Pellets Vs. Flakes

I have Dalmation Mollies and many Blue Mountain Platys -

Are pellets or flakes better to feed?

Also, they don't seem fond of the dried blood worms as an alternative to their diet....

Suggestions? Should I try brine shrimp?

 

Good question. I'm not sure but I feed my fish flakes because pellets are tough for them to eat since most of my fish have small mouths. I guess if you do have pellets and fish with small mouths than you could crush it...

 

I use a salt and pepper grinder for the bigger pellets.

Maybe some garlic guard or juice with the blood worms?

 

I use a salt and pepper grinder for the bigger pellets.

Maybe some garlic guard or juice with the blood worms?

Remind me not to use your pepper grinder in any future events...

 

lol I do a little bit of everything. Large pellets, small pellets, flakes. If you're feeding dried blood worms, definitely soak them beforehand. I prefer frozen blood worms, they're just more appetizing for the fish, and less likely to cause digestion problems.

 

HikarI and Omega One both make micro pellets that are incredibly small. The Omega also adds garlic to theirs. My month old guppy fry love them and I can't think of anything with a smaller mouth than they have.

The frozen blood worms are a great treat, so are Tubifex worms.

 

In my opinion, it's much easier to overfeed using pellets unless they are the micro ones. I've seen fish swimming around with a pellet that would easily feed 5 of them, yet I know they didn't share with their tankmates.

 

Thanks for all the responses ! Lots to think about

 

I keep black neon tetras and used to feed them flakes, Now I feed them micro pellets which are very small so they fit in the fishes mouth easily but double in size when exposed to water making them a bigger meal, so remember if you do feed them that feed them half of what you think they can eat so you don't overfeed and bloat them.

I feed my fish a balanced diet of frozen blood worms, micro pellets and cooked deshelled peas.

 

HikarI and Omega One both make micro pellets that are incredibly small. The Omega also adds garlic to theirs. My month old guppy fry love them and I can't think of anything with a smaller mouth than they have.

The frozen blood worms are a great treat, so are Tubifex worms.

Well I'm pretty sure betta fry have smaller mouths X.X

 

For your fish, you could either do flakes, or alternate between flakes and pellets.

 

I prefer pellets although I have a lot of flakes leftover before I made my preference.
The reason I prefer pellets is because they are more dense with nutrients and must be fed less, also they are easier to measure and determine how much to feed.

 

Flakes go bad faster and leach out nutrients super fast once they hit the water.

 

I use a salt and pepper grinder for the bigger pellets.

I do this. It's awesome. I got the idea from Junne, IIRC. It seems to make NLS pellets sink more quickly, too, which is nice for my loaches.

 

It really depends on the fish, and the type of flake or pellet. I feed both, personally. As long as the pellet won't choke the fish, you don't need to worry about breaking it up. If it is too big, I crush mine with the lid of their container to break them into smaller bits.

My stance is that flakes are my friend. If ever I need to medicate my fish, pellets don't work nearly as well as flakes do. Also, I keep a lot of nanofish, and flakes are easier for them to eat than any pellet, no matter how small I crush it. unless I turn it into powder which they sometimes mistake for biofilm.

As long as you're using a high quality flake food, it shouldn't present issues with your water quality. I have a cheap one that came with a kit tank I got. Been using it to feed the livebearers because my other fish won't eat it. I also have a good Aqueon flake (they've really improved their quality the past few years) that I crush for my fry and nanofish a few times a week.

 

Thanks for all the advice everyone~

I gave my platys and mollies frozen blood worms for the first time - they went nuts for them!!

My mollies also love to peck at the algae wafer I put in the tank once a week for my algae eater

Still on flakes -

So the majority of my fish feed from the top but my frys and medium sized frys have a tendency to only feed from the bottom - any suggestions? Thus I have stuck with flakes because it enables me to submerge a small pinch that will float down to the little guys

 

Flakes are fine, I just prefer pellets. Also, remember only feed Frozen blood worms once a week or so as a treat.
I raised guppy fry to adulthood on flakes alone, though it wasn't the best food and growth could have beed faster with other food, they made it. And looked great.

 

Pellets are better for your fish. Flake oxydizes faster due to its high surface area, and thus goes bad and loses nutrients faster. Flake starts to lose nutrients as soon as it hits the water, because it has so much surface area. everything just leeches out. Your fish have to eat more flake to equal the same amount of food in very few pellets, thus, pellets are cheaper to feed. Pellets are usually round, have very low surface area, and due to their shape, pack a lot more nutrition per mouthful. You can get away with flakes because you have small fish, but feeding flakes to a larger fish would be a big no-no.

