A variety of factors will influence the manner in which you will provide food to the animals living in your aquarium. In fact, as you learn more about your hobby in general and your animals in particular, you will become more aware of the importance not only of what you feed to your pets but also of how you present it. Whether an animal is active by day or night, the temperature at which it is kept (and therefore its metabolic rate), the type of community in which it lives, whether or not a food animal will survive in your aquarium — these and numerous other considerations will all influence the techniques that you will employ.

Animals that refuse to accept nonliving food items present particular problems to the aquarist. Among the most difficult to keep are those that lure food to within striking range, such as the various anglerfish. For these, not only must the food be alive, but it must be well acclimated to the aquarium and itself interested in feeding (anglerfish wiggle worm like appendages to attract hungry fish). As always, there are methods you might employ to get around this situation. Particularly well-adjusted anglerfish might take small fish that are herded toward their mouths, but some individuals require food fish that approach slowly and attempt to take the bait. These and other confirmed live-food specialists might also be tempted to accept dead fish that are impaled upon glass or plastic rods. A transparent rod is used so as not to frighten or distract the fish. Greater success might be had in this undertaking if some live fish are introduced into the tank along with the dead one. As your pet becomes excited and begins feeding, it may be more likely to accept the impostor as well.

and other species that normally consume tiny, living invertebrates are particularly difficult to acclimate to artificial diets. Some individuals may take frozen food that is circulated in front of them with a glass rod or via the currents created by the filtration system. As has been described above for anglerfish, you may have more success with this technique if you offer live food to the seahorses as well.

Filter feeding organisms such as clams and sea cucumbers and sessile invertebrates such as sea anemones and tubeworms can offer unique feeding challenges, especially in large aquariums. In general, these animals are best fed by introducing the food directly over them, so that you are assured that the meal is within easy reach. You may also find it necessary to shut the pumps running the filtration system during feeding time so that the tiny food particles required by these creatures are not quickly removed from the aquarium.

One method of successfully keeping slow-moving or sedentary bottom feeders with more active surface dwellers is to choose species that prefer different foods. In this way, the more active surface dwelling fish, which are often carnivorous, will not bother with plant based pellets or vegetables offered to bottom feeders such as snails or herbivorous catfish such as Plecostomus spp.

Bottom feeding fish and invertebrates made be deprived of food if the aquarium also contains active fish that feed at the surface. In these situations you may need to introduce food directly to the bottom feeders using forceps or a glass rod, preferably while the more aggressive feeders are occupied with their own meals. You can also adjust your feeding schedules to take into consideration the activity patterns of your pets, if, for example, you house nocturnal bottom dwellers with diurnal, surface feeding fish.