Not a which food is best comment, just simple analysis and fyi: If you know something about these ingredients, the Hikari ingredient list tells you that a sizable fraction of protein in either Cichlid Gold or Bio Gold is coming from a combination of wheat based ingredients, yeast (brewing by product), gluten, or soybean meal (depending which product).
In brief, here's my problem with that:
Aquatic Science article
In brief, here's my problem with soybean meal as a fish food ingredient:
Soybean meal and intestinal issues in Zebra fry
Soybean meal and intestinal inflammation in salmon
From a
similar study-- general comment about issues with the levels of some of the common plant based ingredients in some fish food formulas:
The increased use of plant materials results in many cases to less growth and presents a hazard to the digestive health of many fish species, including salmon.
Different species vary in their tolerance levels for some of these ingredients. Judge for yourself, but my rule is no soybean meal (or most other soy fractions) in my fish food and protein primarily from aquatic sources vs. wheat, soy, yeast, corn, and most other large commercial farming or brewing products/by products. Aquatic doesn't have to mean fish meal, mysis is good ime, spirulina is aquatic, krill, obviously, etc. Would you see obvious, immediate effects on health, etc? Not necessarily, but I'm looking at the long term health of my fish.
...Insects would also be a natural protein source for many fish, but I'm not aware of any foods based on nymphs, midges, etc. Or Amazon seeds and fruits would be natural for some fish, but, again, not something you see.
Again, I'm not arguing anything here, just fyi-- your choice.
