bully fish

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bully fish

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I will say one thing about the fish book(s) as well as advice from the fish stores... don't always believe what you read or hear about compatibility. Fish are just like humans and have personalities too. You will have your "BULLY" fish, your "SHY" fish, your "LAZY" fish, your "PLAYFUL" fish... well, you get the idea. A book may say a certain fish is a great fish for a community tank. You will bring it home thinking "Wow, this will be a great addition to my community tank." just to find out that this is one mean bully fish.

A good example of this is Gourami's. Everything you read (I have 4 books on tropical fish) on them says they are excellent for a community tank. WRONG! I have 6 of them. 3 are Kissing Gourami's. 2 of them chase the other one all the time and are extremely mean. One of them chases every other fish in the tank. I finally got so frustrated with Curley, that I moved him and Moe together in one tank... thinking that they would not chase each other. WRONG! Then Curley chased Moe all over. After a few weeks of this, I decided to move Curley into my Cichlid tank. I figured, "What the heck, if he dies he dies." (Now remember all books and pet store people tell you that you can't put community fish in a Cichlid tank because the Cichlids will kill them.) He is still in there, months later, and doing just fine and dandy. They don't bother him and he doesn't bother them. Moe is in another tank with other various tropical fish and he leaves every one alone and is doing great. Larry is very happy in my 80 gallon tank with a bunch of small fish like Cory's, catfish, and Do-Jo's.

I have 3 other Gourami's, one, Sunny, is a Golden Gourami; Dawn is a Giant Gourami and Heather is a Blue Gourami. Sunny and Dawn chase everyone and everything as well. Heather is very meek and mild mannered and shy. She used to hide all the time until I split these guys up as well. My best advice to you on Gourami's would be NOT to get them in pairs and you should be all right.

Since joining the Aqua-Link fish help service I have received many letters from people who have Gourami's and have found the same thing to be true with them. It seems that they are all quite aggressive... of course, this is just a blanket statement on my part. I obviously have not heard from those that have no problems with theirs.

Another example would be Goldfish. They are not aggressive at all or supposed to not be. Of the 18 Goldfish I have, I have 2 real bullies. They seem to go through phases when they start acting up and decide to pick on the others. Pearl (7") is the worst. She really gets going sometimes. I give her a time out when she gets too bad. I take her out of the big tank and put her in the feeder Goldfish tank. Pearl is a common Goldfish. The other is Patty (5 1/2"). She also gets timeouts. They do not like to be put in a small tank where they can not move around freely. This tends to calm them right down.

Then you have the other side of the coin. Books say certain Cichlids, Oscars, Green Terrors, etc can not be housed together because they are too aggressive. My 150 gallon tank is living proof that it can be done. I have 3 (sometimes 4) Oscars in there. 2 are 9 1/2 inches, 1 is 8 1/2 inches. One of them seems to get himself in trouble every so often. I don't know why. He must anger the others for some reason because they will start picking on him. He ends up with torn fins, tail, skin as well. Since I have so many tanks, I have the luxury of moving him to a safe tank for a while and let him heal. One thing I have noticed in the Oscars is that they seem to get more aggressive when I don't feed a whole lot of food. I think when they feel hungry it makes them grouchy and thus they beat up on the smallest one, though he really isn't small. He is about 7 1/2", but he is smaller than the others. Make sure that you feed them enough food to keep them content if you plan on mixing other types of fish with them.

The other fish are: 5+" Pike, 6 1/2" Texas Green Spot, 8 1/2" Green Terror, 4" Firemouth, 5" Striped Botia, Kissing Gourami, and a large 13" Plecostomus. The books say the Green Terror's live up to their name, but I find the Hornet is actually very meek. In the beginning I really thought she would not make it, but she has thrived very well. The Cichlid tank has kind of become my tank where I stick fish that can't get along with anything else. It seems that if you put smaller aggressive fish in a tank with the other Cichlids they learn who is boss and don't mess with the bigger Cichlids, but yet at the same time perhaps, a fish that ordinarily would get killed by the bigger Cichlids don't mess with the bully fish.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
There is one thing that you might try. It does not always work on all tropical fish, but it does seem to work very well with male Bettas that are housed with other tropical fish. Hang a mirror on the side of the tank that the Betta tends to hang out in. He will attack his own reflection in the mirror and leave the other fish alone. This has worked on some other tropical fish, but seems to be VERY affective with male Bettas.

