Fish are triggered to feed by sight, smell, taste, and feel (palatability). A starchy food that absorbs water readily, and become soft to the mouth, while still retaining good flavour, is why some foods are easier to train with, compared to more dense, less starchy foods. For uber picky fish this is sometimes the way one has to go. Lucky for me I don't generally have to deal with uber picky fish, so hard nutrient dense feed has never been an issue. Water is not a nutrient.
Btw, has anyone else tried Ocean Nutrition pellets? I can't find NLS or Omega One here but a couple of shops in Bangkok have these pellets.
Yes, they have been around for many years, but never really big with freshwater folks, more geared towards the marine market. Not sure how readily available this food even is anymore? Years ago they moved their manufacturing facility to Thailand, hence why they are readily available where you are. If you check their website for store locators, Canada isn't even listed. lol I know that years ago when the CFIA starting blocking Asian made foods (during the melamine fiasco) they needed to have their facilities inspected by Canadian CFIA officials, or exporting here was a no go. But even a country such as Germany only has 3 stores listed as carrying it. Hmmmm.
I dont like how NLS seems to not have standard pellet sizes for all the formulas and the larger sized pellets really arent that large and seem harder to get. ThereA , algaemax , float, megafish/giant all come in different sized pellets instead of the same sizes across the board.
As I explained to you in the past, this all boils down to sales. The most popular sizes sell the most (1mm and 2mm), hence they are the most readily available from vendors. Vendors only want to carry what moves, not what sells to only a select few, vs the masses. From a sales perspective, that's just common sense, get it in, and sell it quick. Keep the $$$ moving. Manufacturers only make what the vast majority of vendors want to buy. Business 101. After being in this market for 25+ years, I suspect that the owner of New Life knows what is to him financially feasible in producing, marketing, and selling, and what isn't. I can tell you that my sales as a distributor of NLS for close to a decade, mirrored the manufacturers sales with regards to overall sizes. Everyone wanted 1 and 2 mm TherA, less for 3mm TherA, and FAR less for the 6mm TherA. But if you look at the hobby as a whole, which someone selling to the masses has to do, the average fish keeper has a 30 gallon tank, with 3-4" fish, not a 300 gallon tank, with 12"+ fish. But that said, 6mm - 7mm pellets are large enough for 24"+ fish, so I don't how as you say;
the larger sized pellets really arent that large
Unless you have fish over 3ft in length, 6mm-7mm pellets are more than large enough for the vast majority of tropical species. 10mm is for giant fish, this is the size that a sturgeon farm would feed a 3-4ft white sturgeon in their facilities. You might for whatever reason want something larger in size, maybe to fit your community of fish feeding strategy, but it certainly isn't required for feeding a fish in those size ranges.
