Best Food for Platy Fish Compared & Reviewed 2023

Platy fish are a great choice for beginners. They’re hardy, colorful, active, and last but not least, absolutely adorable.

But, as you research this species to see if they’re a good fit for your tank, you might start to wonder, what’s the best thing to feed them?

Have no fear, I’ll be glad to tell you all about the best foods for platy fish.

Overview: Foods for Platy Fish

Platy fish need quality protein and vitamin rich plant-based ingredients in order to fuel their high activity and bright colors. I recommend you get a few types listed below.

Last update on 2023-09-21 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Best Food for Platy Fish Reviewed

Do not be fooled by marketing! Unfortunately, there are some leading brands in the fish food industry that use really low quality ingredients.

Just because a brand has a lot of space on the store shelves does not mean that it’s a high quality food.

Here are my best fish foods I’ve used throughout my time as an aquarist.

Omega One Color Mini Pellets

Main ingredients:

• Salmon 
• Halibut 
• Whole herring 
• Cod 
• Shrimp 

These little mini pellets are the perfect size for platies to eat. 

Omega One is a great company. They use whole, aquatic protein sources.

These are sinking pellets, so I would recommend giving your fish small pinches of this food, instead of dumping the whole day’s ration in all at once. Dividing the ration into small pinches will give the fish time to eat it before it sinks to the bottom of the tank.

This food makes a great staple diet.

Last update on 2023-09-22 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Omega One Freshwater Flakes

Main ingredients:

• Salmon
• Whole herring
• Shrimp

I’ve had great results over the years with these Freshwater Flakes. You may need to grind them up a little with your fingers to make sure they’re small enough for your platy fish’s mouths. 

Salmon and whole herring are the main ingredients, which are great sources of protein.

These flakes also contain spirulina and dried kelp, both excellent sources of vitamins that are easy for fish to digest; this food can be used as a staple diet.

Last update on 2023-09-22 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Northfin Community Formula 0.5 mm Sinking Pellets

Main ingredients: 

• Whole Antarctic krill
• Herring meal
• Whole sardine meal
• Kelp
• Spirulina 

Northfin is another great fish food company that uses high quality ingredients.

The krill in their food can naturally help enhance the colors of red and orange fish.

This is another sinking pellet, so feeding little pinches of food at a time is best to ensure that it doesn’t sink faster than the platies can eat it.

The wide variety of protein sources make this food an excellent staple diet.

Ultra Fresh Royal Guppy Mignon Pellet

Main ingredients:

• Sword prawn
• Shrimp
• Squid
• Spirulina

These Ultra Fresh pellets are designed for guppies and other livebearers, like platy fish.

This food’s main ingredients come from some great protein sources. It would be suitable as a staple diet for your fish.

Sword prawn and shrimp provide excellent nutrition and can help enhance red coloration. 

Squid is a source of easily digestible, lean protein, and as always, spirulina is an added bonus that throws in more vitamins.

Last update on 2023-09-22 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Hikari Bio-Pure Freeze Dried Spirulina Brine Shrimp Cubes

Main ingredients: 

• Brine shrimp
• Spirulina 

I love these little cubes, I give them weekly to all of my fish, and they gobble up these shrimp with joy.

Brine shrimp are an excellent source of protein and the little bits of spirulina mixed in provide even more protein as well as essential vitamins and minerals.

But, brine shrimp can have a bit of a laxative effect on fish, so this food should be used as an occasional treat, rather than a staple diet item.

Last update on 2023-09-21 / Commissions Earned / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

What should I look for in a fish fish food?

Crappy fish food brands will use generic fish meal as their main source of protein and then a long list of non-aquatic ingredients, like soy, wheat, or corn.

Fish are designed to digest aquatic sources of food. Things like grains and legumes are harder for fish to digest.

It’s OK to have some non-aquatic ingredients; pellets and flakes do need some sort of binder to keep them together, but sources like wheat, soy and corn shouldn’t be the main ingredients.

And generic fish meal is mostly made up of the gross leftovers of fish carcasses that have had the meat picked off of them. The processing plants throw together the bones, scales and guts, grind it up and then dehydrate it to put into animal feed. 

It’s got some nutritional value, but it’s far from the best.

So, try to avoid foods that are just centered around fish meal as the main ingredient.

Instead, look for higher quality ingredients:

• Whole fish
• Whole shrimp
• Krill
• Spirulina
• Algae meal
• Kelp 
• Insect meal

These ingredients are much more nutritious than just ground up leftover guts and bones. 

Variety is Best

In the wild, fish don’t just eat the exact same thing, day in and day out. They eat a wide variety of things, like other fish, crustaceans, insects and their larvae, baby shrimp, worms, etc.

The fish then derive all the different nutrients they need from this varied diet.

It’s best to attempt to mimic this in the home aquarium environment by feeding fish several types of food. Offering fish a variety of foods will ensure they get everything they need to remain happy and healthy.

Some foods are great staple diets, like a well balanced pellet, while others, like freeze dried brine shrimp, are more suited to being offered as treats.

Final Thoughts

Platy fish are beautiful and filled with boundless energy. In order to fuel all that activity, as well as their bright colors, they need a varied diet that includes quality protein and vitamin rich plant-based ingredients like spirulina and kelp.

I recommend getting a few different foods that you can rotate on different days. This variety helps ensure that your platy fish get all the nutrients they need to thrive.

If you get nothing else from this article, I want to stress that even some big name brand foods contain poor quality ingredients. Always look at the ingredients list before buying any kind of fish food. 

Quality food will have several sources of aquatic protein at the top of the list. Some non-aquatic sources of food in the ingredients are fine, they just shouldn’t be first or second on the list.

I hope you find this article helpful.

I wish you and your fish the very best!