John et al ....... please understand that the person who is making these claims about NLS, and their ingredients, is a new player on the food circuit and is a direct competitor with New Life. NFC owns Northfin, he has no idea what New Life uses in their formulations, or at what levels, other than what he sees on the labels. Quite frankly, most of what NFC has posted on MFK since joining is just down right idiotic, and a slam against a very successful manufacturer who paved the road long before him.
Take a close look at the krill powder that I posted, that is the #1 ingredient in NLS. What color is it? That doesn't mean that the pellets are orange, or that a fishes waste is that color when eating NLS, because it isn't. NLS pellets are brown, with a slight tinge of orange to them, same as the fishes waste. Krill meal is orange, fish meal is brown, mix them together and what do you have?
Do not rush thinking that you will get big benefit of vitamin A from carotene, after coking and extruding process not much left in there to ply big role this is why additional vitamin mixes are added to compensate the loss. And why do you need to use carotene as antioxidant when one of the mine ingredients Whole krill have greatest amounts of its own carotenoids (ASTAXANTHINE) which acts as natural antioxidant.
"Amino acids, several vitamins, and inorganic nutrients are relatively stable to heat, moisture, and oxidation that occur under normal processing and storage conditions. Some of the vitamins are subject to some loss, however, and should be used in excess of the requirement." (NRC Nutrient Requirements of Fish 1993) While not the be all to end all, the NRC is pretty much the bible for all fish food manufacturers.
Certainly some nutrients are lost during the extrusion process, but to state:
after coking and extruding process not much left in there to ply big role
is simply based on ignorance. (see NRC statement above)
To state what you have, Darius, makes about as much sense as stating that most of the nutrients in your whole krill are lost when those krill are processed into krill meal.
Vitamin premixes are used to balance out the nutrient load, and to ensure as much
bioavailability to the fish as possible. This is an area that has been largely unstudied in ornamental species of fish, and anyone who knows anything should know that. Not all species of fish assimilate all nutrients the same way, and not all fish require the exact same nutrient load, or the exact same amount of food per feeding. This isn't an exact science, and it never will be.
Just because whole krill contains astaxanthin doesn't mean that a manufacturer should just stop there. An educated and well informed manufacturer with decades of experience in this area will also know that the astaxanthin level found in whole krill is but a fraction of what is found in microalgae such as Haematococcus pluvialis. Keeping potential (unknown) bioavailabilty factors in mind a smart manufacturer will cover more than just one base when it comes to supplying ALL of the various nutrients. Some might cover 7 or 8 bases, for one single component.
Butter with butter don't make any sense to me
Which just goes to show how much you have to learn about the formulating of fish food, and the dietary requirements of the ornamental species of fish that you are feeding that food to.
BTW - I find it rather pathetic and sad that the owner of another fish food company would attempt to slam a direct competitor on a public forum. I've been in this hobby a long time, and I can't say that I have ever seen such behaviour from a manufacturer of pet food.
. There is a room for all formulations and brands in the marked ether they are bad or good as they can be.