• Flake foods tend be a mixture of different foods rather than a single food. MarineAndReef.com offers the Ocean Star International (O.S.I.) line of flake foods, with varieties for both saltwater and freshwater fishes. The sera line of flake foods are very specific to certain species such as goldfish, discus, cichlids, ornamental fish and carps. The sera products have been separated into pages for freshwater and saltwater.
• Pelletized food appeals to certain varieties of carnivores because the shape better mimics the qualities of live food than either flake or freeze-dried foods.
• The closest to a natural food we offer is Julian Sprung's Sea Veggies. These seaweed products have been freeze-dried, but they have undergone less processing than other freeze-dried foods. Vegetarian fishes, such as tangs, algelfishes and certain damselfishes and blennies love dried seaweed.
• An excellent choice for your soft and stony corals, anenomes, feather duster worms, clams, sponges, tunicates and other filter feeders is Marine Snow.
• Freeze-dried foods can be fortified with Selcon, a highly unsaturated fatty acid that includes stabilized vitamin C and vitamin B12. Other excellent supplements are Boyd's Vita-Chem Marine and Vita-Chem freshwater.
• Feed your fish a wide variety of foods. As with humans this will help to insure they get the range of required nutrients.
• Freeze-dried and flake foods should not be the staple diet of marine fish, but should be used to supplement fresh and frozen foods.
• Opened flake food may lose food value or even develop mold or bacterial growth. Only purchase food in quatities that can be consumed within a couple months. Store food in the refrigerator.