Hikari pellets

[RD.]

And today, if one wants to lean more in one direction, than other, it is very easy to find pellets and/or wafers designed for fish that are more carnivorous, or those that are more herbivorous. And not the crap of yesteryears, such as Wardley’s so called algae wafers, that contained more corn and wheat, than algae. Another successful fish food company that has been around since the 1950’s. Ditto to Tetra, and Hagen. Having several decades in the fish food game doesn’t give them a free pass on quality control.

in commercial foods, lower cost fillers are used to spare costs for the manufacturer, not to increase fibre or roughage, to satisfy some kind of a nutritional need of a fish.

 

[phreeflow]

My fish hate NLS but I’m switching to it mainly because it keeps my water cleaner and supposedly has better nutrition.

Still keeping Hikari because even the most finicky fish will crush it. Useful to acclimate and fatten newly acquired fish

 

[Trouser Cough]

Weak genetics, has nothing to do with fibre content in the diet.

Weak genetics in Flower Horns for certain. Be that as it may it's my understanding that fiber in the diet makes people regular. I'm no digestive expert but it makes sense to me that a fish w/ weak genetics might have an even greater requirement for fiber in their diet. Are you saying that where fish are concerned that's not the case?

 

[Trouser Cough]

And on the subject of the old Wardley's food product I happened to look at the Spirulina, Algae and Veggie wafer label from Aquatic Foods. I never noticed it before but the primary ingredient and the first item listed in order of ingredients is not in the product's title.

From the product name I'd not have guessed that it was targeted at omnivores but now it makes sense why my Arowana will happily nail a few wafers. First ingredient is fish meal. I wonder why?

 

[esoxlucius]

These one food versus another food threads are rife. Admittedly I've listened to a lot of the hype and I've chopped and changed my choices of dry staple pellets throughout the years.

Hikari, rightly or wrongly, certainly seems to come off worse because of the "filler" component compared to other "better quality" brands.

Hikari have been in the game for a long time. Their price point suits many and at the end of the day, for a lot of hobbyists, price is a key factor, if not the main one. That key selling point for Hikari would be lost if they went the same route as NLS for example and drastically improved their ingredient quality.

It's already been touched on during this thread but I believe that foods with fillers in aren't necessarily the problem here....it's the long term overfeeding of foods with fillers in that is more of a problem.

Overfeeding is a real menace in our hobby, an issue which many of us just can't address, because of course begging fish are starving and therefore need pumping full of food.

I'm at the stage now where I feed pretty much what I want, in small portions though, with 2 or 3 weekly fasting days thrown in too. I believe this gives the fish time to clear their pipes of any unsavoury or unwanted filler type materials. Fasting days are absolutely key imo.

 

[RD.]

Weak genetics in Flower Horns for certain. Be that as it may it's my understanding that fiber in the diet makes people regular. I'm no digestive expert but it makes sense to me that a fish w/ weak genetics might have an even greater requirement for fiber in their diet. Are you saying that where fish are concerned that's not the case?

The following is from one of my stickies in the FH section here on MFK.

Hexamita is a catch all term often used to describe the various protozoa that trigger bloat, and/or stringy white/clear feces in tropical fish. In the vast majority of cases, those where clinical studies have identified the actual flagellates involved (specifically in cichlids), it has been Spironucleus vortens, not Hexamita or Octomitus species as previously believed. While it appears that much of the earlier identifications in ornamental species of fish may be erroneous, the overall treatment is pretty much identical.

Again, an ailment that is not triggered by lack of fiber, but can potentially be triggered from overfeeding, poor water quality, pretty much anything that causes stress in the host. FH's being genetic weaklings suffer often from this disease. Excessive overfeeding of any food can on its own cause blockage, and constipation, and the end result is also a "bloat" like condition. FH are also prone to anal prolapse, which is also not caused by lack of fiber.

From another sticky of mine here on MFK that I posted many years ago. Make sure to expand it.

If/when bloat is caused by diet, it's often the result of fish being overfed by MASSIVE amounts, and/or using a food that contains a large inclusion rate of terrestrial based grains & grain byproducts. In the case of the latter, high grain content is known to cause intestinal blockage due to its poor digestibility, which in turn results in "bloat". If/when diet is the cause of bloat the trigger is typically caused by poor quality ingredients that the fish has difficulty digesting. (usually cheap grain fillers) If a fish can't digest the food, then it can lead to impactions in the gut. The fish stops eating (as it can't pass what's already in it) the impacted area goes septic from multiplying bacteria, and the result can be (and quite often is) deadly.


If someone is allowing their fish to feed until they are stuffed to the gills, then that becomes a case of operator error, not feed problems. The fact is, many hobbyists do tend to overfeed. To date I do not believe that there is a single food that has been created, manufactured & otherwise that has not been blamed for bloat in someone's fish. I've seen & read it all over the years, yet 100's of thousands of other hobbyists feed these same foods with no issues. Hmmmmm.

When feeding low cost generic foods with excessive grain content, if too much is consumed at once these types of feeds can indeed cause serious gastrointestinal issues in some species, such as those that are prone to bloat.

Also, there is a BIG difference between terrestrial based plant matter (such as soybeans, corn, wheat middlings etc) and plant matter from aquatic sources, such as algae meal, spirulina, and various micro-algae. The former is what many hobbyists have come to refer as "cheap fillers".

I'm not going to tell anyone what to feed their fish, but if anyone here thinks that hot dogs are healthier than eating wild caught salmon, with a side dish of brussel sprouts & broccoli, well, you're only kidding yourself. No hype involved really, just common sense.

 

[RD.]

For the OP, a little blast from the past.......

Feeding our centrals | MonsterFishKeepers.com

 

[RD.]

I


Another little blast from the past. Several decades ago when I was a kid, you were lucky if you could find, and afford, food such as this.
Wardley/Hartz was king back in those days too.

 

[FINWIN]

For roughage my O will ingest large krill whole. He's the hardest to get a balanced diet to so I've had to get inventive a bit. Vit C on blackworm cubes. The cubes are from a Canadian company and are larger than other brands. Fortified with vitamins. I also smoosh pellets into the cubes. If I put them in whole he sifts them out. The other fish will pretty much eat anything. A note on Hikari, prices have escalated. The bulk stuff seems of lesser quality (messy, breaks down) than the foil package pellets. I try to get the package pellets on sale. If he eats soldier fly larvae/mealworms I use nutrient powder.

I'm all for fish staying 'clear' but when my Brick cleans himself out it's not a pretty sight. Think "mountain range."

 

[Cardeater]

I am sure I've made this type of response in a feeding thread before.

I only feed NLS and some Northfin products because I feel better feeding only quality ingredients. Less waste in the water is a benefit as well.

That being said, I still have two clown loaches from 1995 and a Hypostomus Plecostomus that died this year (average life expectancy supposedly 10-15 years). Had a third clown loach that died in an accident in 2018 from 1995. Anyway, I didn't start feeding quality foods until 2018 when I found this forum and read up on all the food posts (RD being one of the best posters to read in that department).

From 1995-2018, I fed them garbage "algae" wafers including Wardley. I still have some Tetra food tubs that I use to keep this plastic mesh down on top of opening in my tank (I stopped feeding that in 2018 but the containers make good weights (one of them unopened). Fish lived that long and I probably had nitrates in the hundreds as I did 30-50% water changes every month.

Even though I got away with that, now that I know better and have $ to spend, I again feed the quality foods only bc I feel better doing it and it's healthier for fish.

I will say the young clown loaches I got in 2018 seem to have grown bigger faster but genetics and their sex is a big factor as well. I'm sure the better foods and frequent water changes have helped.