Fish Foods You Use, Tell Us About Them.

[DMD123]

Also considering this:

Ocean Nutrition Formula Two Pellets​

It is a very large pellet, would be great for an adult pearsei. Not sure as to the “slow sinking” but a interesting product.

Any reason this could not be used for a Pearsei? It is listed as a 'Marine' product but I dont see anything that seems too bad.

 

[DMD123]

For fun I contacted Ocean Nutrition to ask the following question:
Would Formula Two (for Herbivores and Omnivore MARINE Tropicals) work well for a large FRESHWATER herbivore cichlid? (Pearsei) While cichlid veggie pellets might be a better choice, this pellet is better sized for my fish that can attain 16”+. Just wanted to make sure the Pearsei would not be deficient if fed the MARINE pellets or get too much of something that it should not as a FRESHWATER fish...

They emailed me right back with this answer:

"Hello DMD123

Thank you for your interest in our Formula Two Pellets. Yes, they are perfectly suited for herbivorous cichlids. They just contain some vitamins that marine fish require, and freshwater fish don’t. Other than that all other ingredients will benefit your fish.

If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.

Jason"

 

[Madness]

I've been trying out a new brand of food as well. Here is just 2 of the many types they have

 

[DMD123]

I've been trying out a new brand of food as well.

Ive tried YFS brand foods in the past. Ive liked some of the limited ingredients product and have been think of trying their algae wafers. The main thing was looking for a medium/large floating herbivore product.

 

[DMD123]

My pearsei totally loves the Omega One Veggie Rounds. I have no problem feeding them to him but I know the eventual issue will be the famous chin “pimple” from rubbing its lip on the substrate. This happened with my last pearsei.

This is what I really want:

This product in a “medium” size not just the small 3mm.
Ive written Omega One requesting this. That there are larger fish that would benefit from this.

 

[Modest_Man]

You adding roughage to its diet at all? Like romaine, spinach, swiss chard, blanched zucchini, etc?

 

[DMD123]

You adding roughage to its diet at all? Like romaine, spinach, swiss chard, blanched zucchini, etc?

Haven’t tried that yet.

 

[Ruturaj Hagavane]

I recently started using northfin krill pro and NLS algaemax, I think both are best as meaty pellet and veggie pellet respectively.

Krill pro is 85% krill

Ingredients:

Whole Antarctic Krill Meal (Euphausia Superba), Wheat flour, Organic Kelp (Laminariales), Garlic (Allium Sativum), Spirulina (Dietary Supplement), Astaxanthin, Montmorillonite Clay, Vitamin A Acetate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate, Cholecalciferol, Alpha-tocopherol Acetate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Thiamine, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Biotin, Choline Chloride, Cobalt Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Selenium, Zinc, Rosemary Extract (Rosmarinus Officinalis)

Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude Protein (Min) : 42%
Crude Fat (Min): 5%
Crude Fiber (Max): 5%
Moisture (Max): 9%
Ash (Max): 9%

I like algaemax as it uses 9 types of algae.

Algae: Chlorella Seaweed, Ulva Seaweed, Red Seaweed, Kelp, Spirulina, Wakame Seaweed. Whole Antarctic Krill**, Giant Squid*, Whole Wheat Flour, Eucheuma cottonii Seaweed, Spinosum Seaweed, Chondrus crispus Seaweed, Whole Menhaden Fish*, Omega-3 Fish Oil*, Garlic, Ginger, Astaxanthin, Marigold, Capsanthin, Zeaxanthin, Bentonite Clay, Sea Salt

 

[DMD123]

@Ruturaj Hagavane, I have used both and and still use the NLS algaemax.

There was a huge forum uproar (MFK) on the Northfin krill because of the preservative levels in it.
Basically it seems the supplier of the krill meal had been putting it in and Northfin was advertising their product as being free of "added" preservatives. Not sure who paid for the lab tests on the product but it got posted all over the internet. At this point I had just finished up my bag of krill formula and went back to my Dainichi products.

