An important factor in producing healthy show winning fish is a good balanced diet. To be of most benefit to the fish, a good diet should be made up of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. Fish foods can be divided into four main categories: dried, fresh or frozen, cultured and natural. There are a huge number of dried foods available on the market, most of these are a complete diet in themselves. It doesn't matter how good a dried food may be, your fish can still benefit from a change now and again. If you like the idea of making your own fish food, you could try using finely chopped lean meat, cheese, hard boiled eggs, crab, fish roe and any cooked vegetable. Place any or all of the above in a food blender with a little water and gelatin to produce a thick paste. Spoon the paste into some sort of container and freeze, (ice-cube trays are ideal) then thaw when needed. This makes a perfect food for catfish and other bottom feeding species because it sinks quite quickly.
There are also many cultured foods available. Cultures of White, Grindal and Microworms can be established, and will provide a year round source of live food. Garden worms can be fed to larger fish. Another great food is live brine shrimp which can be purchased as adults or hatched out yourself from dried eggs. The Adult shrimps are excellent for conditioning fish and in my experience, the latter are probably the best food available for fry/baby fish. A wide spectrum of animals living in ponds make excellent additions to your fishes' diet. Some of the best known are Daphnia, Blood worms , Mosquito larvae, Glass worms, Cyclops and Tubifex worms. You should be careful when using these natural foods as unwanted parasites could easily be introduced. To eliminate this possibility you could buy the frozen equivalent, but make sure that it is of the gamma irradiated variety.
There are a number of variables in water that are of importance to the well being of the fish.
The pH is a measurement of how acid or alkaline the water is. The most acid solution has a value of 0.0 and the strongest alkaline solution being 14.0. Pure distilled water is neither acid or alkaline and has a value of 7.0 This value is important to a number of delicate species of fish all the time and to many others when breeding. Sudden drastic changes in the pH value can kill fish, this is why care should be taken when introducing new fish to a tank as explained in last months article. Testing kits can be purchased to check the pH that are reasonably accurate and easy to use. There are also a number of chemicals available which will enable you to alter the pH value either up or down.
Water hardness is often confused with pH. This is because soft water tends to be acidic whilst hard water tends to be alkaline, the two values however, are totally independent. Without trying to get too technical, hardness is measured on a scale where 1 degree of hardness = 14.3 parts per million of calcium carbonate. Another way to express hardness is in parts per million of calcium carbonate. Up to 6 dH or 100 ppm is considered soft whilst over 25 dH or 450 ppm is very hard. Again there are good test kits on the market and a number of chemicals to raise or lower the hardness, however, most fish should adapt to your local tapwater.
Chlorine and other additives in tapwater can create a problem if at high levels in your supply. keep an eye on your local paper for announcements of when extra chemicals may be added to your supply and never do a water change if the tapwater is cloudy or there is a strong smell of chlorine. Many products are also available to neutralise the chlorine and make it harmless to your fish.