Here is another thing that you might try which has worked for others. This will work if you place a new fish into an already existing tank and the original fish start to attack the new fish. Try rearranging all the plants and decorations in the tank. Often times fish, like Oscars, are very territorial. They want their space and they don't want other fish to invade it. By rearranging the contents of the tank you may be able to trick the agressive fish into thinking that they are in a new tank. The bully fish will then spend a while looking for a new territory to stake out. By the time he finds his new space the new fish will hopefully be forgotten.

CAUSES AND PREVENTION
Some things can add to or be a reason why a fish that is not supposed to be aggressive will get aggressive. It is very important to not let the fish get hungry. A hungry fish can become very aggressive when under ordinary circumstances, the same fish would not be aggressive at all.

For Cichlids it is important to feed a variety of foods to them. This will help keep them from being so aggressive. Feeding live food to Cichlids exclusively can lead to problems in the future. My fish know that when a Goldfish is put in the tank, it is food. Thus when they are hungry, naturally their first thought is to eat another fish. It doesn't matter that the other fish in the tank are big, they will still go after it. For this reason, I only feed feeder Goldfish once in a great while. That way the Oscars don't get into a habit of chasing and attacking other fish.

i had one flame gourami that fought with my goldfish and i had no room for my beta in his separate bowl so i had to move my beta into my tank and he and the gourami fought and i moved the beta back into his bowl and all the fish are fine again and don't fight exept for my pleco sometimes gets a bit mad when my other fish try to take his food.

by PLECOSTOMAZ

CLOUDY WATER

GREEN WATER

When we first started our fish hobby we had a cloudy or a green water problem. We could never quite figure out was going on. We battled both continually. Water change after water change after water change and nothing seemed to help. We would empty out almost the whole tank of water and still within a couple of days we had cloudy or green water again. Finally, we just got sick of it and decided the heck with it... we would just live with cloudy water. We stopped doing water changes. We were careful to check the ammonia frequently though to make sure it was in the safe level.

Lo and behold after about two weeks the water started clearing up. It was amazing. We have since found out that frequent water changes adds to the cloudiness or greenness of the water. This is probably the main reason most tanks get cloudy or green. I have listed other possible causes below, but chose to list this one here since it is the most prevalent. Change only 25% to 30% of your water at a time. Do not change your water every week unless you notice a high ammonia content. Do little or no gravel cleaning over the entire tank. (See Below) We rarely gravel clean over the entire tank. Stirring up the gravel by cleaning it destroys some of the natural biological filter so it is better to leave it alone unless you get a lot of waste on the bottom.

The below information will work for either cloudy or green water. The first thing I would do, however, is to just let the water go. Do not make any water changes, but continually monitor your ammonia. If this does not work in about a month, then consider trying a product on the market to clear water, if you haven't already. I have actually tried many products without success, however, I did receive a message from one of the people I have helped on the fish help service that said the following:

"I bought this stuff called ACCU-CLEAR. It worked really well in my tank. My water was severely
cloudy, but within a week, and 2 applications, it is Amazingly crystal clear."

"I think you should promote this product on your web site, since it worked for me! It takes excess
bacteria out of the water, I think that was my problem. I'm sure it wont last forever, but it says is
beneficial to add weekly."
If you do try one of the products that are supposed to clear the water, or if you have already without success, then check out the other suggestions below. Hopefully one of them will work for you. Though, I, as well as many other people have found that just plain letting the water sit helps the most.

POSSIBLE CAUSES, SOLUTIONS and PREVENTION
CAUSE: One thing that can cause cloudy or green water is over feeding. The feed dissolves and mixes with the water, much like what happens when you are out wading in the water in a lake. The mud gets stirred up and clouds the water. The same thing applies to your aquarium. Decomposing food mixes with the water. The agitation in the water from your filtering system keeps the dissolved food stirring/mixing around in the water.

SOLUTION: Shut your filters off for an hour. This will allow the food particles to settle on the bottom of your tank. Do a real thorough gravel cleaning. Clean up all the excess food particles.