As to the NLS algaemax, the mini wafer is like the perfect sized pellet for my larger fishes but I wish they made it in a float version.

 

[Ruturaj Hagavane]

@Ruturaj Hagavane, I have used both and and still use the NLS algaemax.

There was a huge forum uproar (MFK) on the Northfin krill because of the preservative levels in it.
Basically it seems the supplier of the krill meal had been putting it in and Northfin was advertising their product as being free of "added" preservatives. Not sure who paid for the lab tests on the product but it got posted all over the internet. At this point I had just finished up my bag of krill formula and went back to my Dainichi products.

As to the NLS algaemax, the mini wafer is like the perfect sized pellet for my larger fishes but I wish they made it in a float version.

Yep, saw that as well. Effects of that particular preservative, ethoxyquin, are unknown. Every quality food uses krill and we don't really know what their supplier uses. Given almost every other brand than NLS and northfin uses fillers, I would rather take risk of feeding northfin.

I am not as of a fan of a NLS for meaty pellets. They have high fiber (all formulas) and slightly lower protein compared to northfin. I think meaty pellets from northfin and veggie pellet from NLS strikes right balance of nutrients.

 

[Ruturaj Hagavane]

You adding roughage to its diet at all? Like romaine, spinach, swiss chard, blanched zucchini, etc?

Terrestrial veggie mostly come out as poop and might have anti nutrients. It's better to choose something like NLS algaemax which has more than adequate aquatic veggies while being nutrient rich.

 

[DMD123]

Terrestrial veggie mostly come out as poop and might have anti nutrients. It's better to choose something like NLS algaemax which has more than adequate aquatic veggies while being nutrient rich.

The original question was focused my way because of the nature of my pearsei… seen many others feed things like romaine, dandelion greens and other real plant materials.

 

[sir_keith]

Terrestrial veggie mostly come out as poop and might have anti nutrients. It's better to choose something like NLS algaemax which has more than adequate aquatic veggies while being nutrient rich.

That is simply not true. While it is true that some aquatic plants are more readily digested by some fishes than some terrestrial plants, any herbivorous fish will benefit from real plant matter, be it aquatic or terrestrial, in their diet.

I have been keeping and breeding Tropheus for nearly 25 years, a strict herbivore that is notoriously sensitive to an inappropriate diet, which often manifests as 'bloat.' The diet that I have settled upon consists of small NLS AlgaeMax pellets, spirulina flakes, and fresh Romaine lettuce in approximately equal amounts. They also get fasted every 7-10 days. Using this diet, I have not seen a case of 'bloat' in my tanks for more than 20 years. These fishes, and many opportunistic omnivores as well (e. g. Ophthalmotilapia), benefit greatly from roughage in their diet, and you can't get that from a processed pellet.

 

[Ruturaj Hagavane]

That is simply not true. While it is true that some aquatic plants are more readily digested by some fishes than some terrestrial plants, any herbivorous fish will benefit from real plant matter, be it aquatic or terrestrial, in their diet.

I have been keeping and breeding Tropheus for nearly 25 years, a strict herbivore that is notoriously sensitive to an inappropriate diet, which often manifests as 'bloat.' The diet that I have settled upon consists of small NLS AlgaeMax pellets, spirulina flakes, and fresh Romaine lettuce in approximately equal amounts. They also get fasted every 7-10 days. Using this diet, I have not seen a case of 'bloat' in my tanks for more than 20 years. These fishes, and many opportunistic omnivores as well (e. g. Ophthalmotilapia), benefit greatly from roughage in their diet, and you can't get that from a processed pellet.