Feed pellets. It's better for your fish, it's cheaper for you. Compare the grams/ounces you get for flake vs pellet. Flake is more than double the price per oz. It's ridiculous. Switch to micro pellets/granules. Lots of companies make them like HikarI and Sera.

 

Not all fish can/will eat pellets. Most of mine have tiny mouths and pellets, even the small ones, are too hard for them to eat. So I feed high quality flakes.

Even my largest fish, a betta rubra female, won't eat pellets. She has the biggest mouth of all of my fish and is almost 3 inches long. Still no pellets for her.

Quality depends on the flake you feed. NLS and OmegaOne both make great flake foods.

It's also good to feed flakes at least once a week so that your fish are used to eating them. Medicating pellets is much harder and less effective than medicating flake foods. I've had to give my fish medicated flakes several times and wouldn't have been able to medicate them properly with pellets.

 

I thought pellets were good but I have heard they can be bad I am confused??

 

Floating pellets are bad. They make the fish gulp in air which might affect the swim bladder and might cause other problems. Sinking ones are good. Flakes don't have a lot of nutrition in them compared to pellets, but they are good for feeding fish that you just got from the pet store since the new fish would be used to eating flakes.

 

I currenty use sinking pellets thank you! Just got emailed from my sis who owns tropical saying she read about goldfish dieing from size of pellets

 

My problem with pellets is that my betta's mouth is too small to eat 'em.

 

I have the same problem with my tetras. I just break the pellets in half and my tetras can easily eat them.

 

Processed foods --whether flake or pellet-- as a staple food are bad.
Ideally, your fish would be healthier with no processed foods and a varied diet of live, freeze-dried, and frozen foods.
A varied diet is key.

 

I like the Betta Buffet pellets and flakes from Omega One. But if I have to choose between the two, I'll go with flakes; my betta's had some constipation problems with pellets.

 

My fish are thriving on flakes every morning and an evening snack of pellets, freeze dried worms, tubifex worms or shrimp.

I too noticed that floating or too large pellets were not the best thing. So, I crushed them and feed that way some evenings. Smaller and they now offer a combo of floating and sinking

 

My problem with pellets is that my betta's mouth is too small to eat 'em.

Then you should be feeding smaller pellets. They make betta pellets and tetra pelles.

 

Then you should be feeding smaller pellets. They make betta pellets and tetra pelles.

The betta pellets from New Life Spectrum are quite large.

One of my bettas refuses to eat them.
No problem with the betta pellets from Northfin or Hikari.

 

Hello,
Are pellets or flakes better? It of course depends on what type of fish it is for but I found this that says pellets are always the way to go...
I have fancy guppies, and am currently feeding flakes and freeze dried brine shrimp. (I'm looking into getting more selection soon) but I thought pellets would be too big for their mouths.


The pellets I would most likely get are these...

Here are the flakes



what do you think? And I've also heard freeze dried is bad, but is it?
Thank you for all replies in advance
P.S if you click the blue "brine shrimp" it will show the exact one I use.

 

IMO I would do pellets. you get more for what you pay for.

 

I think it depends, flakes spoil easier and are in general messier than pellets. I would get the pellets, and if they are too big, which I doubt, just crush ‘em up between your fingers. They’re both fine, I think it’s just personal preference.

 

I prefer pellets. More control with feeding.

 

I guess I'll pick up some pellets then!

 

My Betta will only eat pellets if they are very small or broken up. But then, he only eats flakes if they are crumbled too. HikarI Gold pellets are smaller but also more expensive.

 

I use HikarI bio gold, my betta loves it.

 

Most of my fish will not eat pellets.

 

My current stocking plan is a Dwarf Gourami, Guppies, Black Phantom or Lemon Tetras, Sterba's Cories & Malaysian Trumpet Snails. Do they/will they all eat the same thing? What is better, pellets or flakes? Or is it just a fish preference? What is the best foods in addition to pellets & flakes for these fish? I'm planning on getting New Life Spectrum as my main brand of flakes or pellets.

 

A general NLS flake or pellet would be fine! They'll all eat the same food. Flakes or pellets will work, though I would get sinking pellets for the cories (but not algae wafers - they're not algae eaters or herbivorous). In addition to flakes and pellets, frozen foods would be good additions a few times a week.

 

A general NLS flake or pellet would be fine! They'll all eat the same food. Flakes or pellets will work, though I would get sinking pellets for the cories (but not algae wafers - they're not algae eaters or herbivorous). In addition to flakes and pellets, frozen foods would be good additions a few times a week.

What kind of frozen foods/brands?