balancing prepared foods

[Magnum Man]

one of my favorite tanks, is my Hillstream tank... it's heavily stocked with a large variety of species, and they all seem to get along... in an attempt to give them all the variety they need to thrive, I often mix several foods together... they eat more than algae, and go crazy for frozen brine shrimp... they also love Bug Bites, that I grind to dust in a mortar and pestal... I found this food, that I'm going to add a small portion in with the dusted Bug Bites...

they sure love the lucky bamboo, that is in the bubble waterfall... working on the tank yesterday, there was probably 20 various Hillstream's on the bamboo stalks in the bubbles

 

[GaryE]

The big problem I have found with powders like that is they tend to foul the water. If you can bind them with other ingredients they'll get eaten, in a frozen or paste food. A lot of our fish are spoiled by our 'food delivery' methods, and can satisfy themselves with chunky food. They often totally ignore finely grained foods in the water column, and would let them fall into that widely spaced gravel you have there.

There, they become food for bacteria you may not want.

 

[Magnum Man]

feeding with a protein shaker, full of RO water, makes this stuff hydrate, and stay in suspension longer ( not just drop to the bottom ) I think it ends up sticking to the biofilm on all surfaces, not just the gravel... obviously, some still goes down, but the tank residents all work the gravel surfaces as well... their cousins the Panda Garas will also eat blood worms... assume the larger varieties of Hillstream's will as well... this tank gets a couple cubes of frozen bloodworms added to their shrimp cocktails once a week...

 

[AJ356]

There was an interesting article on here doing the rounds that was about warning against fish food that has "fish meal" as the main ingredient and also warning about lots of wheat products being in the top ingredients. I know it might depend on what fish you are feeding. The article said ingredient percentages are listed from most to least.

So, with the above food in the picture for example, the good stuff like shrimp meal and krill meal is listed at the end, because there is hardly any in there.

I think this is the same principles behind the Hikari fish food scandal, where they market their foods as top tier, but the main ingredients are not worth touching for your fish.

I think @Essjay knows about the issues with wheat in fish foods and fish meal.

I know people will say "well I use that food and my fish are thriving" etc, and we tend to stick to stick to to things out of habit.

I think Tetra are another one who have cornered the market with what is generally inferior fish food when you look at the ingredients.

 

[Essjay]

It was the late lamented Byron who first drew my attention to fish food ingredients.

He commented that any wheat product should third or lower in the list order because many fish cannot digest wheat in any form. Wheat products are usually present as they are binders for the other ingredients.

Fish meal covers a number of products. At its worst it mean ground up left over bits of fish no-one wants - skin and bones mainly. Not very nutritious. On the other hand whole fish meal, especially meal from a named fish species, contains everything and is a better quality. But any fish meal can be kept in warehouse for months, losing nutritional value during that time.
Of course, whole fish is better than whole fish meal.

 

[MaloK]

In nearly every food available, there will be at least one wheat, meal or flour in the principal ingredients. it's necessary as binding agent.

The one I tried that have the highest "real" ingredients are Omega One, New Life Spectrum, and GlasGarten.

I also use some Aqueon pellets to give a little more diversity, But on the nutritive, These are poor. I avoid flakes of any kind like the plague.

And test new food to see how long it takes to spoil and see what fungus or bacteria they develop and sometimes completely reject those that are not good enough.

 

[gwand]

I rotate New Life Spectrum, Bug Bites and Omega One. For particular fish I use spirulina preps and blanched spinach.

 

[Essjay]

I used to have Omega One food but it's no longer available in the UK The food I currently have has been changed to a lot worse quality so I need to find something else when I run out.

 

[Magnum Man]

well... consider, if I'm blending it in at 15 % ( for example ), with bug bites, the overall percentage of that dose of food has changed dramatically

and @MaloK is correct on binding agents... anything shelf stable is going to have them...

also consider these fish are Awfwucts eaters, not carnivores... I totally get that carnivores may not digest binding agents well...

"I" think the variety of vegative ingredients, will be a benefit, especially, when blended at a lower percentage, in bug bites... I'm semi retired now, but have a history of formulating... yes, I think I could do a better job, if I were starting with all the raw ingredients, and did not have to produce something with shelf stable granules... but think I can make it better than each alone, blending these as already prepared foods