What can I feed my Barbs?

Question
Hey there- I have 5 various barbs in a tank and was wondering what possibilities I could feed them.  I have some goldfish (tetrafin Goldfish flakes) food leftover and I was wondering if I could use that up on them.  I am currently feeding them Tropical Fish flakes and they are eating that happily.  Also, someone was telling me that you can feed tropical fish canned vegetables? Is that true?  And what kinds and what brands should I look for?  Also- I have some Hikari Cichlid Gold medium sized floating pellets that I could feed them interchangeably if that would work?


Answer
Hi Greg,

Barbs are truly omnivorous and will accept most anything, so will more than likely readily eat those goldfish flakes and cichlid pellets. Both foods are quality dry foods. I prefer to not feed more than 50% dry foods, and I try to give as much variety as possible. I use New Life Spectrum pellets and Hikari Micro Wafers, and a variety of different flakes from brands like Tetra and Omega One. Some foods float and some sink, so it feeds all of my aquarium inhabitants at all levels. That's always important to consider - if you have bottom feeders, make sure to give them their own foods. Algae wafers or veggie rounds, shrimp pellets, and other sinking foods work well.

Besides dry foods, try to include frozen foods. Barbs will go nuts over frozen bloodworms, krill, mysis shrimp. Smaller foods for say, cherry barbs, include daphnia and brine shrimp. Brine shrimp ought to be vitamin or Spirulina enriched, otherwise it's not very nutritious, however it does make a fine laxative food. I prefer Hikari frozen foods. I like to eat things like canned clams and mussels once in a while, so when I do, I give my fish a little too! Avoid foods like tuna and oily fish like herring or sardines, they make a real mess.

Along with frozen foods, I try to include fresh foods - including yes, canned vegetables! Peas are probably the best, you can use frozen or canned. Try to get the unsalted variety. Don't feed the whole pea, pinch it so that the innard goes in the water and the skin stays in your hand. Canned green beans and canned corn are both available in unsalted varieties, but these are not usually as tasty to the fish as canned peas, it seems. Other vegetables to try are zucchini, yellow squash, spinach and dark green lettuce. Cucumber and honeydew melon are mostly water but certain fish seem to really like them - goldfish, for example. Slice the veggies and weigh them down with a heavy clip or clamp, I use those magnetic "Chip Clips" for this purpose.

The key to giving your fish variety is to get a little bit creative! The worst that can happen is that they won't eat the stuff. I've tried  the tops of broccoli and gotten mixed results, when I was eating wheat germ and yogurt for a while, I gave the fish a half teaspoon of wheat germ. They nibbled on this stuff but it wasn't their favorite. Cooked egg yolk (from a hard boiled egg) was beloved but sooo messy!

For more suggestions, check out the following web page:
http://fish.mongabay.com/food.htm

If you are interested in making homemade fish foods, you can try a fairly simple recipe called "European Shrimp Mix" - Google that for more information. It mostly consists of peas and shrimp, bound together with a bit of unflavored gelatin and frozen. I use half the amounts most of the recipes recommend, and it still lasts me months.

I hope that helps, take care!
Nicole