Look, I’m gonna be real with you – I killed a lot of fish before I figured out this whole feeding thing. Not on purpose, obviously, but because I had absolutely no clue what I was doing when I started keeping fish in my nano tanks. I mean, how hard could it be, right? Fish eat food, you give them food, everyone’s happy. Turns out it’s way more complicated than that, and my poor cherry barbs paid the price for my ignorance.
When I got my first 6-gallon tank set up, the guy at the local fish store handed me a container of generic flakes and said “feed them a pinch twice a day.” That was literally the extent of my fish nutrition education. So I did exactly that – dumped in some flakes morning and night, watched them gobble it up, figured I was nailing this whole fish parent thing. Within two weeks, half my fish were dead and the other half looked… not great. Turns out I was overfeeding like crazy, my water parameters were a disaster, and I had no idea that different fish actually need different types of food.
After that spectacular failure, I went down another one of my obsessive research rabbit holes. Spent hours reading about fish digestion, protein requirements, feeding schedules – you know, all the stuff I probably should’ve learned before bringing living creatures into my apartment. What I discovered is that fish nutrition is actually pretty fascinating once you get past the overwhelming amount of contradictory advice online.
The biggest thing I learned? Not all fish eat the same stuff. Groundbreaking, I know. But seriously, I was feeding my bottom-dwelling corydoras the same floating flakes as my surface-swimming tetras, which meant the corys were basically starving while the tetras got all the food. The corys needed sinking pellets that would actually reach them at the bottom of the tank. My neon tetras, being tiny and active, needed small, protein-rich foods they could actually fit in their mouths. Meanwhile, I was giving everyone the same sad, generic flakes that were probably mostly filler ingredients anyway.
So I started actually reading fish food labels, which was… enlightening. A lot of the cheap stuff I’d been buying was basically fish junk food – corn meal and wheat flour with some fish meal thrown in as an afterthought. The good foods list whole fish or shrimp as the first ingredient, kind of like how you’re supposed to read dog food labels. I switched to a higher-quality pellet food from Fluval and immediately saw a difference in my fish’s energy levels and colors.
But here’s where it gets tricky when you’re working with nano tanks and a tight budget – buying specialty foods for every different type of fish gets expensive fast. I’ve got cherry barbs, ember tetras, and corydoras all in the same tank, plus cherry shrimp that have their own dietary needs. I can’t afford to buy five different types of food, especially when half of it would go bad before I used it up in my tiny tanks.
My solution was to find one really good quality omnivore pellet as a base food, then supplement with frozen foods a couple times a week. I buy frozen brine shrimp and bloodworms from the fish store – they come in these little blister packs that are perfect for nano tanks since you’re not defrosting huge amounts. The frozen foods are way cheaper than live foods but still give my fish that nutritional variety they need. Plus, feeding time becomes this exciting event where all the fish go absolutely nuts trying to catch the little pieces of bloodworm floating around.
I also discovered that vegetables are a thing for fish. Who knew? My corydoras love blanched zucchini slices, and my cherry shrimp go crazy for blanched spinach leaves. I just microwave a piece of zucchini for like 30 seconds until it’s soft, let it cool, and drop it in the tank. It’s basically free food since I’m already buying vegetables for myself, and it gives the fish some variety in their diet. The zucchini also helps with their digestion, apparently.
The feeding schedule part took me forever to get right. Everything I read said “feed small amounts 2-3 times per day,” but nobody explained what “small amounts” actually meant for different tank sizes. In a 6-gallon tank, a “pinch” of food can be way too much. I learned to literally count out pellets – like, I give my school of ember tetras exactly 8-10 pellets per feeding. It sounds ridiculous, but it works. They eat everything within a couple minutes, nothing sinks to the bottom to rot, and my water stays clean.
I also had to figure out the timing thing. I’m not home during the day because, you know, job, so I can’t do the ideal multiple small feedings. I feed once in the morning before work and once in the evening when I get home. On weekends I sometimes do a midday feeding if I’m around. It’s not perfect, but it works with my schedule and my fish seem healthy and active.
One thing that really helped was getting an automatic feeder for my vacation feeding. I was terrified to leave my tanks for even a weekend because I didn’t trust anyone else to feed them correctly (my boyfriend means well but has no sense of portion control). The auto feeder I got was like $25 on Amazon and lets me program exact portions. It’s been a game changer for my anxiety about traveling.
The shrimp threw another wrench into the whole feeding routine. Cherry shrimp are basically little vacuum cleaners – they eat algae, dead plant matter, fish waste, leftover fish food. But they also need calcium for their shells and protein when they’re molting. I started dropping in these little shrimp pellets once a week that sink straight to the bottom where the shrimp can find them. Watching a dozen tiny shrimp mob a single pellet is honestly hilarious.
I’ve also learned that overfeeding is way worse than underfeeding, especially in small tanks. Fish can actually go quite a while without food – like, if I forget to feed them for a day, it’s not the end of the world. But too much food creates ammonia spikes that can kill everything in the tank within hours. I learned this the hard way when I accidentally double-fed one morning (pre-coffee mistake) and came home to find my tank cloudy and my fish gasping at the surface. Emergency water change saved them, but it was terrifying.
These days, my feeding routine is pretty dialed in. Morning: small amount of high-quality pellets. Evening: either more pellets or frozen food, depending on what I’m feeling and what the fish seem interested in. Weekend: maybe some vegetables for variety. Once a week: targeted shrimp food. It’s simple, it fits my budget and schedule, and most importantly, my fish are thriving.
The biggest lesson I learned is to actually watch your fish while they eat. Sounds obvious, but I used to just dump food in and walk away. Now I stand there for a few minutes and observe. Are they all getting food or is one fish hogging everything? Are they eating eagerly or just picking at it? Are there pieces sinking to the bottom uneaten? You learn so much about your fish’s health and behavior just by watching them eat.
I still make mistakes sometimes – recently I tried some fancy color-enhancing food that my fish absolutely hated, and I ended up donating the whole container to someone with larger tanks. But that’s part of the learning process, I guess. Every tank is different, every fish has preferences, and sometimes you just have to experiment to figure out what works. The important thing is starting with good quality food and paying attention to how your fish respond to it.
Priya proves aquascaping doesn’t need deep pockets or big spaces. From her San Jose apartment, she experiments with thrifted tanks, easy plants, and clever hacks that keep the hobby affordable. Expect honest lessons, DIY tips, and a lot of shrimp in tiny jars.
