Grand Sumo and Grand Sumo Red

[Man-made Monsters]

Don't kid yourself, GS has the same preservatives as found in the vast majority of fish foods, especially those manufactured in Asia. White fish meal, krill meal, shrimp meal, fish liver oil, manufactured in Penang Malaysia, and all preserved with ethoxyquin.

If your FH have good genetics, no need for high priced specialty FH foods, just feed them a good quality cichlid pellet.

They aren't unicorns, they're fish.

I wasn't aware of the preservatives. I do believe that Grand Sumo is a quality pellet and I don't have to pay a lot for it since my friend owns a shop and buys genuine GS in bulk. I spend about $5.30 per 100 grams of Grand Sumo Red and about $4.20 per 100 grams of the regular formula. I love JBL Food, thats my number one food. I have tried New Life Spectrum food several times over the last 15 years and none of fish would ever eat it. Roughly ten years ago when I kept african cichlids they ate it, but none of my central or south american cichlids would eat it. Even when I starved them for 2 days they still ate it and spit it out. What are your "go to foods"??

 

[kelman]

One more thing about Grand Sumo food that I have noticed. Once the food is open it has a shorter shelf life then other pellets. After about 3 months it starts to smell weird. The fish still eat it but the smell to me has always smelled like something is going bad. My one friend has noticed the exact same thing. I think its due to the natural ingredients and lack of terrible preservatives found in so many other pellets out there. We both love Grand Sumo and swear by it. I'm about to order some Grand Sumo Red from a buddy of mine who owns a flowerhorn store in Brooklyn NY. When I open it I might try storing it in the fridge to see if it prevents the smell from developing. Right now I only have three flowerhorn so I don't go through food as quickly.

Which flowerhorn store in Brooklyn?

 

[RD.]

If you can buy a specialty FH food such as GS for below the typical retail, then it's all good. I would choose GS over JBL every time. I don't personally like German foods (no bias, I am of German heritage lol), Sera, Tetra, JBL, they tend to use a lot of cereal in a lot of their products, and nothing is listed like it is in North America. Fish & Fish By-Products, Vegetable Proteins, Cereals, Vegetables, Vegetable By-Products oil, fat. Not very definitive with regards to what the actual ingredients are - and how many ways can one describe Vegetables? lol I'm also not a big fan of the multi use of terrestrial based plant matter, no matter the source - cereal, or vegetable. They also tend to use a LOT of artificial coloring agents in their foods, just like Tetra.
https://www.jbl.de/?lang=en&mod=products&func=detail&id=2301

Under Additives;

Colorant Red E124
Colorant Iron Oxide Black E172
Colorant Iron Oxide Red E172
Colorant Indigotine Blue E132
Astaxanthin E161j food colouring

As far as NLS - how on earth is 2 days starving a fish??? Mouth brooding cichlids will go as long as 28 days without eating, and they do this over and over again for years. I have trained scores of fish to eat NLS, including numerous wild caught fish that had never seen a pellet, including fish such as BGK, several puffer species, along with juvenile FH imported from Thailand that had not only never seen a pellet, but FH that had been raised on an exclusive diet of blood worms. Even those uber finicky fish were trained to eat NLS within 10 days, using pellets soaked in BW juice. Very few freshwater fish will starve to death when food is offered - eventually even the stubborn will break down and eat. Once they start, they usually go gangbusters and eat every meal like it's their last, every single day of their life. I have fed a lot of different food over the years, but I have lost count how many different species of fish I have trained to eat NLS - and for most it was pretty easy. You just have to have patience, and be smarter than the fish.