I went by RD.'s advice on mfk

Aquatic v terrestrial

Slowly but surely i've started cutting out fruit and veg from my fishes diet. I'm not particularly happy doing this because they love nothing more than sliced, diced, or chopped broccoli, sprouts, cabbage, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries to name just a few. The problem I have is that...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

I don't have much context on herbivores as I never kept any specifically. So not going to make any statement there. NLS claims there food should be adequate for herbivores, I assume by roughage you mean fiber which algaemax has about 7-8%. Spirulina is about 3.6%. While lettuce has 1.3g of fiber per 100gm, if we remove water from equation it's about 30%.

Facts About Fish Nutrition — New Life Spectrum®: Fish Food

www.feedspectrum.com

 

[sir_keith]

You've cherry-picked the content from MFK. In the very next post in the thread you quote, a moderator/staff member said-



That's a more balanced assessment, and he's correct- herbivores with long digestive tracts need fibre to maintain health (what he really means here is roughage, the insoluble, non-digestible fibrous matter of raw vegetables that aids the passage of food and waste through the intestinal tract, not the largely soluble 'fibre' of processed foods). For less 'vegan' species (his term), pellets high in spirulina and other plant products might be sufficient. NLS says their pellets are adequate, but even this is not universally true, as neither Tropheus nor Ophthalmotilapia survive on a diet of AlgaeMax pellets alone.

I don't believe the aim of this thread was to determine which diets might be 'sufficient' or 'adequate' as judged from anecdotal evidence posted online; it was to collect FishBox members' experiences with different diets. In that spirit, I thought it important to challenge your post-

Terrestrial veggie mostly come out as poop and might have anti nutrients. It's better to choose something like NLS algaemax which has more than adequate aquatic veggies while being nutrient rich.

This statement is incorrect- it is not 'better' to choose processed spirulina pellets over a diet that includes raw vegetables (terrestrial or otherwise) for herbivorous and omnivorous fishes.

Finally, the outdated notion of 'anti-nutrients' in vegetables has been debunked by current scientific research (see for example, Petroski, W. and Minich, D. M. (2020) Nutrients 12 (10) 2929, and references therein, available here-

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7600777/

 

[sir_keith]

I haven't followed this thread very closely because, frankly, I find comparisons between ingredient lists to be a bit boring, so I'm not sure whether this topic has come up. Does anyone here fast their fishes? I don't mean a day that you weren't home or just didn't have time, I mean a day you deliberately didn't feed your fishes. I used to do that on an irregular basis, but now I do it regularly, usually about once a week. This was prompted when I started keeping Ophthalmotilapia. These fishes are opportunistic omnivores in the wild, and are very sensitive to diet in captivity. They require a vegetable-rich diet, but are sensitive to overfeeding, that is, giving them too much food at one time. This is probably because they have very long intestinal tracts, like Tropheus and other herbivores. Wild-caught fishes seem particularly sensitive in this regard, as these fishes probably never gorge themselves in the wild. It took me a while to figure this out, but my current regimen- at least 80% vegetable-based food, several small feedings each day, and weekly fasting- has eliminated all the issues I encountered previously not only in Ophthalmotilapia, but in all the tribe Ectodini.

 

[Ruturaj Hagavane]

You've cherry-picked the content from MFK. In the very next post in the thread you quote, a moderator/staff member said-

View attachment 9618

That's a more balanced assessment, and he's correct- herbivores with long digestive tracts need fibre to maintain health (what he really means here is roughage, the insoluble, non-digestible fibrous matter of raw vegetables that aids the passage of food and waste through the intestinal tract, not the largely soluble 'fibre' of processed foods). For less 'vegan' species (his term), pellets high in spirulina and other plant products might be sufficient. NLS says their pellets are adequate, but even this is not universally true, as neither Tropheus nor Ophthalmotilapia survive on a diet of AlgaeMax pellets alone.

I don't believe the aim of this thread was to determine which diets might be 'sufficient' or 'adequate' as judged from anecdotal evidence posted online; it was to collect FishBox members' experiences with different diets. In that spirit, I thought it important to challenge your post-



This statement is incorrect- it is not 'better' to choose processed spirulina pellets over a diet that includes raw vegetables (terrestrial or otherwise) for herbivorous and omnivorous fishes.

