What kind of fish is used in the fish meal in massivore/NLS?

[jwh]

Fish meal is a commodity, and is traded like sugar, wheat flour, maize etc. It's mostly made from sardines or anchovies. I can't speak for the brands specified, but I would imagine that big manufacturers would buy fish meal on the global market at the best price they can buy it for. I'm a bit cynical when it comes to marketing claims on food stuff, especially pet foods. BTW I mostly use Hikari.

 

[jaws7777]

NLS does have a 7 mm size pellet, not sure how large you would need. They have 7mm both sinking and floating pellets.

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https://www.amazon.com/New-Life-Spe...79706&sr=8-2&keywords=new+life+spectrum+jumbo

Thx man i do have the 7mm algae max and the reg formula for my pearsei but wanted something with a little more protien for polys... the northfin seems to be a hit with them so far...tbh they never really care much for the hikari carnivore stuff

 

[Pomatomus]

Herring and other clupeid fishes are very common in fish meal.

However, a number of other fish could be added if available, as rendering plants will take whatever meat or offal they can get their hands on.

NLS has fancy ingredients, but we just ran a study using fish meal from another species and it performed even better than herring fish meal. I can't reveal the species yet, as I won't be publishing the study for another 6-12 months.

In aquaculture you usually see fish meal, but also poultry by-product meal, feather meal, bone meal, blood meal, etc...This is because the fish meal in your pet food is NOT SUSTAINABLE. These fish are at the base of the food chain and their numbers are dropping due to the fish meal market. Prices have doubled in the past decade or so if I remember correctly. In aquaculture there is a huge push for finding fish meal replacements. Sturgeon have been grown well without any fish meal using mixes of the other stuff I mentioned. Tilapia can be grown on mixed plant / soybean meal. Casein works well with lots of species but it's super expensive since it comes from milk.

Prices for products like NLS will rise unless they can develop other protein and fat sources, but it is unlikely that they can since nutritional needs beyond fish meal vary so much from one species to another!

 

[jaws7777]

Herring and other clupeid fishes are very common in fish meal.

However, a number of other fish could be added if available, as rendering plants will take whatever meat or offal they can get their hands on.

NLS has fancy ingredients, but we just ran a study using fish meal from another species and it performed even better than herring fish meal. I can't reveal the species yet, as I won't be publishing the study for another 6-12 months.

In aquaculture you usually see fish meal, but also poultry by-product meal, feather meal, bone meal, blood meal, etc...This is because the fish meal in your pet food is NOT SUSTAINABLE. These fish are at the base of the food chain and their numbers are dropping due to the fish meal market. Prices have doubled in the past decade or so if I remember correctly. In aquaculture there is a huge push for finding fish meal replacements. Sturgeon have been grown well without any fish meal using mixes of the other stuff I mentioned. Tilapia can be grown on mixed plant / soybean meal. Casein works well with lots of species but it's super expensive since it comes from milk.

Prices for products like NLS will rise unless they can develop other protein and fat sources, but it is unlikely that they can since nutritional needs beyond fish meal vary so much from one species to another!

Thats really interesting regsrding how fish populations are dropping because of the fish meal market. Sad too

I was always under the assumption ingredients like soy bean and bird feather products were generally not good for fish long term.

 

[Pomatomus]

Thats really interesting regsrding how fish populations are dropping because of the fish meal market. Sad too

I was always under the assumption ingredients like soy bean and bird feather products were generally not good for fish long term.

Ingredients like these are useful as they do provide some nutrition, but they don't have the right balance of nutrients to replace other ingredients completely. I'll use protein as an example. In short, "protein requirements" are vague and vary by species. Not only does it vary in amounts, but also in the types of proteins. Technically "protein" doesn't mean much in terms of nutrition. It refers to a collection of different amino acids. What an animal needs is a certain amount of each essential amino acid. If you have a diet with 100% protein (hypothetically) and it is all made up of one amino acid, then the animal will likely have protein deficiencies for the others. That's why most commercial diets have some soy (it's cheap and sustainable), but still need to have other protein sources to ensure adequate nutrition. Exactly which sources and their relative amounts vary so much by species!