Feeding
As feeders, fishes can be separated into three groups: the carnivorous, who prefer the meaty, live foods; the herbivorous, who prefer a menu laced with vegetable matter; and the omnivorous, who will eat almost anything! This doesn't mean that the carnivorous fish won't touch vegetation, or that the herbivores won't attack the daphnia. in fact, very hungry fish will soon modify their eating habits. The tales about the so-called "fussy feeders" seem to stem from a lack of understanding regarding how the fish like to feed. A bottom feeding catfish would have to be very hungry indeed to take his food in the open water in the middle of the tank and a surface feeder such as the Butterfly Fish (Pantodon buchholzi), who likes his food served up on the water surface, would rarely venture down to the bottom in search of something to guell its appetite. Study the shapes of their mouths and you will get some idea of how they feed best.
Live Food
A nourishing diet is just as important as keeping the environment right. The best diets are those that come as hear as possible to what the aquatic animals feed on in their natural environment, but as we have already read, animals kept in captivity will quickly modify their feeding habits, Though smaller fishes do form a major part in the diet of fishes in the wild, they also eat small creatures, some of which can be purchased at your aquatic store or collected by the aquarist. These we now discuss as live foods. In feeding live natural foods we must consider the relationship be8veen the size of the food animal and the fish to which it is offered. lt is no use giving the small ciliates to the large cichlids although they are ideal for newly born fry. Feeding a community of small tropicals with whole earthworms would be equally useless. The fish in both cases would starve despite the apparent "abundance" of food in the tank.
