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With the variety of foods available to today's aquarist, it can often be difficult to determine the "best" food to feed your beloved pet fish. While any good prepared food can sustain and grow your fish, their ultimate life expectancy and overall health can be influenced greatly by choosing the proper diet for them.

First off, let's examine the difference feeding categories: herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.

Understanding each of these types of feeders can go a long way when choosing which food(s) to feed your fish.

Herbivores will consume mostly (or all) plant matter. In most cases, they will also eat meaty foods if offered, but these should be offered sparingly or not at all, depending on the species. Herbivores have a relatively long digestive tract, and meaty foods, which are easily digested, can cause problems for them, ranging from excessive fat intake in their to dietgas and bloating. Some fish (Mbuna cichlids from Lake Malawi are a good example) can even be severely negatively impacted by the wrong foods. In what is know as "Malawi bloat", meaty foods tend to collect in the long intestinal tract of these fish and causes bloating and often death.

Carnivorous fish will consume mostly meat in their diet. Keep in mind that this does not mean they do not get any plant matter. Far from it in most cases, as their natural prey items are often filled with the partially-digested plant matter of their own diet. A well-rounded diet is still needed for proper long-term care and health.

Omnivores have diets that contain both plant and animal matter. In all reality, most fish are at least somewhat omnivorous, though they may show a tendency for one type of food over another.

Once you've determined the dietary requirements for your fish, deciding on exactly what foods to feed them to meet those diets can be rather daunting. There is seemingly no end to the choices available at any pet store today. A quick look at the ingredients will give some good clues as to which foods are good, and which foods are not so good. As with people, fish can live off a diet of filler and inappropriate ingredients, but they'll truly thrive and show their best color and personality with a proper diet.

There are certain ingredients that I tend to shy away from in fish foods, namely those that are terrestrial in origin. If it's not a part of a fish's natural diet, then it's a substitute at best and filler at worst. Such ingredients would include things like wheat, soy, corn, etc.

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