Aquarium Fish Food – All Brands are Missing Essential Nutrients (Add These)

There are many great choices of aquarium fish food in the industry. But most fish food will be missing essential vitamins and minerals. These important nutrients are lost in the production of commercial foods.

Its just part of the process of making Flakes and Pellets. When this happens we must supplement the nutrients needed for our fish to thrive.

Unless you’re feeding live or raw frozen foods daily (which no one does) your fish will be missing essential nutrients lost from commercial aquarium fish food processing.

In this article I’ll share with you all the supplements I use in my African Cichlid tank and more importantly why you should use them too and ensure all your fish get everything they need!

Not About The Best Aquarium Fish Food

So let me start by stating what this article isn’t about. It’s not about which brand of fish food is the best. There is tons and tons of information out there testing and comparing fish foods. I’ve done my own research and I’ve experimented with what my African Cichlids like and what they do best on and I landed with Northfin.

You can do some research on Northfin or ask around online in Facebook groups or forums and I guarantee you’ll hear and read the same things over and over, that Northfin is an awesome choice of aquarium fish food.

But this article isn’t about Northfin, its about everything that Northfin, and every other commercial fish food, is missing and what we should be supplementing. As good as Northfin is its still a processed food that loses many vitamins, minerals, and amino acids when produced due to the drying and heating process of the pellets. There’s just no avoiding it.

Aquarium Fish Food Supplementation

What this article will be about is the supplements I use to add to this great food that will replace those missing nutrients and enhance your fishes health, growth, color, longevity of life and overall happiness, which is what we all want for our fish right !!

With about 30 fish in my tank give or take, I start with 1 heaping teaspoon of Northfin pellets. You want to make sure you only feed as much as they can eat in about a minute, any more than that and you’ll have plenty of problems that come with over feeding, like cloudy water and ammonia spikes.

BTW,  I use all 3 variations of Northfin, the Cichlid formula, the Veggie formula, and the Krill formula just to give my guys some variety. I occasionally give them some frozen krill as a treat once a week also, I love to spoil these guys. 😊

The Supplements

Seachem Garlic Guard

First product I want to share is called Garlic Guard from Seachem. Now most of us that have been in the hobby for a while already know about garlic guard and know that it’s a flavor enhancer for fish, and it can get fish that don’t want to eat, to eat.

But there’s more to garlic guard than that. Garlic contains Allicin which has a huge impact on fish health. Especially when it comes to disease and parasite resistance.

I make sure I never run out of garlic guard and never miss a feeding without it. You can also use pure crushed garlic and get the same benefits. I add 1 capful of garlic guard to my pellets.

Seachem Vitality

Next supplement is Vitality, also by Seachem. A very important vitamin that gets destroyed during commercial fish food processing is Vitamin C.

Vitamin C is by far the most important vitamin for your fish. It helps your fish recover from illness as well as body and fin damage. You will notice amazing regrowth of fins damaged by fighting and aggression problems in your tank by adding this supplement daily.

I add 1 capful of vitality to my pellets.

There’s been an update to the Supplement mix regarding Vitality, Read More Here!

Vitachem

Northfin food has a great amount of amino acids but it’s missing some important ones. Vitachem from Boyd Enterprise is basically a multi vitamin like we would take a multi vitamin for ourselves everyday.

And it has many of the amino acids missing from commercial pellet foods.

These amino acids will ensure healthy fish overall and also helps in fin regrowth as well.

Vitachem is super concentrated at 1 drop per gallon of tank water. So I add about 10 drops to my pellets.

Seachem Zoo Plankton

The last supplement I use is called Zoo-plankton by Seachem. Zoo plankton is typically used in salt water reef tanks to aid in coral growth and coloration.

But zoo-plankton also provides a boost in natural melanin production which bring out the awesome color of fish that have high pigmentation…In other words it’ll help get your African cichlids color to pop!! Here’s a great video of what my guys look like – African Cichlid Show Tank

I add 1 capful of zoo-plankton to my concoction of supplements.

Mixing and Feeding

With all these supplements added to the fish food, stir it all up and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes. This allows the pellets to absorb all the added nutrients before feeding it to your fish.

You’ll know when its ready for feeding time when almost all the liquid is gone. That means the pellets have soaked up all these nutrients and when the fish eat they’ll each get a direct shot of all the goodness!