What are some of your go to pellet foods?

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RD. said:
Cobalt?

Ingredients such as Whole Corn, and Soybean Meal, aren't exactly primo ingredients. Those are ingredients that I expect to see in farm feed, not foods described as high quality, or "best". I wouldn't even give this brand an honorable mention.
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The two pellets I mentioned are the ones I'm talking about, the first 11 ingredients in the one is PRAWNS, DRIED SPIRULINA ALGAE, DRIED KELP, DRIED SEAWEED, WHOLE CORN, JUMBO SQUID MEAL, WHOLE ANCHOVY, WHOLE SARDINE, WHOLE SCAD, WHOLE GARLIC, WHOLE THREE SPOT SWIMMING CRAB. The only one I don't like in that is whole corn. The other one has the first 5 ingredients being PRAWNS, DRIED SPIRULINA ALGAE, JUMBO SQUID MEAL, DRIED KELP, DRIED SEAWEED. These are some pretty good ingredients if you ask me (minus the whole corn). One of the ingredients in new life spectrum pellets is whole wheat flour, that doesn't sound like a very good fish food ingredient. Northfin has wheat flour too, but it also has a bunch of "meals" like herring meal, sardine meal, krill meal, etc. Just because it has one or two ingredients that aren't ideal doesn't make it a bad food.


PYRU said:
Where'd this list come from? Some YouTuber?

Personally for me I like omega one which I think is better than cobalt.
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No, I looked at good fish foods I use/d and shared them. The Omega One Small Cichlid Pellet has the 3rd ingredient as wheat germ and the 4th ingredient as wheat flour, which are the main ingredients, also containing wheat gluten as the 9th ingredient. Omega ones sinking goldfish pellet has wheat germ and wheat flour as the 3rd and 4th ingredient, as does almost all their pellets, it contains those as the MAIN INGREDIENTS, not just some of the things they added in there. The ingredients that aren't good in the cobalt pellets are the 5th and 12th ingredients, so those unhealthy ingredients are higher in the omega one pellets than the cobalt pellets (or atleast the ones I recommended).

About the repashy super food, yes it contains a lot of water in it. But that doesn't make it "bad" or "unhealthy", are you going to call frozen food bad because it contains more water than repashy super food does? No, because that's stupid, calling it unhealthy just because it has a lot of water is simply not true. I agree that you shouldn't ONLY feed repashy, but you should mix it in with your fish's diet. I mix it in with all of my fish's diets, just like you should mix in frozen and pellet/flake food. Note that you can also change the water content by adding less or more water. I add in very little water so instead of the mix having a cake batter like consistency, it has more of a doughy consistency. You can also dehydrate the repashy super food and make your own pellets out of it.
 
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Rocksor said:
With 1mm NLS pellets, I put in a small cup and let the cup fill up with tank water to cause most of it to sink (bottom of the cup facing upwards at 45 degree angle), with lots of surface agitation causing the rest to sink. The new formula has improved ingredient(s) but it has a higher tendency to float for a bit, especially when you get to smaller pellets.
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Theres an idea. I was thinking about filling a tea strainer with it, submerging it a couple seconds before letting it in.
 
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TheReefer TheReefer - wheat flour has been utilized successfully as a binding agent in fish food for decades, including in foods designed for cold water carnivorous species. With the addition of more algae in the current NLS formulas, there is less wheat than there has ever been. There is a reason why less & less fish food manufacturers use ingredients such as CORN, and SOYBEAN.

Corn is a lower cost, lower quality ingredient, as is soybean meal. Soybean meal was in the second Cobalt formula that you listed, but let's take a closer look at the one you posted. Ultra Predator, which Cobalt states "highlights meat proteins and gut contents of fish prey." Really, does it? Out of the top 5 ingredients listed by dry weight, only one is fish based (prawns) the next 4 are all plant matter, one being CORN. Exactly how does that in any way mimic what a predator would consume in the wild? How much algae, kelp, seaweed, and CORN does a predatory species require in captivity? How much plant matter can most predatory species digest, assimilate, and utilize? Think about it. Instead of just reading the crude protein level actually consider the amino acid content of that protein, and their source. Predatory species eat fish, with some gut content, not the other way around.

I agree about Omega, only because they dumbed down their raw ingredients approx. a year ago. Their shrimp pellets used to be good, I used them, not any more. I know others here that have said the same. They also noticed the change. Perhaps trucking "fresh fish from Alaska", to their facilities in Ohio became too costly? Not sure, don't care. They lost me as a customer.

I never said that Repashy was "bad", or "unhealthy", your words, not mine. Repashy is no different than crushing up pellets into very fine particles, and adding a binder, along with a LOT of water. I have said the same thing since this food was released, and I have said the same thing when NLS came out with their gel formula. These types of food are mostly comprised of a non nutrient (water) and add zero value to feeding any fish that is already eating, pellets. The main issue being, that in order for a fish to reach satiation levels, and the nutrients required, you have to feed a LOT more than you would a nutrient dense food, such as a quality pellet.