PREVENTION: Do not feed so much that the food has a chance to fall to the bottom of the tank. It is far better to feed small amounts of food 2 or more times a day than it is to feed a whole lot at one time. Don't worry, your fish will not starve to death. Fish can actually go a couple of weeks without food, though I would NEVER recommend that. It would not be good for your fish. Another thing that would greatly help alleviate this type of problem would be to get a bottom feeder type of fish for your aquarium. I would suggest Catfish, Plecos, Loaches, etc. All of these types of fish are great for that sort of thing. They can burrow down into the gravel and clean up excess food that you can not even see. They have the added bonus of being very fun fish to watch.

CAUSE: Another thing that can cause cloudy or green water is an excess build up of waste matter. This would depend on what type of filtering system you are using and how long your tank has been up. Undergravel filters build up waste material underneath them. Eventually the area underneath them gets full. An undergravel filter works by sucking water down under the filter and then back up through the tubes. Because of this, when the area underneath the UGF gets full, there is no where for the waste to go, but back up the tubes and out into your tank. Thus causing the same effect as I described above. The length of time it takes for this to happen would depend on the number of fish as well as the amount of wasted food.

SOLUTION: Do a total thorough gravel cleaning. Put the tube down clear to the undergravel filter. Hold the tube there until you see clear water come out of it. Repeat this over the entire bottom surface of your tank. If you have a small tank, you will have to do this at more than one time since you will quickly run out of water before you get the entire tank clean. Another way to do it would be to refill the tank and start where you left off until you run out of water again. You would need to refill the tank several times (depending on how dirty it is) before you would get the entire tank clean. Once you have nothing but clear water coming up the tube then your tank will be clean. NOTE: Your tank will have to go through the cycling process all over again. You can speed this process up by using Stress Zyme. Use the dosage on the bottle for starting a new tank.

Stress Zyme is put out by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. This product adds live bacteria to aid in the development and maintenance of your biological filter. I am totally sold on this product. In my first 2 tanks I used nothing. What a mistake. I had nothing but problems getting my tank to cycle. When we purchased our first 50 gallon tank the man at the store suggested using Stress Zyme. The tank was fully cycled in no time at all. I didn't have to contend with cloudy/green water or high ammonia content. I use it every time I set up a new tank and after each water change. You always take some of the natural biological filter out during tank cleaning and this replaces what is lost in the process. After a water change add enough to bring it back up to full strength. IE: If you take out 5 gallons, add the amount of Stress Zyme required for 5 gallons of water.

If you have the added luxury of having more than one tank as I do, you can move your fish to another tank and take everything out of the dirty tank and clean it. This takes a lot of work but is well worth it in the end.

If you have a canister filter or a Bio-Wheel type of filter make sure that you filtering media is clean. I use Bio-Wheels and Magnum Canister filters. If they get full there is no where for the waste matter to go but back in the water. Make sure you clean or replace them every time you clean your tank. This will aid greatly in keeping the tank clean as well.

PREVENTION: When you clean your tank, clean only 1/4 of it thoroughly at a time. Go clear down to the undergravel filter. Leave the tube where it is until you see clear water come out of it. The next time you clean your tank, do the next 1/4 the same way. This way after 4 cleanings you will have your tank cleaned out. By doing only 1/4 of your tank each time you clean you will not disrupt your biological filter much at all. I have found this to work extremely well. Only remove 25-30% of your water at a time. Be sure and add Stress Zyme or some other comparable product after the cleaning. This will aid in replacing the bacteria that you removed by the cleaning.

CAUSE: Your undergravel filter may not be placed correctly. We had one tank that had a real problem with cloudy/green water even though we were doing everything right as above. Finally one day while talking about it we remembered that when we set the tank up we neglected to place the UGF plates right up against each other. This did not allow the filter to function properly. If your plates are not in there tight up against each other your filter will not work right.

