Feed Your Fish What They Will Eat
Far more important than having the healthiest food for your fish is having food your fish will eat. We recommend that whenever you purchase a fish, you ask the store staff to feed it. Watch the fish eat and then make sure to feed the fish the same food you saw the fish eating. You can transition the fish to other foods later, but to start, make sure you provide foods it will eat.

Feed Your Fish What Is Natural
What is healthiest for fish is typically what the fish eat in nature. Frozen fish food does a great job of preserving meaty food that fish eat in nature, but veggie foods are best preserved through dried foods like Julian Sprung’s Sea Veggies. Among pellet and flake food, Sera does a great job of including natural ingredients like insect meal in their freshwater foods, real wood in their Catfish Tabs, and jellyfish meal in their saltwater foods.

Feed Your Fish Often
While there are exceptions, most aquarium fish are used to eating small amounts throughout the day. Herbivorous fish such as tangs and plecostomus constantly munch on algae and plants throughout the day, and small omnivorous fish such as clownfish, tetras, barbs, and chromis constantly eat whatever they can find in the water. It is best to feed these fish frequently, in small amounts, to replicate their natural feeding behavior. Do not feed your fish more in total; feed them the same amount spread over 3-6 times per day. If you can’t do this manually, then consider an automatic fish feeder to help out. The Hydor Automatic Feeder For Aquariums is about the same price as a large can of fish food, and it can automatically feed your fish three times a day.

Feed Your Fish What Is Easy
Feeding frozen food is good, and feeding live food is fun, but it is very difficult to have someone feed either when you are out of town. Live food can also be hard to find at times, putting your animals at risk. We strongly recommend transitioning all fish to a dry food. Some difficult fish may never accept dry food, but keep offering it to them in hopes they will start eating it. It will make going out of town much easier, and it will reduce your dependence on foods that can often be hard to get.

Flake food is good because, as flakes break apart, they create pieces of different sizes that are ideal for different-sized fish in your aquarium. The O.S.I. Flake Food is very affordable and is popular among public aquariums looking to feed a large variety of fish. Pellet food is nice because it makes less of a mess than flake food and is much easier to add to an automatic feeder, simplifying feeding. The New Life Spectrum Pellet Food is our favorite because, in our experience, finicky fish are more likely to eat it than other dry foods, and it feeds smoothly in automatic feeders. Links: Freshwater Flake Foods / Saltwater Flake Foods / Freshwater Pellet Foods / Saltwater Pellet Foods.

Probiotics and Additives
Probiotic fish foods are foods that contain natural bacteria that can help fish's gut health. Normally, we do not feel these are needed, but if you are medicating sick fish, these medications can often harm a fish’s gut health. The Seachem NutriDiet probiotic food is great for feeding fish that you have medicated or have been through medications at the store.

Food Additives are a great way to turbocharge your fish food. Most additives are liquids that you soak your fish food in before feeding. Vitamin additives are commonly known to support immune health, and fatty acid additives are effective at improving fish growth and color. You can use food additives all of the time, but they are especially helpful when caring for weak fish that may be skinny and have compromised immune systems, when breeding fish, or when trying to achieve the best color from your fish.