Ok, that certainly explains a lot. I can tell you with 100% certainty that the ingredient list that you supplied is lacking some key substances, in so much as there is no binding agent listed. A formula such as that is impossible to create sans a binding agent, or agents. In order to end up with 65% protein you would have to be feeding pure fish meal, and even then depending on the grade of fish meal you might not even acheive that. If you showed that ingredient list to any major feed mill here in North America, and mentioned 65% protein, they would laugh in your face.
The problem with foods made in Thailand, China, etc, is that with many of these foreign made products there are simply no checks & balances in place. Does anyone here recall the melamine fiasco that took place a few years ago? That also affected fish food, and all of it originated from China.
This is exactly where reading between the lines comes into play.
It has now gotten to the point that countries such as Canada won't even allow these types of pet foods into the country (including fish food), unless the factories have been inspected & approved by the Canadian government. Some of the Asian based companies won't allow them access to perform a risk assessment, so they are banned from import.
IMO, it's about time.
FYI - even IF that food contained 65% protein, a food with that level of protein is not a great staple food for aros, cichlids, catfish, or any other species of tropical fish, including gars. Even at the fry or fingerling stage, none of those species require more than 50% protein, and certainly less at an adult or maintenance stage.
While a fish can excrete excess amino acids (protein) the problem lies in the fact that those excess amino acids have to first be deaminated by the liver, before they are excreted as waste, and all of that requires energy. Energy that could have & should have been used for growth, repair, and normal metabolic functions. Hence an excess of protein, can actually have a negative effect on growth.
Not to mention the fact that I can guarantee you that if you were to run that food through a lab, you would find that things would not appear as they do on the label. So while you may feel quite confident in this feed, I personally wouldn't expose my fish to it if you gave me a lifetime supply for free. Seriously.
Hai Feng is based in Taiwan, not China, and is another food that I would personally avoid, but again, that's just me. As an example;
Hai Feng's Premium Arowana pellet food. (Ever Nature)
Ingredients: Fish Protein, White Fish Meal, Wheat Germ, Dried Yeast, Wheat Flour, Soybean Meal, Soybean Protein, Shrimp Paste, Antarctic Shrimp, Protease, Organic Minerals
Analysis: Min,Crude Protein: 47% Min, Crude Fat 4% Min, Crude Ash: 15% Min, Crude Fiber: 4% Max, Sodium Chloride: 2%, Max, Moisture: 8%
The fish protein would most likely consist of hydrolyzed fish, basically a liquid emulsion, white fish meal is plant processing waste, consisting of heads, scales, and bones (hence the high ash content in the feed) , - and what do you have left as primary ingredients, wheat, yeast, more wheat, soybean meal and more soybean (protein). (soybean isolate or concentrate)
IMO there are FAR better pellet foods (and certainly many that are equal) right here in North America, no need to go searching for the holy grail of fish foods overseas. But hey, that's your call.
When it comes to arowanas, gars, arapaimas, etc, in Asia the vast majority of hobbyists feed their fish live and/or frozen food, not pellets, at least not to any great extent. If the person at your LFS is telling you otherwise, he's either shining you on to promote the food, or simply doesn't know what the hell he is talking about. He might be a nice person, and even have good intentions, but he's obviously out of touch with how most people in Asia raise large predatory species of fish.
I don't know of a single arowana farm in all of Asia that feeds pellets to grow out their fish, except maybe one, and while pellets on that farm (SABF) have been reported to be used by Mr. Lee Ah See, they are only used on a limited basis. The same thing applies to flowerhorn breeders, discus breeders, etc. They all feed for maximum growth, as the quicker the fish grow, the faster they can be placed for sale.
Of course many of these brands of food have become very popular with tropical fish hobbyists in Asia, because they are Asian made products. No different for all of the various other dry goods marketed & sold in Asia, be it medications, filters, heaters, etc. There are tons & tons of aquarium products made & sold in Asia that most people in North America would have never even heard of.
Caveat emptor
