Natural nutrition and live food: your fish’s secret to health and enjoyment
F. MattierImagine the scene: you are in the hospital. Every day, you are served a meal in the form of a paste or powder. It is a scientifically formulated concentrate, measured to the gram, containing exactly the ideal ratio of proteins, fats, and vitamins your body needs. From a purely clinical point of view, it is nutritional perfection. Yet after a few weeks, you lose your morale and appetite, and your overall health deteriorates.
Why? Because feeding is not limited to a nutritional values chart. Pleasure influences health. Texture, smell, the effort required to obtain food, the excitement of discovery... all of this contributes to a healthy metabolism.
This same striking analogy must be applied to our aquariums. The industry has sold us pellets and dry flakes as the ultimate food. It is the equivalent of hospital food. Today, as an animal physiology enthusiast, I want to talk to you about humane care. natural food for aquarium fish is not an aquarist’s whim: it is a fundamental need to restore your animals’ health, dignity, and joy of living.
Beyond kibble: pleasure as medicine
We need to face the truth: almost all ultra-processed industrial feeds (flakes, tablets) are packed with carbohydrates and grains to make the pellet “hold together.” This is a biological aberration. The metabolism of the vast majority of fish is based on proteins and fats, not wheat or soy! Trapped in these jars, these foods lose their vitamins within a few weeks of opening.
But that’s not the worst of it. The worst part is boredom.
In nature, a fish spends most of its time searching for food. It rummages, it tracks, it observes. Rather than talking about “live food” (a term I sometimes find a little harsh), I prefer to talk about natural feeding. When you introduce live prey into your tank, you are not just providing calories—you are offering incredible mental stimulation. Detecting a prey’s movements, adjusting its swimming, lunging at it... The thrill of the hunt awakens dormant instincts. This powerful psychological stimulation literally boosts the fish’s immune system. Yes, pleasure is medicine.
Nutritional complexity and stimulation of spawning
If you are looking to stimulate reproduction in an aquarium fish, you have probably already read that you should “vary its diet.”
Live food offers an infinite complexity that no factory could ever reproduce. When a fish swallows live prey, it does not ingest only high-quality proteins. It also ingests intact vitamins, unoxidized essential fatty acids, and, above all, the prey’s own digestive enzymes! These enzymes help it digest its meal without overtaxing its own pancreas. Assimilation is complete, and water pollution is minimal (unlike with pellets, which disintegrate).
It is this sudden influx of complex nutrients, combined with the stimulation of hunting, that tells the fish that “the season of abundance” has arrived. It is the ultimate hormonal trigger for spawning. Without the benefits of live food in aquariums, the reproduction of many delicate species is simply impossible.
The false friend (Artemia) and the ideal alternative (Daphnia)
As soon as you want to start breeding microfauna for aquariums, one name keeps coming up: Artemia nauplii. And yet, I am not enthusiastic!
Why Artemia is a bad idea that seems good
Artemia are saltwater crustaceans. To hatch their eggs, you need hatcheries, noisy air pumps, salt, and heat, and you have to rinse them thoroughly. Worse still: once added to your freshwater aquarium, Artemia die within a few minutes or hours. If your fry do not eat them immediately, they rot on the bottom and heavily pollute your tank.
The undisputed queen: Daphnia
Daphnia is the perfect alternative and our absolute queen. It is a freshwater crustacean. Offering live daphnia to your fish has overwhelming advantages:
- they survive perfectly well in your aquarium until they are eaten;
- while waiting to be hunted, they filter the water in your tank and consume microalgae (green water);
- they are extremely easy to raise at home in a simple freshwater container (such as a tub aquarium or large jars on a windowsill);
- their young (daphnia nauplii) are just as tiny as brine shrimp nauplii!
The ideal rearing process for fry
If you have fry, forget the complicated setups. In a heavily planted natural aquarium (especially with floating plants), the endemic microfauna already provides a pantry. To boost their growth, the rearing process is simple:
- From birth (micro-food): infusoria (which you can culture at very low cost thanks to our paddy rice) or vinegar eels.
- After a few days: micro worms or daphnia nauplii.
- After one month: Grindal worm.
The Natural Aquarium Hobby Buffet: What Should You Choose?
At Aquazolla, we offer a comprehensive catalog of natural live food cultures, adapted to the size of every fish.
Worms: pure energy
- For fry and all small fish: micro worms (highly prolific), vinegar eels (also available from Aquazolla in a filtered, ready-to-use version), and Grindal worm, perfect for all your small specimens.
- For medium to large fish: enchytraeids, or the famous blackworm and tubifex, true aquatic steaks that will awaken the instincts of the largest predators!
Crustaceans and insects: fiber and chitin
The shells of these animals provide chitin, which is essential for your fish's healthy intestinal transit:
- the daphnia (which swim in open water);
- the ostracods (which come in swimming or “walking” bottom-dwelling varieties, perfect for bottom-feeding fish such as Corydoras);
- the springtails, tiny insects that jump across the water's surface, perfect for stimulating surface-dwelling fish (Medakas, hatchetfish).
The special case of the Goldfish and the summer note
It is too often forgotten: the goldfish is above all a herbivorous grazer! It has no stomach and suffers terribly (swim bladder disorders) when it is stuffed with dry pellets. For it, essential live food is plant-based. Regularly offering it fresh duckweed that it can chase and graze on at the surface is a fundamental act of care to get its digestion moving again.
👉 Give your goldfish a healthy pantry with our duckweed strains.
A note for summer: mosquito larvae
In summer, a simple bucket of water at the back of the garden will fill with mosquito larvae. This is free and excellent food. Collect them with a small fine-mesh net. However, be careful: feed them sparingly to ensure your fish swallow them all immediately. You wouldn't want a forgotten larva to hatch and turn into an adult mosquito in your living room!
Conclusion: restoring the fish's dignity
Feeding is not just about keeping fish alive. It is an act of care. By gradually replacing the sad industrial “hospital food” with natural food, you will witness a fascinating transformation. Vibrant colors, lively behavior, courtship displays... You will restore your fish's deep-rooted nature as hunters and their full animal dignity. Nature has provided everything; we simply need to trust it.
Mattier
FAQ: Natural feeding in practice
What live food is best for starting an easy culture?
Daphnia for open-water feeding and Micro worms for fry are unquestionably the easiest cultures for beginners. They require virtually no equipment (no heater or air pump). Our ZollaBox Baby and Poisson M kits include everything needed (cultures and food) to successfully raise them from day one, even if you are a beginner.
How often should you feed live food?
The absolute ideal would be to eliminate commercial food entirely! But if you want to make a gradual transition, start by replacing pellets with live food (Daphnia, ostracods, Grindal worms...) two to three times a week. Your fish will quickly get used to it and will beg you for this feast. You will also notice that your aquarium water stays clean much longer.
Can goldfish eat daphnia?
Yes, absolutely! Although they are primarily herbivorous (they have a vital need for duckweed for proper digestion), the chitin content and laxative effect of live daphnia are excellent for flushing goldfish's digestive systems. The daphnia's swimming will even force the most lethargic goldfish to exercise.
👉 View the comparison between natural food and dry flakes.