Juveniles | Adults | Fry

Here at the Angelfish Micro Hatchery our goal is to provide the Angelfish enthusiast / breeder with access to information about Angelfish feed and the feeding methods needed to efficiently raise a generation of Angelfish. We take a basic no frills approach to nutrition. We don't endorse any particular super, duper, special, patent pending flakerized blend. Don't believe the hype. What we do endorse is tried and proven methods used at the larger hatcheries customized and refined for the Angelfish Micro Hatcheries found in our homes. Read the labels of all foods. Most will list a guaranteed analysis of the product. Purchase foods with this analysis as a guide and not by brand names or promises.

The Angelfish Micro Hatchery strongly advises all fish keepers to feed the fish not the tank! Feeding time is a wonderful period to observe and enjoy your Angelfish. Don't rush though feedings. Take your time, relax and enjoy your Angelfish whenever possible. Here at AMH we strongly suggest that feeding time be considered as a feeding period. In their natural habitat wild Angelfish eat all day. Never dump a bunch of food into a tank and run. When it is necessary to perform a quick feeding such when you are headed out the house and late for work or school, underfeed. Don't risk your Angelfish health in an attempt to rush growth. What's the rush... It is much better to feed too little too often than too much once.

Feed your Angelfish slowly. Observe which fish attack food aggressively and which do not. Add food in small amounts at a time and directly to individual fish when possible. Feed only enough food to your Angelfish that they are capable of consuming within a few minutes of feeding.  Always attempt to prolong feeding time by feeding slowly. Feed the fish not the tank!

Angelfish nutritional needs change during their life cycle. The Angelfish breeder must be prepared to adapt to these changing needs. We will start with suggestions for feeding Juveniles since they are the size Angelfish most often added to our tanks. Next we offer our suggestions for feeding Adults and how to use food to help stimulate them into breeding condition. Lastly we will discuss Feeding Newly Free Swimming Fry with a special introduction to Baby Brine Shrimp and sections on an efficient labor, time and material saving scheme for Hatching Brine Shrimp. Also offer suggestions for feeding older fry.

Growth Diet

| Flake | Freeze Dried | Live | Caution about Frozen Foods |

Juvenile Angelfish are young angelfish about the size of a dime or larger and not old enough to breed. If they were human they would be called children and like all growing children they need a varied and balanced diet. Here at the Angelfish Micro Hatchery we recommend a Growth Diet. Juvenile Angelfish need to have several feeding periods day for optimal growth in body mass. Feed foods with at least 40% protein, less than 5% fiber and with high levels of Vitamin C when possible.

Most Angelfish nutritional needs can be met with a staple diet of high quality Flake Food. These foods have benefited from the advanced research of the larger breeders and are usually created from a blend of ingredients. Flake foods fortified with Vitamin C are said to be best and promote faster growth.

Most of the tropical fish Flake Foods that are sold in most pet shops and online for Angelfish are actually made by several major manufactures. Vitamins that may have been added in the manufacturing process will lose strength in a short time if not stored properly. Don't stockpile more flake food than will be consumed in about 6 months in your Angelfish Micro Hatchery. Store the bulk of your flake foods in the refrigerator once they are opened, removing only a few days supply for feeding.

The Angelfish Micro Hatchery suggest using several varieties of flake foods and that they be fed in intervals everyday depending on your schedule. There are many varieties or blends of flake food. Some of the more popular varieties fed by Angelfish breeders and in no particular order are Egg, Shrimp, Plankton, Krill, Spirulina, Earthworm, Vitamin fortified, Conditioning, Growth and Staple flake blends. Although flake foods provide a excellent staple food for juveniles the Angelfish Micro Hatchery recommends that flake foods be supplemented with other foods. There are several choices other than flake food available. Most of these other foods are freeze dried and frozen forms of the flaked versions.

Freeze Dried Foods from a freshly opened container usually have a consistent quality from lot to lot. They are made from Brine Shrimp, Decapsulated Brine Shrimp Eggs, Blood Worms, Earth Worms, Spirulina, Krill, Beefheart, Mosquito Larvae to name a few. Dehydrated Decapsulated Brine Shrimp Cysts are good alternative feed for fry over 3 weeks old. The Angelfish Micro Hatchery suggest not buying freeze dried food in bulk without preparing to repackage the remainder for storage after removing a few days supply of food for daily use. Freeze dried foods add variety to the Angelfish diet.

The Angelfish Micro Hatchery does not recommend the use of Frozen Foods. Although many breeders have good success with feeding foods processed into a frozen form. We don't recommend processed frozen fish foods. The best frozen food is prepared fresh and frozen by the breeder or hobbyist. This takes time, material and labor and is only practical when preparing large amounts of food. Larger breeders buy directly from there suppliers by the pound. These large amounts are often not practical for most hobbyist to purchase and store. Smaller packaged prepared frozen fish foods are sometimes mishandled. They are sometimes not shipped in the required conditions to maintain their freshness. There are times they are allowed to thaw and are refrozen. Sometimes binders are added to the source food by the manufacturer to hold together the remnant particles that have been expanded by the freezing process. After sample use it has been determined that frozen foods are not more convenient nor do they have greater value than freeze dried foods. Frozen foods are not recommended not because they worthless in raising Angelfish. But because they may not have the consistent level of efficiency and reliability required by the Angelfish Micro Hatchery to be recommended for hobbyist use.

 Live foods may be introduced into the juvenile Angelfish diet as a supplement to flake food. The Angelfish Micro Hatchery urges caution when using any live food in any hatchery. Care must exercised at all times to prevent the contamination of any aquariums from improper handling of these foods. Several live foods have been blamed for some fish diseases when improper storage, maintenance and sanitation of the foods themselves or general husbandry may have been the true cause.