This is from 2012, back when I was still in the fish food business. I have been out of the food game for several yrs, and still stand behind every single comment that I made in this past discussion. Some people got it, others apparently not so much. The owner never did answer my question, which was ........ please post a nutrient analysis based on the finished product, as in once your dry powder has been reconstituted with an additional 75% water?


Repashy Superfood (for cichlids)?

I came across this product on Ted Judy's YouTube channel. I've always found his videos extremely informative and he is an excellent hobbyist but i can't say I've ever seen him endorse a product like this before. Repashy is a gelatin based food which comes in powder form. As you will see in Ted's...
www.monsterfishkeepers.com www.monsterfishkeepers.com
 
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RD. said:
TheReefer TheReefer - wheat flour has been utilized successfully as a binding agent in fish food for decades, including in foods designed for cold water carnivorous species. With the addition of more algae in the current NLS formulas, there is less wheat than there has ever been. There is a reason why less & less fish food manufacturers use ingredients such as CORN, and SOYBEAN.

Corn is a lower cost, lower quality ingredient, as is soybean meal. Soybean meal was in the second Cobalt formula that you listed, but let's take a closer look at the one you posted. Ultra Predator, which Cobalt states "highlights meat proteins and gut contents of fish prey." Really, does it? Out of the top 5 ingredients listed by dry weight, only one is fish based (prawns) the next 4 are all plant matter, one being CORN. Exactly how does that in any way mimic what a predator would consume in the wild? How much algae, kelp, seaweed, and CORN does a predatory species require in captivity? How much plant matter can most predatory species digest, assimilate, and utilize? Think about it. Instead of just reading the crude protein level actually consider the amino acid content of that protein, and their source. Predatory species eat fish, with some gut content, not the other way around.

I agree about Omega, only because they dumbed down their raw ingredients approx. a year ago. Their shrimp pellets used to be good, I used them, not any more. I know others here that have said the same. They also noticed the change. Perhaps trucking "fresh fish from Alaska", to their facilities in Ohio became too costly? Not sure, don't care. They lost me as a customer.

I never said that Repashy was "bad", or "unhealthy", your words, not mine. Repashy is no different than crushing up pellets into very fine particles, and adding a binder, along with a LOT of water. I have said the same thing since this food was released, and I have said the same thing when NLS came out with their gel formula. These types of food are mostly comprised of a non nutrient (water) and add zero value to feeding any fish that is already eating, pellets. The main issue being, that in order for a fish to reach satiation levels, and the nutrients required, you have to feed a LOT more than you would a nutrient dense food, such as a quality pellet.

This is from 2012, back when I was still in the fish food business. I have been out of the food game for several yrs, and still stand behind every single comment that I made in this past discussion. Some people got it, others apparently not so much. The owner never did answer my question, which was ........ please post a nutrient analysis based on the finished product, as in once your dry powder has been reconstituted with an additional 75% water?


Repashy Superfood (for cichlids)?

I came across this product on Ted Judy's YouTube channel. I've always found his videos extremely informative and he is an excellent hobbyist but i can't say I've ever seen him endorse a product like this before. Repashy is a gelatin based food which comes in powder form. As you will see in Ted's...
www.monsterfishkeepers.com www.monsterfishkeepers.com
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Ok, first off what is a fish that a predator will eat going to eat? Probably a mix of foods, like small invertebrates and plant matter. You have the plant matter in there, you have prawns, you have squid meal, and you have sardine and anchovy and scad fillets (they should use the whole fish, but not a big deal), and crab.

About the repashy, yes, that was my bad. You said the "problem", and I assumed you meant it was bad/unhealthy, that was my bad. But you are right in that the fish will need to eat more of a less nutrient dense food to equal eating a nutrient dense food (like pellets). The reason I don't use pellets as much as I do frozen and why I recommend others do the same is because pellets, though nutrient dense, don't have a lot of "food matter" if you will, what would fill up a fish more, a silverside or the NUTRIENT equivalent of pellets (I heard somewhere that 1 pellet equals like 5 minnows or something like that, don't quote me on it though). A better way of describing it would be what would fill up a person more, a few multi-vitamins mixed in with chunks of fruits, vegetables, and meat or eating a bunch of fruits, vegetables, meats, nuts, etc. to get the same amount of nutrients? I feed more frozen food than I do pellet food for that reason, it fills the fish up more.


I'd like to ask you something though, what makes repashy and frozen food any different? They are both largely water, only difference is repashy is a lot more nutrient dense than frozen food.
 
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Before we moved I threw out a 2000g tub of nls thereA, personally dont care for nls anymore. Switched over to omega one and northfin for when i do feed pellets
 
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