Best foods for Cardinal Tetra
Paracheirodon axelrodi
Group: Tetras • Genus: Paracheirodon
Adult Cardinal Tetra do best on a balanced staple food that matches their typical macro needs. AquaIndex scores foods against adult protein, fat and fibre ranges for this diet group.
Diet group: Small community fish • Life stage: Adult
✅ Staple focus: These recommendations are tuned for everyday feeding.
Top-Rated Foods for Cardinal Tetra
Scores are heuristic and explained on each food detail page.
- • Ingredient list leads with Fish Meal, a named protein source.
- • Protein 43.0% sits within the Small community fish target range for this life stage.
- • Fat 7.0% sits within the Small community fish target range for maintenance.
- • Pellet size Micro may not align with the xl size band.
- • Ingredient list leads with Fish Meal, a named protein source.
- • Protein 44.0% sits within the Small community fish target range for this life stage.
- • Fat 8.0% sits within the Small community fish target range for maintenance.
- • Pellet size Small may not align with the xl size band.
- • Ingredient list leads with Insect Meal, a named protein source.
- • Protein 44.0% sits within the Small community fish target range for this life stage.
- • Fat 6.5% sits within the Small community fish target range for maintenance.
- • Pellet size Large matches the xl size band.
- • Ingredient list leads with Fish Meal, a named protein source.
- • Protein 47.0% sits within the Small community fish target range for this life stage.
- • Fat 8.0% sits within the Small community fish target range for maintenance.
- • Pellet size Medium may not align with the xl size band.
- • Ingredient list starts with Mealworm.
- • Protein 41.5% sits within the Small community fish target range for this life stage.
- • Fat 8.7% sits within the Small community fish target range for maintenance.
- • Pellet size Small may not align with the xl size band.
How scoring changes by life stage
We score foods against macro ranges for your fish's diet group. Life stage adjusts those ranges:
- Fry: higher protein and energy needs, lower tolerance for high fibre
- Juvenile: higher protein and slightly higher fat than adults
- Adult: balanced staple ranges for everyday feeding
- Conditioning: higher-fat ranges for breeding prep and recovery
How AquaIndex Scores Food for Cardinal Tetra
Scores are calculated using AquaIndex's nutrition model, which evaluates ingredient quality, protein sources, macro targets, and species-specific suitability factors. How we score foods.
Compatible Species
Reference links to curated compatibility pair pages for this species.
Similar small community fish
