Fish Food Summary

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What is the avg life expectancy of your pet , whether mammal or fish? A fish in captivity , what number do you think the pet food industry uses in determining this ?.. a poor betta maybe one year... prized koi maybe ten years? The stds in the pet food industry are their just to provide minimal nutritional value ,in order to meet this avg charted life expectancy.

Now over time I've seen dog and cat food reach new levels and higher nutritional values than in the past. ( chicken feathers where used to boost protein content however it is not a usable protein) But its the consumer's dollar who eventually pushes the industry to change.

By being a better informed consumer you are using your dollars to decide the next step in nutrition for our wet pets...for my money its a good pellet (whatever your baseline is , mine is NLS),supplemented with fresh food from the grocery store..

I'm enjoying this thread, forums like this are conducive to reshaping our pet food...
 
Aquamojo;5112717; said:
I had a betta fish that lived in a coffee cup on my desk for five years. No joke. Lol

Good points by all.
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True story:

Moved in to a place with a small storage shed in the back. About 6 months in, I go back there looking for a screwdriver, as the last guy who lived there had left some junk back there. I find a SEALED ball jar full of a dirty looking liquid, and on closer inspection I realized there was a dead betta in it. I take the jar inside and proceed to dump its contents in the toilet (don't really know why, probably should have just tossed it). Right when I'm about to flush I realize the betta is ALIVE!

I scooped him out and bought him a nice setup that day. :D
 
aclockworkorange;5112753; said:
True story:

Moved in to a place with a small storage shed in the back. About 6 months in, I go back there looking for a screwdriver, as the last guy who lived there had left some junk back there. I find a SEALED ball jar full of a dirty looking liquid, and on closer inspection I realized there was a dead betta in it. I take the jar inside and proceed to dump its contents in the toilet (don't really know why, probably should have just tossed it). Right when I'm about to flush I realize the betta is ALIVE!

I scooped him out and bought him a nice setup that day. :D
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I cant believe this, what a champion Beta
you Have to post Pictures of that guy.
Ps: I just feed Azoo 9 in 1 and market shrimp and earthworms, It does the job for me all my fish are happy and healthy
 
RD no offense taken. What I would be more interested in is the definitions of "bad" and " ugly". Putting aside protein and fat content and requirements, is there any validity to those categories being...bad or ugly? And I just found that on that link. Thanks pal.
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Mo - Those are subjective terms, open to interpretation. Without knowing actual inclusion rates of those various ingredients none of that info amounts to a whole lot of anything.




As far as regulations ...........



Most people have no idea what type of red tape, regulations, and inspections are involved when actually manufacturing pet food, it can be an absolute nightmare for a US based company that has to not only deal with federal regulations, but also each state individually.

In the USA this involves not only the FDA, but also the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Veterinary Services (VS), and AAFCO.

In many cases these regulations change on a frequent basis. It's gotten to the point that probably the less info one places on their label, the better, or you'll be updating your labels every 6 months. These changes cost $, for larger companies lots of $$$$ , and someone has to eat the cost of outdated labels, and yet another run of new updated labels.

As an example, most states allow Vitamin C to be listed on a pet food label, but all it takes is one overly anal state inspector to decide that it must be listed as ascorbic acid, and you are forced to either remove that listing from your label, or play by their new rules. Even if the vitamin C you are listing is the total content, most comprised from the raw ingredients themselves, not from some vitamin premix. One wrong word or term can equate to your product being disallowed in an entire state, and each state requires a permit just to get your product across their border, and like everything else, you have to pay for that privilege.

And that's just what takes place within the USA, now factor in all of the other various countries that some fish food products are exported to & things can become goofy stupid.

The USA & Canada couldn't give a rats behind with regards to things such as GMO products, but the UK requires additional labeling if the product contains .9% or greater GMO. A country such as Turkey doesn't allow any GMO products, not even if it's as little as .0001%. They use outdated testing equipment that simply tests positive, or negative, and if it's positive your shipment will be refused at their border.


I seriously doubt that fish food will ever come under the same type of scrutiny as dog/cat food, but it doesn't get any free passes either. Having said all that as clockwork suggested the way things currently are there are a number of ways that one can bend the rules & manipulate a fish food label, and some manufacturers do take advantage of these loop holes.
 
I tend to believe that morbid obesity shortens the life of more cichlids than the long term effects of any of the listed foods, especially any of the ones that are constantly debated here...

Matt
 
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