I've yet to have a fish that likes eating any NLS product. They always spit it and I always have to vacuum it out of the tank.
NLS
- Thread starter Donjuanmc
- Start date
Bought a can of NLS Optimum Flakes for marine & freshwater. Mainly feed pellets but I figured I'd give it a try. First day I fed it they just mouthed it and spit it out. Thought great now I have a full can they won't eat. Tried it again 2 days later and they gobbled it up; now they love it. Give it another go.
NLS generic pellet is all we feed at our place.
In my experience, the younger you start feeding NLS the better. I start with the Flakes when small fry. Then switched to pellets when they could swallow them whole with no chewing. 
Started with flakes on the right. Moved left in pellets as they gained size 2mm/4mm/6mm
Started with flakes on the right. Moved left in pellets as they gained size 2mm/4mm/6mm
My fish don’t really take to it either. Tried multiple times and I’m sitting on a large bucket of the stuff. It’s nutritious but doesn’t seem as palatable as Hikari products
I'd always been an Hikari guy. But after hearing good things about NLS on the forum I figured I'd give it a go. The 2kg tub below of 1mm pellets cost nearly £80!!!
If my fish had have turned their noses up at it at that price I think I'd have cried. But thankfully they love it. Hikari is still my main choice though, simply because of the price.
If my fish had have turned their noses up at it at that price I think I'd have cried. But thankfully they love it. Hikari is still my main choice though, simply because of the price.
It's amazing how most animals will learn to love their food, when nothing else is being offered.
i always found it to be pricey and cloud my water. I do like Xtreme foods but there arent good bulk buy options. Now i just order a combo of sticks and pellets from kens fish. priced appropriately, comes in 5lb containers, can many different combos and your arent paying for a namebrand or fancy packaging
For 20 years it's never been a problem for me, with the exception that I've had a few over the years strongly dislike their high garlic products, like Thera-A (while others loved the stuff). Otherwise, no problems, including the occasional species (Gymnogeophagus rhabdotus) or occasional wild collected that simply took a little while to get used to it before eating it just fine.
Of course you are! Ken does not have his own manufacturing facility, his food is what is known as "private labelling" in the food industry. His food is simply made by a feed mill, with his personalized "private" labels attached. And this is not a shot at Ken, or anyone else, but like most things in life you get what you pay for. This NOT what I would consider a "premium" food, but it is how Ken describes it on his labels.
This special formulation contains spirulina, krill, and other natural color enhancers for the sincere cichlid specialis. Our pellets are a nourishing food, that promoting growth and strength to help resist the harmful effects of shock or bacterial infection. For medium size cichlids. Some will float and some will sink.
Ingredients: Wheat, Fish Meal, Soybean Meal, Blood Pork Meal, Stabilized Fish Oil, Capsanthin, Spirulina, Xanthophyll, Krill Meal, Di Calcium Phosphate, Vitamin A Acetate, D-Activated Animal-Sterol (D-3), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin, Folic Acid, Calcium Pantothhenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine, Biotin, Dl Alphatocopherol (E), L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (C), Color Enhancers With Red, Yellow, And Blue/Green Pigments.
The main ingredient listed by dry weight, is wheat. A common theme with lower cost, lower grade farm feeds. I'm quite certain that the Blood Pork Meal elicits a feed response in most fish, and then they get filled up with a whole lot of wheat & soybean meal. His feed formulations have been like this for decades. Lower cost ingredients up front, higher cost ingredients such as Spirulina, and Krill meal, way down the list by the vitamins, which typically make up 1% or less of the overall formulation. Again, not a shot, just sayin........
If anyone is looking for low cost, bulk buy options, I would contact a feed mill directly, but before doing so you might want to ask Viktor
thebiggerthebetter
how lower cost, lower grade feed mill food typically works out over the long haul. I'm quite certain that he feeds more hungry mouths than the vast majority here. If it's too much of a hassle to train your fish on brand XY or Z, or some stubborn SOB's just wont conform, I get it, but personally I would try another quality brand before going the farm feed route.
