How to Make Floating Fish Pellets Sink

After you put in a tremendous amount of effort and investment of your time and money into your cherished pond, seeing those nasty fish pellets floating amidst your glorious water lilies and koi fish can be an unwanted sight.

Floating fish pellets are one of a pond owner’s worst enemies because of their ability to convert a beautiful setting into a visual experience that highlights carelessness. However, this unfortunate happening is inevitable, and is dealt with by all pond owners all around the world. You can easily tackle this problem without a hassle.

Here’s how:

First, you need to understand the reason behind floating fish pellets. Their floating is caused because fish pellets are essentially tiny air sacs, having plenty of air inside them. Moreover, trouble in paradise can also occur when your goldfish eats these air-filled fish pellets because it causes constipation and exerts unusual pressure on your fish’s swim bladder.

Here’s why sinking fish pellets would be ideal for your pond :

Goldfish, a commonly kept fish within the pond community, are prone to several problems with floating fish pellets. Firstly, since they are greedy eaters, they like to gulp on as many floating pellets as possible. This not only creates several health problems for goldfish, it also prevents substantial amounts of feed to reach the bottom of the tank for fish that like to dwell underneath: catfish and birchin.

When goldfish consume floating fish pellets on the surface, they end up eating more than is required, hence they swim in a lopsided manner. Apart from disrupting their swimming technique, since floating pellets are filled with air due to the air sac at the pellet’s center, it bulges the stomachs of your goldfish, creating constipation problems.

There are several solutions, commonly known as hacks, to this problem.

The Syringe Method

By far, the ‘Syringe Method’ is the most popular and cost-effective way to deal with your floating fish pellet problem. Upon following the following simple steps, you can serve your fish with batches of non-floatable fish pellets.

All you need is a clean and unused syringe without the needle. There is no need to change syringes after each session.
Now, you will have to fill the syringe with as many fish pellets as 1-3% of the weight of your fish. To make this operation easier, take the plunger out and add your fish pellets.
After you have added your fish pellets, reinsert the plunger and push it all the way down until the pellets are tightly held.
Next, submerge your syringe into the tank water. Pull the plunger up until your pellets are covered in water inside the syringe.
Now, you will pull the syringe out of the tank water, holding it upright. As you put your finger on the end, to create pressure, pull up on the plunger to create a vacuum inside the syringe.
Voila! You have water-filled pellets that will never sink as the air inside them is replaced with water.
Simply, drain off the excess water in a separate bucket or tank and empty your syringe into your pond.

This operation is ideal for fish that prefer to stay deep underwater, in your pond or tank, as the food goes to them, instead of them having to compete for it with other fish at the surface. Most importantly, you will not have to deal with the daunting sight of those pesky fish pellets covering the surface of your pond.

Some fish types, such as catfish and bichirs, prefer their food to arrive at the bottom of the pond. It is a rarity for them to swim to the surface and compete with other fish for their morsels.

Although a partial amount of nutritive content of your fish pellets is lost in this process, the benefits outweigh the cost of ruined aesthetics and constipated fish.

To deal with floating pellets, there is another strategy to consider as well. The purpose of adding this strategy to this reading is because it is exceptionally simpler as compared to the previously discussed ‘Syringe Method’.

The Bowl Method

It does not get any simpler than this. Put some water into a bowl. Next, add your fish pellets to the water by completely submerging them. Within a few minutes, the pellets will become swollen due to the water.

After they swell, you will gently squeeze the pellets on the inner linings, dry inner walls, of the bowl to rid the pellets from excessive water. You can use your thumb as it provides the highest proportion of force and surface area.

Then, simply, add the fish pellets to your pond.

To be cautious, you need to be careful about squeezing your pellets too tightly as this will drain most of their nutritious content. On the flip side, pressing them too lightly will not have any impact on the operation. So, you need to make sure that you gently caress those pellets until excess water leaches out of them.

This is, by far, the simplest method, and is incorporated by numerous experienced pond owners, especially in the United Kingdom.

Get Yourself a Fish Feeding Ring to End All Your Feeding Worries

Although a fish feeding ring does not allow fish pellets to sink deep down, it will solve your fish feeding problems, if used in the right way. But, first, we need to understand what a fish feeding ring is.

