Fish Food

[AbbeysDad]

What do you feed your fish? Here is an article that I just posted on Fish Food. Let me know what you think.

 

[Morganna]

I think it is very nice!
I started out with Tetra food because I didn't know any better, but am hoping to switch over to UltraFresh. Would you recommend it even though it wasn't listed in your article?

 

[Rocky998]

I use fluval bug bites and treat the fish to frozen brine shrimp here and there

 

[AbbeysDad]

I think it is very nice!
I started out with Tetra food because I didn't know any better, but am hoping to switch over to UltraFresh. Would you recommend it even though it wasn't listed in your article?

Thank-you. I've never used it so I did a quick explore - I think that it's a good food, but I would treat it more like a frozen food and feed it 2 (or 3 times at the most) a week and select another [dry] food as the staple. But then you can experiment to see what works best for you, your fish, and your wallet.

 

[Colin_T]

First paragraph I would change LOT to lot, it doesn't need to be capital letters.

A long time ago now I did a LOT of research and wrote an article about Commercial Fish Foods for the Central New York Aquarium Society’s newsletter, the Reflector (May 2019, June 2019).

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Second last paragraph has whole fishmeal. Is it meant to be whole fish or whole fish meal?
Your talking about fish meal being mostly skin, scale and bone. I would have thought whole fish rather than whole fish meal, might read better.
Apart from that it's good.

Every serious fishkeeper needs to find the very best food for his/her fish. You must read the ingredients on the label, understanding that the ingredients are listed in order of the amounts contained. It also must be realized that ingredients like ‘salmon meal’ may sound good, but is likely head, skin, and bone meal rather than whole fishmeal.

 

[AbbeysDad]

@Colin_T - Thank-you for the feedback. I emphasized a LOT of research because it took quite a bit of time and effort (over two months) to contact vendors and get feedback from their personnel. I modified the next to last paragraph to more clearly differentiate between lower quality fishmeal that may be made from head, bone, and skin and fishmeal made from whole fish. Not all fishmeal is the same.
The very best fish food may be made from fresh whole fish, but it typically comes at a very high price.

 

[AbbeysDad]

Very few responses! In addition to article feedback, I'd be curious to know what everyone feeds their fish and what led you to the selection?

 

[Back in the fold]

@AbbeysDad , you know anything about feeding spirulina or other things to BBS to increase the nutritional value ? And what's this about them molting and instar sizes ?
Nice article. Short and sweet and right to the point. I agree that a guy should use a variety. Not a big user of flakes anymore but when I did the one my fish liked best was Wardleys. Go figure. Tried Brine Shrimp Direct's Cool Color flakes but they are messy. The fish like it but it messes up the tank by crumbling into little crumbs that disperse everywhere . I use pellets that a fellow AKA member makes himself. The fish go nuts for it. I don't use frozen foods anymore. Today's frozen brine shrimp stinks , it literally smells dead and bad. I feed BBS , Grindal worms and fruit flies . I only have eight tanks so that's manageable.

 

[AbbeysDad]

you know anything about feeding spirulina or other things to BBS to increase the nutritional value ? And what's this about them molting and instar sizes ?

Although you could feed BBS spirulina, they are most nutritious when fed within 24 hours of hatching before the egg sack is consumed. Feeding BBS spirulina is not really 'gut loading' and is most often done to grow out the shrimp. Like 'sea monkeys' you can grow out bbs into adult brine shrimp (but I never found it very practical).

Not a big user of flakes anymore but when I did the one my fish liked best was Wardleys.

I'm not a fan of Wardley foods. Unless they've changed considerably, their foods listed grain as the 1st ingredient and although it may appear to be high in protein, fish just don't process grain well.

I feed BBS , Grindal worms and fruit flies . I only have eight tanks so that's manageable.

You might consider Grindal worm's big brother, white worms as they are about twice the size. I culture a warm temperature variety (although they're best at about 60F) and find they are very prolific, although Grindal worms will tolerate much higher temps.

THANKS for the feedback!

 

[Back in the fold]

@AbbeysDad I thought about your warm variety white worms but my fish room is downright HOT for about three or four months and my hovel has no cool spots anywhere. I'd lose them. Think my old lady would let me keep them in the fridge ? Yeah , right.
One other thing about flakes is that some of them are made by the same big capitalist multi- national corporations. Read the fine print. OmegaOne and TetraMin are both owned by Spectrum Brands , whoever that is , and Mars Candy Company owns API and other aquarium products. Maybe the factories are still independent and allowed their own recipe but maybe not too.

 

[AbbeysDad]

@Back in the fold I have mine in my unheated basement here in the Northeast (Central NY) (55-60F thru winter) so they do well most of the year. for dog days of summer, I have experimented with a dorm type fridge with an external controller and that works well. David Ramsey uses a wine cooler he picked up used on the cheap (But I think his white worm species needs the cold).
As far as all Commercial Fish Foods, it comes down to what's on the label. Since by law the ingredients must be listed in percentage order highest to lowest, we can get a good idea of what their made of. BUT buyer beware...As I mention in the article, a first ingredient of 'salmon meal' may look good compared to just 'fishmeal', however that may be fish meal made from heads, bones, and skin of salmon, NOT whole salmon....and fishmeal made from whole fish may in fact be much better. Hobbyist's should definitely stay away from any fish food that lists any type of grain first or very high in the list. Grain/grain starch is a necessary binder, but the cheaper fish foods will use it as a filler with lower quality fishmeal.

 

[AbbeysDad]

One last bump in the hopes of getting more feedback.
What do you feed your fish and what do you think about the Fish Food article. Thank you.

 

[Back in the fold]

One last bump in the hopes of getting more feedback.
What do you feed your fish and what do you think about the article. Thank you.

The article was informative. Surprised you aren't hearing more from folks. This is the one subject that should make a 1,000 post thread.

 

[sharkweek178]

I feed New Life Spectrum Optimum Flakes and Fluval Bug Bites. Those are the best quality ingredients I can find.

 

[Byron]

@AbbeysDad you know my thoughts on this, but it is worth repeating. Excellent article. As for food, my choices have been (1) Fluval Bug Bites [#1 as meaning fed most often, every other day basically], (2) Omega One if herbivorous fish are involved as their "Veggie" rounds and flakes are good, and (3) New Life Spectrum Optimum Flake. Fresh frozen daphnia as treats.