SOLUTION: Remove as much water out of your tank as you can safely remove. Leave just enough for your fish to be covered. (If you have a second tank, put your fish in there.) Remove the plates and push all your gravel to one side. Replace the first plate. Make sure you have no gravel or a spare fish or two under it. Move the gravel all over to that side. Replace your next plate. Make sure that it is tightly up against the first plate and lined up exactly, front to back, with the first plate. Cover the second plate with gravel to keep it in place. Repeat the process until you have the tank back together. NOTE: This is pretty stressful to your fish so be sure and watch closely for signs of ICK/ICH, Parasites, or Fungus for the next week or so. Be sure and add Stress Zyme or some other comparable product after the cleaning. This will aid in replacing the bacteria that you removed by the cleaning. Use the dosage for setting up a new tank.

PREVENTION: When you set up a tank, place your plates as tight together as you can. Make sure that they line up exactly from front to back. Do not punch out the holes if you are not going to be putting an air tube in them. Be careful that no gravel gets underneath the filter.

CAUSE: Live plants can cause a real mess in your tank. Bits and pieces fall off and decompose, mucking up your tank. It acts pretty much the same way that excess food does.

SOLUTION: Do a good thorough gravel cleaning as described above. Clip off any ends that look like they are dying. Remove any plants that are not fresh and healthy.

PREVENTION: I personally don't favor live plants, though the fish, I'm sure, love them. When I first started in my fish hobby I bought live plants. I had nothing but problems with them. Bits and pieces fell off and went to the bottom of the tank and decomposed. Decomposing plant bits can cause a rise in ammonia as well as a messy tank. If you have to medicate the tank for any reason, often times it kills the plants. Plants can promote algae growth and rob your tank of oxygen. After about 6 months of having live plants I totally eliminated all of them and went to plastic plants. When I notice algae forming on them that is not being eaten by my algae eaters I pull them out and throw them in the dishwasher. They come out bright as new. I know that there are people out there with live plants and they do just fine. However, my personal experience has not been that way. I guess I don't have a green thumb. :) If you do decide to have or keep live plants keep a close eye on them. Remove any ends or whole plants that are turning brown or do not look fresh and healthy.

this info was not typed by me and if i do type something in like the middle of this i will say by plecostomaz

DYING FISH
NO SIGNS OF ILLNESS

POSSIBLE CAUSES - ESTABLISHED FISH
When already established fish start dying for no apparent reason you should first check for the following:

Test your water for pH and Ammonia.
Observe your fish closely for signs of a fungus or tiny white spots that look like salt. (Ick/Ich)
Is your water temperature correct for the type of fish you are housing?
Watch your fish, especially at feeding time, for an hour or so. Do you perhaps have a bully fish in there that is perhaps chasing or harassing the other fish?
If all of these things checkout, your pH and Ammonia levels are fine, there are no visible signs of illness, the water temperature is correct and you have no bully fish then here are a couple of other things to consider.
Did you recently do a water change? Did you add chlorine remover? Did you add water the same temperature as what was in the tank already? You should ALWAYS add water no more or no less than 2 degrees different from the current water temperature in the tank. If you did a recent water change and put chlorine remover in and added the correct temperature water, then you have a bacterial infection going on. When everything seems to be fine, I ALWAYS treat the tank for a bacterial infection. NOTE: A bacterial infection will sometimes show up as a clouding in the eyes.

POSSIBLE CAUSES - NEWLY PURCHASED FISH
If you lose fish within a few days of purchasing them your fish may have died from the stress of moving them. The fish are moved from their existing tank, put in huge bags, very overcrowded, shipped in a truck usually clear across the United States, taken out and put in a new tank. This is VERY stressful to the fish.

Another possible cause is putting them into a new tank where the water chemistry is different. Your water chemistry will obviously be slightly different from what they are used to. In newly purchased fish they have been put in 3 different types of water. The water they came in, the water at the fish store and then the water at your home. All of this within a few days.

A large difference in water temperature can be a factor as well. I have found that with the feeder Goldfish that I buy for my fish that only eat live food. I always lose a few the first few days. (I buy 100 at a time) The pet store I get them from has their tanks at 78 degrees and my feeder tank runs around 65 degrees.

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES
Ask you fish dealer what day he receives his shipment of fish. NEVER buy fish on the day they arrive at the store. They are very stressed from shipping. It is best to wait at least 3-4 days after arrival. The fish that were severely stressed will have died already. Thus, the fish you buy will have a higher chance of survival.

