The clownfish is an ever-popular tropical fish to maintain in aquariums, thanks to the Finding Nemo sensation. A clownfish, sometimes known as an anemonefish, is a saltwater fish that requires little maintenance. To support consistent growth and long life, you must feed it high-quality food. Let’s have a look at what do clownfish eat in an aquarium.
What Do Clownfish Eat In An Aquarium?
Clownfish are an excellent first aquarium fish because they are notoriously finicky eaters. These omnivores eat everything in their natural habitat, including copepods, small crustaceans, fish eggs, algae, anemone tentacles, and larvae. When housed in an aquarium, these hungry omnivores will happily eat a wide variety of fish food.
You can even give them flake fish food, which is rarely eaten by saltwater fish. However, if you want your clownfish to live a long time, you’ll need to feed it a variety of foods that it can eat. So, let’s have a look at some fish food that your clownfish will happily consume.
1. Fish Food with Live Meat
Clownfish require live fish as part of their diet in order to flourish. Live meals are the most effective way to acclimate wild fish species like clownfish to their new, smaller habitat. Shrimps like Krill, Mysis, and Brine are the best live foods to feed your clownfish. These fish feeds are available at your local pet store.
2. Fish Food, Frozen
Small frozen fish, table shrimp (as long as it’s well sliced up), and cut-up bloodworms are all good choices for frozen food for your clownfish. Other frozen fish food alternatives for your clownfish include:
- Mussels cooked
- Bits of peeled shrimp
- Squid, chopped
- Octopus shredded
- Fish in white.
- Cockles
- Liver of chicken
3. Vegetables
Clownfish are omnivores, so vegetables must be included in their diet. Nori and spinach are two vegetables you can use. Nori can be found in any high-end supermarket. Chard and boiled spinach are also excellent foods for clownfish.
The vegetable portion of your clownfish’s diet will be made up of spirulina-rich marine fish food pellets and flakes. Your clownfish will obtain all the nutrition they require from a varied diet of vegetables, as well as live and frozen fish food.
What to Feed Your Breeding Clownfish
Clownfish food requirements differ slightly if you intend to breed them. You must feed your bred clownfish far more than you would an ordinary clownfish. You should feed them at least three to four times every day. It’s pointless to increase the number of feedings beyond four.
As a result, you must ensure that whatever you feed your clownfish breeding program is of good quality. Also, make certain that your breeding fish are eating their food. What is the best high-quality diet for clownfish breeding?
So, throughout the day, you should feed your breeding clownfish a variety of foods. Dried fish pellets, as well as fresh and frozen items, are included in the diet of breeding clownfish.
So, let’s have a look at what you may give your clownfish when they’re reproducing.
1. Pellets Of Marine Fish
Here are some fantastic marine fish pellets that can improve the nutritional value of your clownfish breeding diet:
- Pellets of Ultra Marine Soft Clownfish
- The spectrum of New Life
- Reed Mariculture’s TDO
- Hikari’s Marine A pellets
- Formula Two of Ocean Nutrition
- The Formula for Cobalt Breeders
You don’t have to feed all of these fish pellets to your clownfish, but it’s a good idea to mix things up every now and then.
Formula Two pellets and TDO from Reed Mariculture are the best of them.
2. Foods Frozen
You may also supplement your breeding clown fish’s diet with a variety of frozen meals. Examine a variety of commercially available frozen fish diets to see which ones your clownfish loves. Here are a few excellent choices:
- A Fishing Frenzy at LRS
- Reef Frenzy by LRS
- Blend of LRS Breeders
- Fish Eggs from Rod’s Food
- Frozen Brine Shrimp from the San Francisco Bay
- Mysis of Piscine Energetics (PE)
High-quality frozen foods, such as those from Rod’s and LRS, can be pricey. If you are serious about reproducing your clownfish, though, they are well worth the money. They’re cleaner than the cheaper alternatives, and both of these manufacturers provide a breeder-specific blend. For their breeding clownfish, some aquarium keepers choose to make their own diets and freeze them.
Salmon, as well as other popular fish foods like squid, seaweed, shrimp, and others, are frequently included in such frozen dishes. So, for your breeding clownfish, you could always make your own blend of frozen healthy fish food.
3. Fresh Food
Finally, consider some of the excellent live feeding options available for your clownfish breeding program. Live earthworms can be offered to your clownfish. Some fish enjoy devouring them, while others avoid them! For your clownfish, try your luck with a small, bite-sized one. Before feeding them to your fish, always wash them. If they don’t eat the earthworms, remove them from the aquarium as soon as possible.
Blackworms are another excellent live-feeding alternative for your clownfish. You may either cultivate your own blackworms or buy them online and preserve them in the fridge. Clownfish also eat amphipods and copepods. Mysis or brine shrimp are also popular live food sources for clownfish breeding.
You can purchase them from pet stores or attempt to hatch and culture your own shrimp. Mosquito larvae are an unusual live food item that you may add to your breeding clown fish’s diet! Many clownfish species gorge themselves on them. During the summer, you can easily spot them outside your home.
All you need is some stagnant water. Simply catch the mosquito larvae in a net and rinse them thoroughly. When you’re ready to feed your clownfish, place them in your breeding tank. Although they won’t survive long in a saltwater aquarium, they’ll swim around and provide a tasty and nutritious meal for your clownfish.
Clownfish Feeding Advice
Here are some excellent feeding recommendations for your clownfish.
- Clownfish that are smaller normally live in a specified tiny area of the aquarium known as their “safe zone.” If you have any juvenile clownfish, you must feed them close to their safe zone.
- To make feeding easy for your clownfish, feed them in parts of your aquarium where there isn’t much water flow.
- Snails, starfish, and crabs can be added to your clownfish aquarium as a food cleanup crew. They’ll eat your clown fish’s leftover food and keep your aquarium clean and algae-free.
Final Thoughts
Clownfish are omnivorous, making feeding them a simple and straightforward procedure. However, because they are omnivores, you must provide them with a diverse diet to meet their nutritional requirements. Give your clownfish plenty of marine fish pellets, frozen food mixes, live foods like shrimp, and fresh or frozen veggies if they were grown in an aquarium.
Thankfish for reading!