Yes, they're more dense. You need to feed a pellet size they can swallow easily. It's going to take a bit for them to adjust. It helps if they're hungry...
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Switching from Hikari to NLS... what would you recommend?
- Thread starter Psylant
- Start date
Yes, they're more dense. You need to feed a pellet size they can swallow easily. It's going to take a bit for them to adjust. It helps if they're hungry...
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I'm a big fan of hikari. Fantastic brand. Food alone doesnt give fish the best possible color, but it's definately a factor in it.
I wont be switching from hikari
~~ loyal customer +1
I wont be switching from hikari
~~ loyal customer +1
I feed NLS to most my fish. However, I've found that some just don't like it. I have a flowerhorn that I've raised on NLS. He is small for his age because he would never eat very many pellets - even when fasted. He would chew any size pellet I gave him, spewing most of it out his gills. My son had a bag of Hikari Cichlid Gold, so I gave it a try. He went nuts for it! Now that he is eating more, maybe he'll put on some size.
As hard as I have tried, I simply could no longer resist. lol
Using that type of logic feeding Kibbles & Bits to a dog, would be the same as feeding a premium dry food such as Orijen. Say what?
To suggest that all fish foods are equal in nutrient value (or even close) is ludicrous.
Even within the Hikari line you will find foods that differ in nutrient quality, and price. As an example, Hikari Bio-Gold is approx twice the price as Hikari Gold? Why do you think that might be? Ditto to their Carnivore & Massivore formulas, which in Canada cost twice as much (or more) compared to NLS.
I'm guessing that you haven't heard of NLS, because you just recently moved from Europe to North America, and spend most of your time at the local Petland. There's your first mistake. lol
NLS (New Life Spectrum) is found in every quality fish store in Calgary. I know that, because I supply them all, and have been for several years. I used to supply all the Petlands in Western Canada as well, until they priced themselves right out of the market.
See post above. In the GTA you can buy 5lb's of NLS, for less than you can buy 2.2 pounds of Hikari Carnivore or Massivore. Not worth the money? Yeah sure, ok.
Yes NLS is a dense/hard food, that density helps lock in the nutrients by reducing nutrient leaching into ones tank water, and due to the low inclusion rate of starch it doesn't soften up within seconds as some foods do. Having said that, over the past decade I can count on one hand (with 3 fingers & a thumb leftover ) how many fish I have not been able to successfuly train to eat NLS. And that one fish was a juvenile Mbu puffer, which are next to impossible to get on to any type of dry food. Ironically a friend of mine owns a much larger Mbu puffer that has been eating the 10mm NLS for a year or two now.
muscle - I've trained juvie FH's that were imported from Thailand that had been raised exclusively on blood worms. These fish had never seen a pellet in their life, and within 2 weeks all of them were eating NLS like it was their last meal. I'm not saying that it isn't possible to run into a very stubborn fish, that simply refuses to eat the food, but it's an extremely rare thing. In those very rare cases, even when witholding all food for several days doesn't work - I presoak the pellets in blood worm juice, which usually triggers an instant feed response. The pellets are now also softer, and more palatable to most fish, and after a few days of gorging on those presoaked pellets I begin gradually soaking them less & less, until eventually they are eating the pellets right out of the container. If your FH is now eagerly eating the Cichlid Gold, then I guess your problem is solved.
As I've already suggested to the OP via PM, the 2mm would be a good size to trial on his fish. Some might take the 3mm, some might spend more time chewing than swallowing. Either way, good luck with the food, hope it works out for you.
Using that type of logic feeding Kibbles & Bits to a dog, would be the same as feeding a premium dry food such as Orijen. Say what?
To suggest that all fish foods are equal in nutrient value (or even close) is ludicrous.
Even within the Hikari line you will find foods that differ in nutrient quality, and price. As an example, Hikari Bio-Gold is approx twice the price as Hikari Gold? Why do you think that might be? Ditto to their Carnivore & Massivore formulas, which in Canada cost twice as much (or more) compared to NLS.