Choose a fish store that has a guarantee on their fish. I am VERY hesitant to purchase fish from a store that offers no guarantee at all. Most reputable fish stores will offer at least a 24 hour guarantee. The fish store that I purchase from offers a 30 day guarantee.

When going to the fish store observe all of the tanks. Are all the fish swimming around and look healthy? Are there a lot of dead fish in the tanks? Do you notice any fungus or white spots on the fish? Are their fins clamped or jagged and torn? Don't just check out the tanks of fish that you are interested in. Check ALL of the tanks. Spend some time looking at each tank. Don't just glance in and move on. NEVER buy from a tank that has unhealthy looking fish in it.

While visiting various fish stores strike up a conversation with other customers. They are a wealth of information. Find out where they buy their fish from, where they have the best success in purchasing, and most importantly of all, what store they experience the most loses from. We have one fish store in town that we purchased from when first starting. We NEVER had a fish that lived past 24 hours when buying from them. They offered no guarantee either. Being new to the fish hobby we thought it was something that we were doing wrong. Since that time we spoke with other fish hobbyists and found out that this store has the worst reputation around. They have very unhealthy fish. One example was one day we went in and were looking at an entire tank full of Dalmatian Mollies (about 50). The next day we went back to buy 2. The tank was empty. We did not think to ask what happened to them, assuming they had sold them all. Had we been experienced we would have known that the fish had more than likely all died. So, talk to other fish hobbyist in your town. They can save you a lot of heart ache and money.

If at all possible, put the new fish in a bucket with the water that he was bagged in. Take water from your tank and put it in the bucket. Add only enough water to be the equivalent of approximately 1/10th of the amount of water in the bucket. Every 15 minutes add the same amount of water out of your tank to the bucket. If you have the time, do this for around 2 hours. By that time you will have replaced most of the water in the bucket with your water. The new fish will be adjusted to the new water. If you do not have the time to do this for 2 hours, do it as along as you can. Any amount of time is better than none at all. NOTE: If you do not have a bucket, any large container will do. If you run out of room for water, you can take out the same amount as you put in at that point.

If you do not wish to do the above, make sure that you float the bag the fish come in, in your tank for at least 20 minutes so they get adjusted to the difference in temperature. Temperature is probably the most critical of the factors.

Once the fish is placed in the new tank, observe the other fish. Pay close attention to see if the other fish chase the new fish around. Some amount of chasing around is normal. The fish need to get their pecking order in place once again. However, if the new fish is being attacked as well as chased continually, the chance of the new fish surviving this aggression are very slight.

TREATMENT
The first medication I suggest is CopperSafe by Mardel Laboratories. If you use nothing else use CopperSafe. It is a very good all around treatment and can be kept in there for a month. I like it a lot and have had good success with it. CopperSafe treats for the following diseases: Ick, Flukes, Anchor Worms, Velvet/Protozoan Diseases and other freshwater parasites. In addition to treating these diseases it also aids in stimulating the appetite in sick fish.

I strongly recommend that you use CopperSafe for the full 30 days. Many times when a fish is sick it will pick up a parasite because of its weakened condition. Parasites are ALWAYS present in your tank. I have heard that some fish hobbyist keep CopperSafe in their tank all the time as a preventative measure. I would not recommend doing this however. The parasites will build up a resistance to CopperSafe and it will not be effective against them in the future.

You add the CopperSafe to the tank only one time. If you do a water change during the 30 day period then replace just enough CopperSafe to get it back up to full strength. CAUTION: Too much copper in the water can be deadly to your fish. When you add more CopperSafe to bring it back up to full strength, guess on the low side. In otherwords, if you think you took out 10 gallons of water, add the amount of CopperSafe for 8 gallons. It is better to err on the low side than the high side.

Whenever I suspect a bacterial type disease I ALWAYS treat with an antibiotic. I use either or both Maracyn and Maracyn 2. Though the names may make you think that these are the same medications they are really quite different. One treats gram POSITIVE bacteria and the other treats gram NEGATIVE bacteria. As in humans fish can get either type of bacterial infection.

I ALWAYS use all of these products for at least 7 days even if the appear to be cured. This is very important! I relate this to our own medications that the doctor gives us. A doctor rarely gives you medicine for less than 7 days and most often 10 days. It takes that long to get every last little bit of the bacteria that lingers on. I also used to be on a farm and raised many different kinds of animals. The same held true there. Always give a medication for a minimum of 7 days and I recommend 10 days. By giving a medicine for less you can end up having a bacteria that becomes resistant to the drug you are using and it will no longer work for you. If you are still experiencing deaths, continue on for a full 14 days.

I keep salt in all my tanks at all times. Ick does not like salt. Thus the salt works as an excellent preventative. I don't buy salt at the pet store because it is way too expensive. I buy regular table salt at the grocery store. Make sure you use only NON-IODIZED or PLAIN salt. The iodine will kill the fish. I use 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water. The salt also aids in the repair of damaged fins, etc. It is a really good thing to use. Your fish do not have to be salt water fish to use this. Regular tropical fish are just fine with it. It does not hurt them at all. When you do a water change, replace the amount of salt that you would need to bring it back up to full strength. In other words, if you take out 10 gallons of water, then you add 2 tablespoons of salt back in. Do not worry if you might get a bit too much salt. It won't hurt them at all.

A WORD OF CAUTION ABOUT ADDING SALT TO YOUR TANK

DO NOT dump the salt right into your tank if you have fish in it. We did something that almost killed our Tire Tread Eel, Mic. Mic tends to burrow under the gravel and since he's a brownish color he is very hard to see. We did a water change in our 50 gallon tank and I was adding the chemicals and the salt to it while my fiancee was filling it with water. I started dumping the salt in and never noticed that Mic was right under the gravel where I was dumping the salt until it was too late. All the salt landed right on top of him. He was getting burnt. He went into convulsions and curled all up. I thought I killed him. We directed the water right on top of him and after a bit he started moving around and swimming erratically. That was about a year ago and he is back to normal now. So it is very IMPORTANT the you either dissolve the salt in water before you pour it in or wait until the tank is full before you add it and make sure no fish are in the vicinity.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
You can use ALL Mardel products along with the others with no ill effects. They were designed to be used together. They also do NOT destroy your natural biological filter.

I will mention this however, your water will turn cloudy and change color. The medications tend to change the color of the water as well as make bubbles on the top, depending on how much agitation you have in your water. Once you are done treating and clean it out, it will go away. You will probably still have a wee bit of discoloration until you change the water the next 2 times or so, then it should get back to clear.

Remove the charcoal filters from your tank or the charcoal will remove the medication. When your treatment is done remove as much water as you safely can and put your charcoal filters back in to remove the last remnants of the medicine.

if your ammonia is higher than o.5 i would change all the water and maybe the rock. once my water was realy murky so i tested it and it was at the highest level of ammonia so i cleaned everything NO SOAP! soap will kill them
by: plecostomaz

FEEDING YOUR FISH

A lot of people have written asking what to feed their fish. This page will consist of how * feed my fish and what I feed my fish. I will give a description of the food and what I feed it to along with my personal experiences with that brand or type of food. I hope that this will give you an idea what to feed your fish. This page will only include feeding Freshwater Tropical Fish. If you would like to find out what to feed your Goldfish, please refer to the Goldfish Page for that information.

It is important to feed your fish a varied diet. No one food contains all the nutrition that a fish needs. By feeding a variety of foods you fish will stay healthier, be happier and grow much quicker. In fact, I have found that some of my fish are very Picky eaters. For instance when I put flake food in the tank they will only eat certain parts of it. They will grab the green flakes and ignore the red ones. If you have the time, I would suggest feeding the way I do.

On weekdays, I get home about 5:00 pm from work. The first thing I do when I get home is feed one type of food in all the tanks. Every so often when I get up for something, I go around and feed the next type of food to the fish, as long as they have cleaned up the previous food. By the time I go to bed about 10:30-11:00 all the tanks have been fed slowly. I do not give a large amount of any one food since I feed such a large variety. That way, all the fish usually get a little something. That is except for the real picky little buggers that seem to think they are special and will just hang out until I drop their "Favorite" food in there.