We further caution hobbyist not to overfeed live foods. Angelfish love live food. They will eat and eat more. They will eat until their bellies protrude but there is a price to be paid by the hobbyist.  Do not be deceived into thinking that the live food is the blame. Over feeding live food is the crime committed and the hobbyist is the perpetrator . Some hobbyist like to watch Angelfish stalk live food. Many have noted that Angelfish will pack themselves with live food unlike any other other food. Because of this, it is tempting to overfeed Angelfish live food. Don't do it. Feed the fish not the tank. Stock your tank with Angelfish not live food.

Here at the AMH we recommend increasing water changes when feeding live foods. Even with careful feeding a percentage of live food introduced into any tank will not be consumed by fish. Over feeding increases this amount. This food eventually will die and decay thus fueling the nitrogen cycle. More food into the fish equates to more waste from the fish, thus further fueling the nitrogen cycle. Do not dismiss this increase on your tanks bio load as insignificant. Toxic ammonia, nitrites and even less toxic nitrates can increase to stressful levels if not monitored and removed with increased water changes. If you wish to feed live foods increase your water changes.

Live foods are highly recommended here at the Angelfish Micro Hatchery. Juvenile or dime size Angelfish can be fed live brine shrimp hatched in your own BBS hatchery. Juvenile Angelfish and larger should be fed brine shrimp only as a supplement to flake food. Angelfish can consume large amounts of freshly hatched brine shrimp at this size. Freshly hatched brine shrimp are not a necessity when feeding dime sized Angelfish and larger. However freshly hatched brine shrimp are essential to the success of raising fry to dime sized Angelfish. Click here for the Angelfish Micro Hatchery method of Hatching Brine Shrimp in detail.

Angelfish are omnivorous but highly active as voracious carnivores. They will gobble up brine shrimp, mosquito larvae, drosophila and even worms. Live or once living foods should be offered regularly for best results. Angels are notorious for eating smaller aquarium fish. Care should be taken not keep angelfish with fish that can fit in their mouths unless you want these smaller fish to become a meal.

Small fish do make very good meals for Angelfish.  Guppy fry or other fry from live baring fish are a favorite live food that some breeders feed to their juvenile and larger Angelfish. We suggest that AMH owners not purchase feeder guppies from most pet stores. It's much safer to raise your own feeder guppies to supply an occasional treat for your Angels. An additional source of live feed for your Angelfish are your culled fry. Don't flush or throw them away. Feed them instead.

In general most live foods with the exception of brine shrimp are difficult to efficiently culture in the quantities needed at home. The use of live food to supplement flake food in Angelfish diets is of such benefit to the fish that some larger hatcheries find growing their own live food a good investment. For many hobbyist culturing some of the live feeds at home and particularly indoors is not practical.  Those hobbyist who do culture live foods do so because of the excellent benefits to their Angelfish. The Angelfish Micro Hatchery recommends that live foods be purchased in the small quantities possible. Great care should be directed towards proper storage, maintenance, sanitation and feeding of live foods. Do not overfeed live foods...
 

| Maintenance Diet | Conditioning Diet |

In Angelfish Micro Hatcheries Adult Angelfish are generally fed one of two diet schemes. The first and most often scheme used to feed adult Angelfish is the Maintenance Diet. The other diet scheme is the Conditioning Diet. Both diet schemes can be accomplished with the same foods. The Angelfish Micro Hatchery approach to feeding Angelfish is designed to streamline the process in a cost and labor efficient manner while promoting excellent health and conditioning. These two feeding schemes are the corner stones used along with water changes and temperature to stimulate most Angelfish into breeding condition and spawning.

Maintenance Diet

| Flake | Freeze Dried | Live |

Adult Angelfish on a Maintenance Diet are not fed for growth. They require less feedings. Adult Angelfish on a maintenance diet are fed only enough to promote health and fitness. One feeding a day is not too little. Angelfish properly fed on a Maintenance Diet are kept somewhat hungry but not starving. The idea is to provide a diet that will allow them to survive in a stress free environment and not to simulate a time of plenty and feasting or breeding season.  Avoid feeding more than necessary to maintain the fitness of your adult Angelfish when not actively attempting to stimulate them to reproduce. Feed flake foods as a staple, freeze dried and live foods occasionally.

Conditioning Diet

| Flake | Freeze Dried | Live |

The Conditioning Diet is a component of the Angelfish Micro Hatchery Conditioning Strategy. It provides Angelfish the fuel needed for the large amounts of energy and stamina needed to procreate successfully in an aquarium. Spawning requires so much of an Angelfish energies that they will postpone breeding until the necessary conditions in their environment are present for their offspring to survive. One of the conditions needed is the abundance of food or in more exact terms, enough food to flourish.

As mentioned in the previous section about the Maintenance Diet, adult Angelfish can do quite well on only one feeding a day. The Conditioning Diet differs in that adult Angelfish are fed several times a day instead of just once. The Conditioning Diet is similar to the diet fed to juvenile Angelfish. However their goals are very different. The goal of the Growth Diet is to provide the nutrition needed for development and increase of body mass. The goal of the Conditioning Diet is to provide the nutrition needed for the development of larger and robust spawns.

The Conditioning Diet is fed to adult Angelfish for short periods of about 7 to 10 days. These periods of the Conditioning Diet are usually preceded and followed by a major water changes. There are two major instances for feeding the Conditioning Diet. The first is to facilitate the pairing of potential breeders. The second is to facilitate larger robust spawns.

The staple of the Conditioning Diet is once again high quality Flake Food fed several periods a day. In addition to Flake Food, Angelfish on a Conditioning Diet benefit greatly from at least one feeding daily of another food such as a Freeze Dried Food and especially Live Food.