I'm guessing that you haven't heard of NLS, because you just recently moved from Europe to North America, and spend most of your time at the local Petland. There's your first mistake. lol
NLS (New Life Spectrum) is found in every quality fish store in Calgary. I know that, because I supply them all, and have been for several years. I used to supply all the Petlands in Western Canada as well, until they priced themselves right out of the market.
See post above. In the GTA you can buy 5lb's of NLS, for less than you can buy 2.2 pounds of Hikari Carnivore or Massivore. Not worth the money? Yeah sure, ok.
Yes NLS is a dense/hard food, that density helps lock in the nutrients by reducing nutrient leaching into ones tank water, and due to the low inclusion rate of starch it doesn't soften up within seconds as some foods do. Having said that, over the past decade I can count on one hand (with 3 fingers & a thumb leftover ) how many fish I have not been able to successfuly train to eat NLS. And that one fish was a juvenile Mbu puffer, which are next to impossible to get on to any type of dry food. Ironically a friend of mine owns a much larger Mbu puffer that has been eating the 10mm NLS for a year or two now.
muscle - I've trained juvie FH's that were imported from Thailand that had been raised exclusively on blood worms. These fish had never seen a pellet in their life, and within 2 weeks all of them were eating NLS like it was their last meal. I'm not saying that it isn't possible to run into a very stubborn fish, that simply refuses to eat the food, but it's an extremely rare thing. In those very rare cases, even when witholding all food for several days doesn't work - I presoak the pellets in blood worm juice, which usually triggers an instant feed response. The pellets are now also softer, and more palatable to most fish, and after a few days of gorging on those presoaked pellets I begin gradually soaking them less & less, until eventually they are eating the pellets right out of the container. If your FH is now eagerly eating the Cichlid Gold, then I guess your problem is solved.
As I've already suggested to the OP via PM, the 2mm would be a good size to trial on his fish. Some might take the 3mm, some might spend more time chewing than swallowing. Either way, good luck with the food, hope it works out for you.
Funny cause hikari is more expensive, well the bio gold. I buy 5 lb bucket of nls for around 50 bucks with shipping, and i also use hikari bio gold 35 bucks for 2.2 lb and hikari biogold sinkin carnivore 50 for 2.2, i like to use freeze dried earth worms also i get 1 lb 20
The cheap hikari gold is crapp, bio gold is good, and carnivore or massivore are better all depends on your needs protien vs carotine vs spirulina
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The cheap hikari gold is crapp, bio gold is good, and carnivore or massivore are better all depends on your needs protien vs carotine vs spirulina
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I agree quality food make a huge differance as fish cannot produce red color naturally. You need carotines to add vibrant reds, spirulina helps blues n greens, even amazing fish can become more vibrant with the right combo of food. All high end expensive flowerhorn food has high concentration of astanaxin ( excuse my spelling) red algie, i only mention fh food cause of the extreme cost for low quantity but extremely high carotine quantity, you can buy this red algie and add it to your food instead of buying the high cost stuff. Krill hass carotines as well.
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Well my fish prefer the highly protein stuffed black printer paper. It may have more fat but carnivorous fish love it!
RD,
I haven't given up on him eating NLS. I have too much of it!
Though I do wonder why NLS doesn't make a floating cichlid formula. I honestly think that is what this FH likes about the Cichlid Gold.
Now another thing this dummy likes is algae wafers. I recently added a pleco to his tank. I can add algae wafers to his tank at 4am and find him the next morning with a huge stomach. When this happens he obviously won't eat pellets because he's stuffed.
RD,
I haven't given up on him eating NLS. I have too much of it!
Though I do wonder why NLS doesn't make a floating cichlid formula. I honestly think that is what this FH likes about the Cichlid Gold.
Now another thing this dummy likes is algae wafers. I recently added a pleco to his tank. I can add algae wafers to his tank at 4am and find him the next morning with a huge stomach. When this happens he obviously won't eat pellets because he's stuffed.
I feed 4.5mm floating formula to a pair of large cichlids.
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