On weekends, I feed several times a day. I space the time between feeding more than I do on the weekdays. Many times, depending on how late I stay up, the fish end up getting fed some of the same things a second time around.

TYPES OF FOOD

Here is a list of fish I have and have had. For several years now I have fed the same brand and types of food. Almost very tank I have gets these same foods except for the Goldfish tank. More than likely you will have at least one of the fish listed here. Needlenose Gar, Tin Foil Barb, Pictus Catfish, Various types of Gouramis, Bala Shark (Silver Shark), Clown Loach, Orange Tailed Botia, Numerous types of Cory's (Corydora), Various types of Rainbows, Various types of Swordtails, Various types of Platys, Green Tiger Barb, Kool Aid Barb, Various Skirts, Various Tetras, Various Mollies, Knight Gobi, Plecostomus, Clown Knife (Featherback), Peacock Eel, Tire Tread Eel (Spiney Eel), Do-Jo, Oscar, Blue Acara, Jack Dempsey, Ghostknife, Green Terror, Texas Greenspot Cichlid, Convict, Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta), Knight Goby, Palmas Bicher, Fire Mouth, Banded Leporinus, Redfin Shark, Butterfly Fish, Various types of Platys, Siamese Flying Fox, Marbled Headstander (Abramites), Pink-tailed Chalceus, Pike, and Geophagus. I'm sure I've missed a few, but this will give you a general idea anyway. :)

Tetra JumboMin: This is basically very large thick floating food sticks that replaces live food in your fish that eat live food, like my Oscars. It is a perfect alternative to feeder goldfish. Tetra JumboMin is formulated with a large percentage of dried live foods (Krill, Shrimp and Crabs) Having so many Oscars, it gets quite expensive to feed a dozen live feeder fish a day at 10 cents a piece.

The Oscars really love these. The Oscars are very messy eaters and they spill food out their gills as they eat. The other fish in the tank, Gourami's, Blue Acara, Cat Fish, Plecos, etc, swim up and grab all the little tiny particles of food that have been so nicely handed to them by the Oscars. This is the only brand of food on the market that supplies this type of food that I am aware of.

Tetra DoroMin: These are small food sticks. They are mainly for Oscars as well. They tend to get the whole stick eaten without messing up the tank. I leave them full size when putting them in the tank with the Oscars, however, I break up 6 of them into 4 pieces and feed them in my other tanks as well... 6 per tank. Several of the other fish go after them and love them, Tin Foil Barbs, Clown Knives, Palmas Bicher, Cats, Gourami's, etc. I don't know of any other brands that make this type of food either.

Tetra large flake Cichlid Food: These flakes have a natural color enhancer in them. It is a concentrated flake as well so you don't have to feed as much. I feed this in all of my tanks, whether there is Cichlids in there or not. All the fish except for the live food consumers eat these flakes and love them. There are other companies that make this food, however, I chose Tetra because it is large flakes that the Oscars seem to prefer. They won't eat the small flakes.

Wardley Spirulina Discs: I feed this in all my tanks. These, along with Algae Wafers supply most of the nutritional needs of any of the bottom feeding fish; Loaches, Catfish, Cory's, etc. I will mention this however, a lot of the other fish love these as well. My Oscars eat them, as well as my Tin Foil Barbs, Sharks, Clown Knives, etc. Some of the fish won't touch them however. I chose this brand because they were the cheapest and I like the quality of them.

Hikari Algae Wafers: Again, same as above. Along with the Spirulina Discs, bottom feeders are well fed. Some of the other fish love them, some don't. There are other brands on the market, but again, I like the quality of this brand and they are the cheapest.

Wardley Shrimp Pellets: 99% of the fish go totally crazy over these. ALL fish it seems just love them. I put quite a few in all my tanks. Usually the larger fish get them eaten before the little Cory's get a chance at them, but every so often they get one here and there. There are probably other brands of these out there, but I haven't seen them.

Wardley Cichlid T.E.N.: These are designed for Cichlids like Oscars as well, however I feed them in all my tanks. They come in different size pellets. I buy the medium size since the Oscars seem to prefer it over any others. Many of my other fish love them, Clown Knives, Tin Foil Barbs, Bala Shark, Gourami's, Cats, etc. It is a little hard for the Gourami's to eat them since they are so large. They usually keep an eye on the ones that the Oscars don't eat and when they soften up and start to sink to the bottom of the tank, then they nab on to them.

