Chapter Nine 



X3 



Fish Foods 







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PREPARED FISHFOODS 



Nearly all aquarium fish naturally desire a variety of foods, and 

 the nearer we can approximate Nature in this matter, the better will be 

 our results. Whatever foods we employ we should always keep in mind 

 the necessary balance of vegetable, animal and mineral content required. 

 One of the poorest fishfoods obtainable is the white wafer usually sold 

 in pet shops and drug stores. Of recent years many better foods have 

 been placed on the market, most pet stores keeping at least one of them. 

 They are granular in form, usually of a dark color and are composed of 

 a mixture of dried insects, meat, fish roe, flour, codfish and other 

 ingredients. Unless one needs a large quantity of fishfood it is better to 

 purchase a prepared article of the sort described, rather than to under- 

 take its manufacture. 



A very good fishfood is puppy biscuit broken up and ground in a 

 cofi'ee mill to small sizes. This is cheaper than regular fishfood and is 

 very satisfactory. It is used as a base by some dealers to which to add 

 a few ingredients and then place it on the market under special labels. 

 If one uses this biscuit in quantity it may be had cheaply in bushel 

 lots from manufacturers who save broken pieces for this purpose and 

 grind it to size. 



A food used with considerable success is oatmeal prepared exactly 

 as it comes to the breakfast table, containing the same amount of salt. 

 This is especially recommended for feeding young fish when daphnia 

 have become scarce. The shape of a goldfish is permanently influenced 

 in its body development in the first few months, and different methods of 

 feeding produce, to a certain extent, different shapes. The effect of 

 oatmeal, fed plentifully, is to build the short, round body so generally 

 desired. For fish under ten weeks old the oatmeal should be squeezed 

 through cheesecloth to take out the kernels. Let the young fish have as 

 much as they can eat all day, but let none remain over night. This does 



