• Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!

Pellets or flakes food for Apisto

Cookie_apisto

Member
Messages
123
Which brand of pellets or flakes food is good for Apisto amy other tropical fish like cardinals or cory? Just saw a brand called Vitalis at my lfs. Is anyone have experience with this brand?
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I've wasted a lot of money over the last few years trying different flake and pellet foods for my apistos. None were eaten right away. They take some in, mouth it, and then spit it out to drop to the bottom. Others, they simply ignored. I wish there was a dry food that apistos eagerly eat, like the original formula for Aquarian flakes that they changed in the mid-80s. After the change my apistos just ignored it. Such a food would be an excellent supplement for a mostly frozen/live food diet.
 

Happyfins

Member
Messages
93
Location
Sydney
Mine do eat pellets. Probably not as spoilt as some.If they don't have to compete and are well fed they can play with their food, spit it out etc. Almost no fish likes flakes IMO.
 

ButtNekkid

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
315
Location
Finland
for mine most don't take dry food but for the few that do they only eat the Hikari micro pellets as well (A. sp Melgar and A. rubrolineata). I think it is not just their small size but they are soft/porous which I think make them easier to swallow.

+ They sink quite fast so our bottom feeding friends appreciate that.
 

yukondog

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Messages
664
Location
N.W. Fl.
I guess I got lucky in that all mine eat flake food pretty good, I did have one that only ate live food.
 

ehsanabria

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
10
Like Mike, I never had any luck feeding flake or pellet to my apistos. Maybe try golden pearls, they stay suspended in the water column.
 

aqua man

New Member
Messages
4
I find the micro pellets sometimes work but I feed live Brine Shrimp daily and not too much.
I've also used Black Worms when they are available.
You can keep them alive forat least two months and they seem to be the best for conditioning.

Again I'm careful about over feeding
It is amazing how little food is needed to keep Apistos healthy.
The best food source for me is Brine Shrimp Direct.
Next would be Your Fish Stuff or NorthFin Fish Foods.

Good luck.
 

HengLee

Member
Messages
41
Location
Singapore
I'm using Dr Bassleer Bio-fish Regular "M" size.
https://www.bassleer.com/biofish-food-regular/

The food will sink to the bottom and is suitable for Apistogramma & Corydoras.
The "M" size is suitable for small fish especially your Cardinal Tetras.
The food is also not too hard(I think) and easy for the fish to eat them.
I suspect that sometimes the fish may not want to eat some food(some brands) because the food is too hard for them.
Anyway, this is just my opinion/suspicion only.

Hikari Sinking Wafer might be more suitable for your Corydoras or other catfish, loach as the "M" size food from Dr Bassleer might be too small for them when they grow bigger.
http://www.hikari.info/tropical/t_03.html

By the way, your Apistos will need time to adjust to the food before they want to eat them.
I was fortunate that the fish shopkeeper where I bought the Apistos was feeding them with Dr Bassleer Bio-fish food.
So, it was easy for me to feed them with the same type of food.

Perhaps you can check with your fish shopkeeper on the type of fish food that they are using to feed their apisto.





 

TCMontium

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
179
Location
Germany, Kassel
I have also had and still having great results with Hikari Micro Pellets. My apistos, Taeniacara, Dicrossus, bettas, characins, banjo catfish and pretty much any other carnivorous-omnivorous creature just swallows it right away (or bites small pieces of it, if their mouth is too small, the pellets are soft so even tiniest adult/juvenile fish can eat them).
I successfully bred and grew Apistogramma with Hikari Micro Pellets but of course one experience wouldn’t be enough to claim that the food is “very healthy”.
I also didn’t have any fish, neither wild caught nor aquarium bred, refusing to eat this dry pellet food (except herbivores like Farlowellas of course). I don’t know of any experiences of other people, so maybe some fish do decline it, but I had only good experiences for 1-2 years.

Hikari Micro Wafers on the other hand, was denied by most of my fish. I think that one is too hard to eat for my fish that are spoiled with the live, frozen and Micro Pellet foods.
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I bought some Hikari Micro Pellets to see what my apistos would do. They swam right to them, mouthed them, spit them out and let them sink to the bottom - where they stayed. My apistos are spoiled I guess. My corys and tetras love the stuff so it won't go to waste.
 

chris1805

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
333
Location
Odijk, the Netherlands
How about the nutritions they get? For example I feed them frozen brine shirmp, cyclops, and a tropical mix that contains, daphina, brine shrimp, red musquito larvea and white musquito larvae. I tend the feed the tropical mix only once every 2 weeks. However I am affraid they don’t get any nutritions from non protean sources, such as spirullina or other algae/vegtable types of food. Do you think this is necesarry or that the diet I feed had enough variety?
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
Chris, your fishes' diet is more varied than that of mine - and I have some apistos over 5 years old that live on a mix of live BBS and frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms. Realize that these frozen foods contain 'non protein' sources that these animals consumed while alive. If my fish willingly ate dry mixes I would happily use it. Variety is good. Since they don't willingly eat dry food, I don't force it on them. I see no reason for me to waste my money on food they won't eat and just rots on the bottom and pollutes the tank.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
17,915
Messages
116,199
Members
13,027
Latest member
tonc61

Latest profile posts

Josh wrote on anewbie's profile.
Testing
EDO
Longtime fish enthusiast for over 70years......keen on Apistos now. How do I post videos?
Looking for some help with fighting electric blue rams :(
Partial updated Peruvian list have more than this. Please PM FOR ANY QUESTIONS so hard to post with all the ads poping up every 2 seconds….
Top