 options.
1. Aqueon Tropical Fish Food Flakes: Our Top Pick
- Natural ingredients and colors with added vitamins, minerals and trace nutrients
- Nutritious food ingredients that fish are naturally attracted to
Here we have some tropical fish flakes. These are designed to provide your fish with a nutritionally balanced and complete diet. It contains a minimum of 41% crude protein, a minimum of 7% crude fat, and a minimum of 1% phosphorus. However, it also contains a maximum of eight moisture and a maximum of 3% crude fiber.
This is all thanks to the various fantastic ingredients contained in this tropical fish food, including one such as fish meal, soybean meal, shrimp meal, spirulina, squid meal, and plenty of other vitamins, minerals, and added proteins.
This product should be ideal for most tropical fish, especially for those that like to eat floating food.
Yes, these flakes are designed to float, which therefore provides your fish with ample opportunity to eat them from the water column. Something else that we like about this product is that it is very reasonably priced, so you can feed your fish without having to spend too much money.
Pros
- Ideal for most tropical fish
- Nutritionally balanced and complete
- Ideal nutrition levels for most fish
- Good price
- Floating and slow sinking
Cons
- Can cloud up the water a bit
If you’re just looking for some general fish food that is fine for a tropical aquarium, then this is the one we recommend.
2. New Life Spectrum Optimum All Purpose Flakes
- New life spectrum is made from quality natural ingredients
- Extreme color enhancement and vitality in your fish
Here we have some more fairly basic yet high quality fish flakes. Because these are flakes, they also float in the water column. They don’t sink too quickly, therefore making them ideal for relatively slow moving fish that need a certain amount of time to eat out of the middle of the water column. With that being said, they should be suitable for most types of fish.
This particular product is designed for all sorts of freshwater and saltwater fish that have similar nutritional requirements. Just some of the beneficial ingredients in this product include whole Antarctic krill, whole fish, algae, garlic, beta carotene, spirulina, essential fatty acids, various vitamins and minerals, and much more.
It should definitely provide your fish with all the minerals, nutrients, and proteins they need to be happy and healthy. It’s all about maintaining a strong immune system, bright colors, and good health overall. When it comes to tropical community tanks, this might just be the simplest food you could give your fish.
Pros
- Ideal for most tropical fish
- For saltwater and freshwater fish
- Floating – ideal for slow fish
- High quality ingredients
- Good price
Cons
- Can make water a bit cloudy
If you need an affordable and all around nutritionally balanced food for a tropical community fish tank, then this is the one we recommend over all others.
3. Omega One Betta Combo
Here we have a fantastic combination of different foods all designed specifically for betta fish. What you get here are three specific products, one that is a flake food, a pellet food, and blood worms for treats.
We personally really like these products, because the flakes float in the water, therefore making them ideal for fish that like to eat their food at the top or in the middle of the water column. The pellets and then are of the sinking variety, which means that they are better for fish that like to eat their food in the bottom of the aquarium.
Both the pellets and the flakes are specifically designed for freshwater tropical fish, which means that they contain a balance of nutrients, including proteins, fatty acids, beta carotenes, and other great ingredients that are all designed to help promote the healthy function of all fish.
Just keep in mind that this food is specifically designed for betta fish, so you may not want to give it to other types, although similar tropical fish could probably eat it as well.
What we really like here is that all of the proteins here are raw and unprocessed, which means that they are easily absorbed by your fish. The fact that you get a container of blood worms included here, which is a great high protein treat, is just an added bonus.
Pros
- 3 for 1 – great deal
- Nutritionally balanced
- Ideal for betta fish
- Natural, safe, and high-quality
Cons
- Specifically for betta fish
If you have a betta fish, and you want to feed them a variety of foods, then this is by far the best product considered.
4. API Algae Wafer Fish Food
- Contains one (1) API ALGAE EATER WAFERS Algae Wafer Fish Food 6.4-Ounce Container
- Made with nutrient rich blend to provide algae eaters with a complete and balanced diet
Here we have another type of fish food, with this specific one being designed for algae eaters. To be specific, these are algae wafers, or in other words, small discs made out of various types of algae.
This is therefore ideal for a variety of bottom feeding fish, as well as any others that enjoy an occasional algae snack. For the record, many different types of fish like to eat algae, therefore making this food ideal for many different fish.
These algae wafers should provide your fish with a wide array of nutrients that they need to survive and to be healthy. One of the things that really stands out about these particular algae wafers is that they are designed to dissolve very slowly in the water.
This means that they don’t make much of a mess, and they also release much less ammonia than most other types of fish food.
This stuff is all about providing your fish with all of the nutrients they need to be healthy and happy, without contaminating the water. This food is also designed to be very easy to digest, so your fish can absorb the maximum amount of nutrients possible.
Pros
- Ideal for all algae eaters
- Great for bottom feeders
- Nutritionally balanced
- Should not release too much ammonia
- Good price
Cons
- Can make the water a bit cloudy
If you have algae eating fish, then this is by far the best fish food for aquariums to keep in mind.
5. API Goldfish Pellets
- Contains one (1) API GOLDFISH PELLETS Fish Food 7-Ounce Container
- Made with optimal protein sources and fiber to help promote healthy digestion
As you can probably tell, here we have food specifically designed for goldfish. These are goldfish pellets, and they are designed to sink to the bottom. That said, they do sink slowly, therefore providing your goldfish with ample opportunity to eat the pellets from the middle of the water column before they fall to the bottom.
Goldfish have no problem eating from the bottom, so having these pellets sink should be perfectly fine. These pellets are designed to provide your goldfish with all of the nutrition they need to be happy and healthy.
It comes with a balanced mix of proteins, essential fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, and more. This food should help your goldfish maintain a strong immune system, improve their coloration, and make them more vigorous and happier overall.
When it comes down to it, we really like this fish food, with another reason being that it is proven to release up to 30% less ammonia in the water when uneaten. This is of course very important for goldfish, because goldfish are some of the messiest eaters of all.
Pros
- Balanced diet
- Less ammonia
- Good price
- Great for goldfish
- Ideal for immune health
Cons
- Only for goldfish
Although this food is specifically formulated for goldfish, it is one of the best of its kind and well worth the investment.
Fish Food for Aquariums Buyers Guide: What to Look Out For
Before you go out and buy any old fish food, here are a few important things you need to look out for.
Type of Fish
Different fish have different dietary requirements, and you need to account for this. If the food in question says that it’s designed for goldfish, don’t try and give it to your cichlids. Fish foods are relatively specific to the species.
Quality Ingredients
It is also very important that you provide your fish with fish foods that have quality ingredients. Although it’s not the worst thing, things like fish meal are best avoided in most cases, although they can serve specific purposes. What it comes down to is that the ingredients listed on the package should be ones that you can easily pronounce and recognize.
Floating vs Sinking
Remember that there are both floating and sinking foods, mainly flakes and pellets. Always do some research in terms of the fish you have and what type of food they would prefer. Slower fish tend to prefer floating foods, whereas faster fish are generally fine with sinking foods. There are however also other considerations to keep in mind here.