Tetra Doro-Red: This food is good for all large tropical fish, especially Oscars. It is color enhancing as well. I feed it the same way as I do the DoroMin...I leave them full size when putting them in the tank with the Oscars, however, I break up 6 of them into 4 pieces and feed them in my other tanks as well... 6 per tank. Several of the other fish go after them and love them, Tin Foil Barbs, Clown Knives, Palmas Bicher, Cats, Gourami's, etc. I don't know of any other brands that make this type of food either.

San Francisco Freeze Dried Brine Shrimp: All the fish love this. I generally crumble it a little so that all the fish can get some though. I've tried several brands and I like this one the best. The fish like it the best, and the quality is much higher than the others I've tried. It is just a tiny bit more spendy than the other brands, but it is well worth the 50 cents or so more that you have to pay for it. They are quite spendy, so every weekend, the fish get this as an added treat.

Hikari Freeze Dried Blood Worms: Most of the fish love these. The larger fish don't too much. I think it is because they are so small and they can't really get a good taste of them. The smaller fish all go for them instantly. I have tried San Francisco brand and one other that I can't remember the name of right now and by far... Hikari comes out on top as far as quality and less waste. They are just a small bit more than the other brands, but well worth it.

Tetra Growth flake Food and Tetra Brine Shrimp Treat (flake): I mix these two foods along with the Hikari Freeze Dried Blood Worms in equal increments. Then I put them back in the containers. This I feed to any of the tanks that have young fish in them. The flakes are very small and the combination of the 3 foods together are excellent for small baby fish. The Tetra Brine Shrimp I feed as a treat to my other tanks that have smaller fish in them. I haven't seen any other growth food out there, but I have seen other Shrimp Flakes and I prefer the Tetra Brand over any of them.

O.S.I. Spirulina Flakes: These take over where the Discs leave off. The flakes enable the other fish that don't care for the Discs to get some Spirulina as well. Spirulina is a necessary part of a fishes diet. The fish all love these flakes. There are other brands out there, but I feel that O.S.I. has the best.

Nutrafin Tubifex Worms: These are freeze dried compressed cubes of Tubifex Worms. You put them in the tank and press them against the glass. They stay stuck there and the fish come up and nibble on them. I find that they work the best in tanks with the smaller fish. Otherwise the big fish come up and wolf them down in one big gulp and no one else gets any. I don't feed a whole lot of them. It again is a treat for the weekends. I hope you know... my fish love the weekends. :)

Frozen Blood Worms: Boy... talk about something that the fish go totally crazy over... Frozen Blood Worms is it. Man... drop a frozen cube in there and the entire tank is in a feeding frenzy. If you put these cubes in with the bigger fish, they will consume them whole. What I started doing was putting them in the tank and holding on to them as they thaw. When they get about 1/2 way thawed out, then I turn lose of them. That way the smaller fish get some of them as they float down and yet the larger fish still get some while they are still in a part of a cube before they thaw out. I have actually watched some of my smaller fish grab a hold of the cube and take off with it in there mouth to a corner of the tank so they could eat it. I don't have a particular brand in mind. They are all about the same. I just buy what is cheapest or available at the time I go to the fish store.

Staple flake food: I buy whatever is cheapest at the time. These I use for a little added nutrition and as a filler so the fish don't feel hungry. I feed so much of the high quality stuff that they really don't need a whole lot of added nutrition. It is rather funny to watch the fish eat this food. Most of them are in several different colored flakes. I would imagine that what ever ingredient is in the individual flake determines the color of it. I watch the fish go up to it and certain fish will grab one color whereas other fish will grab the next color. Some fish will only eat a certain color and others will eat any of it.

There are a lot of wafer type foods out there for bottom fish. My bottom fish don't really need a whole lot of this sort of thing since they get so much other foods to nibble on as it falls to the bottom of the tank. However, if I had a tank with nothing but bottom feeders in it, I would purchase some additional more expensive types of bottom feeder foods.