Consisting of just three parts, a fish feeding ring is one of the easiest and convenient pieces of equipment that you will ever get for your aquarium.

The fish feeding ring simply consists of three parts.

Suction pad: allows the feeding ring to be held in place by getting stably attached to any surface of your pond or aquarium.
Lever: the lever attaches the suction pad with your fish feeding ring. Since it is moveable, it allows the feeding ring to adjust with various water levels.
Feeder ring: this is where all the magic happens. It holds your feed.

Obviously, this technique only works for floating fish pellets because the fish feeding ring holds them together in one region; inside its ring. This curtails the inherent problem with fish pellets by preventing them from floating around all over the place in an untidy manner.

To point out, fish feeding rings for ponds are mostly non-attached, hence they will float around on the surface of your pond.

Here’s Why you need a Fish Feeding Ring

In the most effortless way, the fish feeding ring will store all of your precious and expensive fish food in one place. No more will you experience fish pellets getting clogged up in your filtration system, or getting washed away through drainage.

Moreover, wayward fish food in your pond or aquarium can easily get lost in the several nooks and crannies. If this goes unchecked, this issue can be seriously detrimental to the health and condition of your pond as lost fish pellets can easily rot, adding toxicity to your pond.

Fish pellets drifting all over the place on the surface of your pond, in an untidy manner, can portray an image of neglect and spoil all your hard work to maintain the visual aesthetics of your beloved pond or aquarium.

With a feeding fish ring, you get the option to offer your fish with a carefully planned buffet. Sounds funny and exciting, right? Here is how:

If you employ multiple fish feeding rings on the surface of your pond, you can easily feed your fish with different feeds in a proper and orderly manner. This will negate the chaos that ensues after you add fish pellets to your pond. Thus, you can feed different feeds intended for specific fish with great ease.

Multiple fish feeding rings solve the problem of bullying as well. Smaller and docile fish have a hard time competing with other aggressive types as they end up getting less share of precious mealtimes as all the bigger and meaner fish gobble up most of the fish feed. A separate ring will allow your gentle fish to dine like gentlemen, with comfort and convenience.

The fish feeding ring will also prevent fish pellets from wandering off to various hiding places on the surface of your pond. This will finish the risk of rotting fish pellets to ruin your water quality.

Where Should I Place my Fish Feeding Ring

It is recommended that you choose a calm spot for your ring’s placement. Regions where water is turbulent can cause the feed to escape your fish feeding ring, causing the whole intent to be destroyed.

Get Yourself Sinking Fish Pellets

Sinking fish pellets can be readily bought from a pet shop as well. They are manufactured on a large scale and possess certain advantages that are indispensable to your pond’s needs. Buying sinking fish pellets is the easiest solution to the problems with floating fish pellets mentioned above.

Their advantages are:

Manufactured sinking pellets allow you to easily solve the problems associated with wayward floating pellets, be it constipating your goldfish to ruining your water quality with rotting floating fish pellets.
They offer sheer water stability as they easily sink underneath.
Provide food to the bottom parts of your pond; when food reaches every fish, every fish in your pond will be happy.
Believe it or not, sinking fish pellets are cheaper than floating pellets. Meaning, sinking fish pellets are a relatively economical option.
Sinking fish pellets are ideal for rapid water movements or streams because they keep on sinking instead of drifting with the strong water currents.
Since they are made from dry ingredients, they are relatively less harmful to your pond’s water quality.

However, sinking fish pellets do have their fair share of problems as well. First and foremost, fish feeding can not be observed. This is cause for concern for numerous pond owners who like to observe and gauge the level at which their fish eat. Plus, there is no guarantee if a particular fish has eaten or not because of the sinking pellets’ invisibility.

Moreover, sinking pellets are low on nutritious content as compared to floating pellets.

In Conclusion

It all comes down to every pond owner’s personal pond requirements. However, the vast majority of pond owners prefer having sinking fish pellets because they are less problematic and provide assurance that the fish at the bottom receive their fair share of nutrition.

Although floating pellets provide a better opportunity for monitoring fish feeding habits, they come with several problems such as drifting away with water currents, sticking to corners and rotting, which damages your pond’s water quality, and providing meager chances of feeding fish underneath.