What type of foods do tropical fish eat?
You need to give them a variety of foods. Most of the fish you mentioned are omnivores and need both meat and veggies. Tropical flakes do have a mixture, but the fish will appreciate if you give them pure algae flakes, or even a piece of algae sheet thrown into the water. You can also get freeze-dried bloodworms, tubifex worms, krill and brine shrimp. Feed these less often and for the krill and brine, you need to crumble them with your fingers. Shrimp can constipate livebearers so use the meats less often than the veggies. Bottom line, if you vary the food, the vitamins and minerals missing in one will be made up with another. Check the fish area every time you go into petco or petsmart. They often have them on sale and sometimes you can get the food dirt cheap on clearance. It keeps if you don’t break the seal.
