Flake food

Performance & sizing

Core numbers for matching this unit to your tank and electrical plan.

Power

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Flow rate

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Noise

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Dimensions

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Price range

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Tank fit (L)

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Consumables & maintenance

Follow the manufacturer schedule for seals, impellers, media, and other consumables.

Description

Flake is the default first food and the one most often fed to the wrong mouth. The Merck Veterinary Manual reduces feed form to a single rule, that the feed should be in particles the fish can easily ingest, and it names both ways flake breaks it. A flake can be too large for a small-mouthed fish, in which case crushing it solves the problem. And a large cichlid such as an oscar cannot ingest enough flake to meet its requirement, so feeding flake to one mostly produces a messy tank. The second thing to know about flake is that it is light. Merck records that flaked feeds weigh dramatically less than pelleted ones, which matters because the ration it gives is by weight: about 3 % of body weight a day for an adult on maintenance, and up to 5 % for fry and fingerlings. A pinch of flake and a pinch of pellet are not the same meal. Flake floats, which suits surface and mid-water fish and leaves the bottom of the tank underfed. Merck is blunt about the usual arrangement in which loricariids and Corydoras are expected to live on what falls past the others: it calls the practice unacceptable and asks for targeted feeding with items that sink quickly. Storage does more damage than most keepers expect. Fish feeds are high in protein and oil and they deteriorate; warmth and humidity bring degradation, mould growth with possible mycotoxin production, and rancidity, and rancid fat is one of the routes Merck lists to hepatic lipidosis. Keep the tub closed, cool, dry and out of reach of pests. Merck's figure for a container opened and kept at room temperature is two months before it should be thrown away.

Source

• merckvetmanual.com — https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/aquarium-fish/nutritional-diseases-of-fish

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