Petco / Petsmart food looks quite good?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
A

ahuang918

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 26, 2022
12
5
8
26
Top Fin Cichlid ingredients: Salmon Meal, Krill Meal, Fish Meal, Mussel Meal, Spirulina Meal, Wheat Flour, Corn Protein, Stabilized Fish Oil, Yeast, Garlic, Lecithin, Inulin, Retinol (Vitamin A Supplement), Cholecalciferol, A-Tocopheryl Acetate, Thiamine, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Iron Vitriol, Zinc Sulphate, Manganese Sulphate, Copper Sulphate, Potassium Iodide, Cobalt Chloride, Selenium

Crude Protein (min) 40.0%
Crude Fat (min) 5.0%
Crude Fiber (max) 4.0%
Moisture (max) 8.0%

Imagitarium Cichlid ingredients: Fish Meal, Wheat Flour, Squid Meal, Dried Spirulina, Dried Kelp, Krill Meal, Dried Bacillus Subtilis Fermentation Product, Dried Bacillus Licheniformis Fermentation Product, Shrimp Meal, Fish Protein Concentrate, Garlic Powder, Brewers Dried Yeast, Wheat Germ Meal, Soybean Oil, Fructooligosaccharides, L-Lysine, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Choline Chloride, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source Of Vitamin C), Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin E Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin, Biotin, Riboflavin, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Calcium Propionate (Preservative), Dl-Methionine.

Crude Protein - Min 45%, Crude Fat - Min 7%, Crude Fiber - Max 4%, Moisture - Max 6%,%, Phosphorus - Min 1%,%, Total Microorganisms - Min 1,000,000 Cfu/G* (B. Subtilis, B. Lichenformis) *Colony-For Min G Unit Per Gram.

Considering adding (1 of) them to my feeding rotation. Thoughts?
 
.....is Top Fin a ripoff of Northfin?
 
  • Like
Reactions: tlindsey
ahuang918 said:
Their food had always been considered crap, but their "ProSeries" looks pretty good.
Click to expand...

I have found that the Pro Series stuff is pretty good, too. I would feed the Cichlid formula if it was a sinking pellet - floating food gets trapped in my jungle Vallisneria and rots. If you have plecos or catfish, compare the ingredients on the Pro Series algae tabs vs. the Hikari ones, there's a lot less fillers in the Top Fin stuff.
 
ahuang918 said:
Considering adding (1 of) them to my feeding rotation. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I do have a rough perspective on this kind of thing. It's not applicable in every instance but it's applicable in most and it is this...

Manufacturers manufacture and distributors distribute.

If you have a manufacturer that doesn't fit the above model and instead sells his own product directly to the public they generally are offering a specification grade solution to a niche market. It's often the good stuff and is rarely priced to compete w/commodity oriented competitors.

If you have a distributor that trade labels their own brand of stuff that someone else made it's a commodity oriented product and at minimum you're buying a product that has a redundant markup and beyond that the only way that they can enhance their margin is to lower the cost of their core ingredients which normally comes at a concession to quality. In these instances you're often buying a product you otherwise wouldn't albeit this time it's packaged w/a different and fancier label. An example would be that you might not normally consider buying that big jug of TetraMin and may not have looked at the ingredients label on that product in a long time however, you would if they packaged it in a white jug instead of a yellow one and put a fancy 4 color photo glossy label on the jug as opposed to the old school yellow jug w/ brown writing.

You'll occasionally encounter a vendor that doesn't fit squarely in either category. For example, if you run across a vendor that sells fish food and isn't a manufacturer but does sell it directly as a specialty product there's a high likelihood you're not only paying a redundant markup but that the value associated w/what you're purchasing shouldn't be scrutinized too closely. In that category you'll often find that the vendor attempts to obfuscate aspects of the product to avoid objective scrutiny.

If your goal is top quality feed it would be highly unusual to find it as a trade labeled product and in those cases you'll also often see the label on the product reads like an advertisement discussing how well your fish will be if you feed them this stuff instead of what exactly differentiates the product from the great unwashed hoard; they're selling the sizzle and not the steak.
 
There are very few pellets that have both krill and salmon as top level ingredients. This food looks great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom