Fish Food →
This aisle covers everyday food for aquarium and pond fish, from flakes and floating pellets to sinking foods for bottom feeders. The right choice depends mainly on what species you keep and how they naturally feed, rather than any one food suiting every tank.
Flakes, pellets and sinking foods
Flake food suits most community tropical fish, who feed at or near the surface, while sinking pellets or wafers are better matched to bottom-dwelling species like catfish and loaches, who rarely come up to take floating food. Many keepers with a mixed tank use a combination of both to make sure every fish in the tank actually gets fed.
Goldfish sinking pellets are worth calling out specifically, since goldfish and other coldwater species have different nutritional needs from tropical fish and benefit from food formulated around that, rather than a general tropical flake.
Choosing the right food for your fish
Feeding amounts matter as much as food type — most fish do better fed a small amount a few times a day than one large feed, and uneaten food left to break down in the water is one of the more common causes of poor water quality in home aquariums. Only feed what will be eaten within a couple of minutes.
Specialist diets exist for particular needs, including colour-enhancing foods for ornamental species and higher-protein foods for growing or breeding fish, so it is worth checking whether your fish would benefit from something more targeted than a general community flake.