I have worked with my wonderful fishy friends for thirteen years now. I have raised just about any type of fish you can think of, including barbs, crowntail bettas, all manner of livebearer, angelfish, corydoras, goldfish, and more. The last four years have been spent posing as the "local fish expert" in the next town over. All in all I care for 43 tanks daily, 17 of my own and 26 at work.

Feeding Fish

TetraMin Tropical Flakes: The Rich Mix is the food I used at the beginning of my fish career, and I still use it today for one of their daily feedings. Though fish have a metabolism that allows them to eat only a couple of times a week and maintain their health, they do best with at least two feedings a day. Bear in mind that any healthy fish will appear hungry, they are opportunistic eaters and will eat food that is available. For each feeding they should be given what they will eat in about three minutes.

The second thing to remember about feeding is that no single fish food will give everything your fish needs, they MUST have a variety for complete health. For this reason I rotate between TetraMin, TetraColor, Shrimp pellets from Wardley, Algae wafers, homemade cookies containing various greens and calcium supplements (for snails and goldfish mostly), Pro Gold, Tropi-Blend and Tropi-Color (from the makers of Pro Gold), Spirulina flakes, Salad Supreme wafers, and live food such as grindel worms and micro worms or baby brine shrimp.

I generally feed one feeding of live food, one of top-brand food such as Pro Gold or Tropi-Blend, and one of average filler such as TetraMin.

About TetraMin Flakes

TetraMin Flakes: The Rich Mix are multi-colored flakes about half the size of a dime. They smell fishy, which is to be expected from something that has fish meal as a first ingredient. These will not harm your bottom feeders such as corydoras and loaches, Tetra only suggests you feed different food to them as this is a floating food and those fish will have better access to a sinking food.

Ingredients

Fish meal, dried yeast, ground brown rice, shrimp meal, wheat gluten, potato protein, feeding oat meal, dehulled soybean meal, fish oil, soybean oil, algae meal, sorbitol, lecithin, ascorbic acid (source of vitamin C), inositol, niacin, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate, riboflavin-5-phosphate, A-tocopherol-acetate (source of vitamin E), D-calcium pentothenate, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin A palmitate, menadione sodium bisulfate complex, cyanocobalamin, cholecalciferol, and colors blue 2 lake, red 3 dye, yellow 5 lake, yellow 6 lake, ethoxyquin as a preservative.

Feeding Guide (as printed on the bottle)

For best results, feed in conjunction with TetraMin granules and tablets, feed two to three times daily only as much as your fish can consume within several minutes. See store for details.

Guaranteed Analysis

Minimum Crude Protein 46%
Minimum Crude Fat 8%
Minimum Crude Fiber 2%
Maximum Moisture 6%
Minimum Phosphorus 1.3%
Minimum Ascorbic Acid (Vit. C) 193 mg/kg

Pros and Cons

The good thing about this food, unlike most foods available at an average pet store or discount store my fish will actually eat it. It is readily available at prices from $1.88 to $10.72 at your local Wal-Mart. For the average community tank it will be sufficient to keep your fish alive and active, if not thriving to their fullest extent. When fed properly, this food does not cloud the water.

I've never been a very big fan of flakes. The main reason is all the extra energy the fish has to expend just to get a minimum food value out of them, this also gives more rambunctious fish the chance to bull the others out of the way and hog all the food. Sinking pellets, on the other hand, are easy for the fish to scoop up and each fish has a good chance of getting their full share.

This food has way too many fillers for my taste (note everything that mentions rice and various grains), I feed it only for one feeding a day in order to keep my costs down a little. The fillers probably don't bother most fish hobbyists, it's about the difference between feeding your dog Purina or feeding him Science Diet. If you don't mind the Purina of fish foods this is the food for you.

The next thing is that this food contains ethoxyquin. Ethoxyquin is a preservative that has caused cancer in lab rats, but is still used in a lot of bird treats and food, fish foods, and some very cheap brands of dog and cat food. The reasoning behind it, I think, is that shorter-lived creatures will not have a chance to get cancer from it. For this reason I ONLY feed TetraMin to my shorter-lived fish such as most of my livebearers. My goldfish have a life expectancy of 15-30 years and I do not wish to part with them before then. Angels, plecos, and most tetras have an expectancy of over ten years, so I stick to the good foods with them too.

To conclude, if all you have to go from is Wal-Mart's selection of food TetraMin or TetraColor is the way to go. If you're more concerned about the long-term health of your fish there are many better options available. At the pet store level this usually means Hikari or Omega One. My personal preference is for Pro Gold, Tropi-Blend, Tropi-Color, and Salad Supreme as they have no fillers, no preservatives, and no added colors. They can be harder to find, though, as I have only found them online through the manufacturer.