Finally, the outdated notion of 'anti-nutrients' in vegetables has been debunked by current scientific research (see for example, Petroski, W. and Minich, D. M. (2020) Nutrients 12 (10) 2929, and references therein, available here-

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7600777/

I think RD. has always given a solid advice, I just follow him when it comes to fish food. I have seen his posts on almost every forum I know that go back over a decade. I don't think I cherry picked just a post, the whole conversation went on and RD. replied to everyone.

Assuming algae content is algaemax is 25% (assumption based on it being first ingredients) by dry weight, that's a lot of veggies as veggies have mostly water (95%). So wet weight would be pretty high percentage wise in food.

I never said use a processed spirulina pellets either. I don't think spirulina is adequate either. It's better to feed mix of algae even to omnivores and carnivores (just adjust meaty to veggie pellets ratio).

I will take a look at anti nutrients research.

I stopped fasting recently. I talked with vet on this subject, he didn't see a point to it either. He and I kept omnivores though. When it comes to herbivores, I don't think they need fasting as well.

Quoting feed spectrum article
Wild herbivores must graze at least 12 hours daily to ingest enough nutrients.

Are Most Fish Omnivorous? — New Life Spectrum®: Fish Food

Hobbyists may believe feeding herbivores a diet of exclusively algae or seaweed more ‘natural’ and beneficial than a pellet or flake food. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

www.feedspectrum.com

 

[DMD123]

RD is very knowledgeable when it comes to the feed industry since he worked in it at one point. He had been very adamant about using NLS products over the years even before all the different formulas were introduced. I believe he had a vested interest which may have also affected his recommendations.

I actually had stopped using the NLS products back in the day because it turned my filter media red and the fish would poop red clouds. I know formula has been changed because this no longer happens. NLS has changed the way they portray themselves too, gone are the one pellet is all you need mentality with multiple types of formulas now available. Like mentioned the algaemax being one of the best plant based formulas available.

I didn’t want any debates to start because of the types of food being used or recommended but again just wanted people to just talk about the products. How many times have you bought a food and it was called one thing like ‘medium’ sized and they were tiny? This is the type of experiences I was hoping people would be sharing. It would be a huge benefit to others. I didnt want the MFK food debates, they have interrupted this forum before in the past when other members shared a fish food they have used.

Thank you guys for keeping things civil and sharing your continued food posts.

 

[Ruturaj Hagavane]

RD is very knowledgeable when it comes to the feed industry since he worked in it at one point. He had been very adamant about using NLS products over the years even before all the different formulas were introduced. I believe he had a vested interest which may have also affected his recommendations.

I actually had stopped using the NLS products back in the day because it turned my filter media red and the fish would poop red clouds. I know formula has been changed because this no longer happens. NLS has changed the way they portray themselves too, gone are the one pellet is all you need mentality with multiple types of formulas now available. Like mentioned the algaemax being one of the best plant based formulas available.

I didn’t want any debates to start because of the types of food being used or recommended but again just wanted people to just talk about the products. How many times have you bought a food and it was called one thing like ‘medium’ sized and they were tiny? This is the type of experiences I was hoping people would be sharing. It would be a huge benefit to others. I didnt want the MFK food debates, they have interrupted this forum before in the past when other members shared a fish food they have used.

Thank you guys for keeping things civil and sharing your continued food posts.

RD. retired few years ago and I think he was a distributor in Canada. So I believe he wasn't really making recommendation based on that. NLS was pretty much first to move away from fillers and focused a lot on research. I find their nutritional article very interesting as well. Many brands followed that and that's I believe that's why we have better foods. I just want to give kudos to the development they did.

 

[Madness]

Oh i so can not stand Mr knowitall, RD. He is the main reason i left MFK. Rant over, back to posting foods