Are you feeding a varied diet???

[Magnum Man]

Thanks to @Essjay ... for posting that old Food ingredient article... it was the motivation for this posting...

I do like to feed a varied diet of staples, between treats of frozen, live, or other items... but just because we are feeding a couple of different prepared foods, are the fish getting anything different but the packaging???

so I put together a list, starting with foods I currently feed, followed by some foods I'm wanting to introduce... these are ingredient lists, & I haven't had time to review this list ( hot off the press ) but my goal is to vary ingredients, not just brands, so I'll be reviewing this list, & possibly revising what I'm feeding... I stopped at one page, & am posting it here... if I don't get too overwhelmed, by your added suggestions I'd be happy to do up a 2nd page of foods, and their ingredients if there is any interest... BTW... these aren't listed in any order, & I wasn't paid by Hikari to list them first... that just happened to be the thread @Essjay ... posted the link to the article, so I started with that food...

The "article" was really defining non fish related proteins like wheat, & soy, for example that are used to get the protein percentage up... with the idea that if better / best quality of fish related ingredients used, the vegetable proteins, would not be required to reach the protein percentages listed on the labels...

 

[Magnum Man]

 

[Essjay]

Another ingredient to check for is wheat meal. This should not be listed in the first three ingredients as it's a filler.

 

[Magnum Man]

As a Food Ingredient Manufacturer, I understand quite a bit about formulating, I do it for a living... a lot of the starch / protein grain ingredients are there, for the "granule" integrity ( I've read lots of complaints about Bug Bites ( for example ) too much dust, inconsistent granule size ) several of the cereal grain components are there, for those reasons, not for nutritional reasons ( the guy that wrote that article was not a formulator, so only looked at it as more cheaply trying to supplement )

I'm not personally worried about those ingredients in a food, if the fish like it... but I don't want all my foods to the have the same "gluten" in them, for example ( BTW, typically the Gluten would be wheat, and one of the feeds listed had 2 other wheat products in it, so even though they didn't specify it was wheat gluten, it would be highly unlikely it would be from another grain, & that particular food, then likely has combined wheat as the highest percentage ingredient...

you'll also likely find the "Walmart store shelf" foods ( Like Tetra, again for example ) contain a higher percentage of those ingredients, both because of cost, but also because they are more shipping & shelf stable...

you all can use these lists as you want, & interpret as you want... my goal here, is to vary as much as I can the main ingredients on the foods I choose... the foods need to be nutritious, & must be palatable to the fish, as, if they won't eat it, they starve... in reality there is nothing wrong with wheat or soy, I just don't want my 4-5 kinds of food I rotate through, to all have the same 1st 3 ingredients...

 

[MaloK]

Another ingredient to check for is wheat meal. This should not be listed in the first three ingredients as it's a filler.

Fish meal, Wheat and/or Flour and/or ...Meal ..

Hikari never passes...

But is it really that bad of a fish food ?

 

[Magnum Man]

In a word, no, it’s probably not that bad of fish food…
Does it contain only what the fish would eat naturally… no

If you look at, Hikari, as long as you mentioned that brand… they typically package in an envelope… if they removed some of the stabilizers, that help the granules hold their shape, and you bought a bag, that got bounced around, shipped across the country, or ocean, and got handled by a dozen people, once it was on the shelf, and you got a half a bag of broken nuggets, and a half a bag of powder, how many complaints do you suppose they would get… I don’t think any company worth its salt, would sell a food that is bad for your fish…
Would it be good for your fish to eat only food, that wheat is the #1 ingredient… I would suspect not… ( variety, I think is the key )

Another thing no one talks about, is what does those few nuggets, that get lost in the corner do to your tank water… the cereal grains are going to be less poisonous to you fish, than fish proteins

I find it interesting, that Bug Bites have started adding potato to their formula… wondering if that is directly related to the complaints of granules lack of integrity, and dusting… I’m a recent user of Bug Bites, but potato is not a naturally consumed food for fish… do I think any less of Bug Bites… not really. In fact, I usually mill them smaller for my tetras, so there as no advantage for me in doing so…, as long as the fish still like them…

I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles… or not

 

[MaloK]

Potato starch is a good non gluten replacement to wheat flour. While a 1:1 ratio doesn't give as much holding power. replacing a part of the wheat with it, still lead to lower total gluten's in the recipe.

A more "healthy" choice. Fish themselves are not affected by gluten since they don't have the digestive system to process it. But still.

Somehow researches proven in fish farming, that too much gluten in diet can hinder growth and health.

 

[Ram419]

I really do like the Bug Bites brand foods.

 

[Magnum Man]

Actually the Super Fresh has been my favorite for a long time, but my goal, is to have 4 or 5 varieties with different main ingredients to rotate… my 2nd favorite right now is the bug bites, but now that they have like 4 different formulas, I may end up liking 2 or 3 of them as part of my rotation… I’ve yet to try them all yet

And there are specialty foods that have way less grain components, and if I’m grinding them up anyway, if they had a less stable granule, that may be ok to…

And I’m not eliminating Tetra, or Hykari, if the fish love it, or I think it offers a color ingredient…

 

[GaryE]

The pendulum swings back and forth. I'll take the radical view and say the ingredients in most fish foods are unimportant except for marketing, Soldier fly larvae are the exception for me. I see easily observed results with those foods (disclosure - I sometimes do freelance work with fluval, but not with the other companies that also use the larvae).
With non insect flake and pellets, they are all pretty close.
I bought a bag of dried soldier fly larvae, ground them up and started feeding. I found where they settled on the bottom, I got a white residue I take to be the calcium the larvae are known for. So the manufacturers need something to balance that out.
All prepared foods have filler. I'm not horrified by that. I have only encountered one or two brands that were not good. The fish wouldn't eat them. One was from a start up that sold itself like health food and was loaded with everything you'd want. They're gone now. One was cheap bulk food.
If I'm concerned with quality, I make my own food, or catch it. If I want convenience, I buy processed. I look at the breakdown. I want fibre, as that is often a weak point when you keep insect eaters. Then I check protein.
Brand loyalties? After 57 years of fishkeeping, brands come and go, get rebranded, go under, get reformulated... Tailor the food buys to the types of fish you have, feed sparingly, do your water changes and you get 9 year old tetras. Don't and you won't.