Yet another "food" thread

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I don't believe in branding your fish, i.e only fed on Hikrai, NLS, Omega, ect.. If you don't know which one to go with; feed a varied diet of all three, with whatever one you personally think is the best one as the main staple. Just my 2 cents.
 
People like to complicate their lifes. Since I switched to NLS, my fish became stronger, healthier, more colorful and active. If you want to play safe, just feed NLS.
 
I JUST asked this question. I asked between Hikari and omega. U got lots of answers, I only got a few. I asked cause of financial issues Omega looked cheaper than Hikari, I asked about quality between the 2 as well. But instead of switching, I sacrificed my morning coffee for my fish. I've used Hikari in all my fish keeping so my opinion is kinda useless. But, my Hikari experience: my fish are all happy, colorful and my female oscar has very full fins and bright colors(she's been fed cichlid gold all her life) compared to my rescued oscar who was fed lots of other stuff including omega. I got some omega from a friend to try, I asked people about it but decided not to continue because of the result on my rescue oscar, but my fish didn't like them anyways. So i kept Hikari, my fish obsess over it, they see the bag and freak out, and it makes them look great. My adult pleco also loves his Hikari wafers. As soon as i drop them in, he's on a vigorous hunt for the wafer. Well, that's my 5 cents:D But, all you can do is get some educated information, and chose for yourself. I chose Hikari, lots of other people choose other brands and they're fish looks nice too. But also, your fish may not even like what you choose! My turtle starved herself when we tried a cheaper brand. As soon as we put in the old food, gobbled it right up. So, keep that in mind too. But, all my creatures are weird, so maybe thats just a unique problem. We all want whats best for our fish!:headbang2
 
I JUST asked this question. I asked between Hikari and omega. U got lots of answers, I only got a few. I asked cause of financial issues Omega looked cheaper than Hikari, I asked about quality between the 2 as well. But instead of switching, I sacrificed my morning coffee for my fish. I've used Hikari in all my fish keeping so my opinion is kinda useless. But, my Hikari experience: my fish are all happy, colorful and my female oscar has very full fins and bright colors(she's been fed cichlid gold all her life) compared to my rescued oscar who was fed lots of other stuff including omega. I got some omega from a friend to try, I asked people about it but decided not to continue because of the result on my rescue oscar, but my fish didn't like them anyways. So i kept Hikari, my fish obsess over it, they see the bag and freak out, and it makes them look great. My adult pleco also loves his Hikari wafers. As soon as i drop them in, he's on a vigorous hunt for the wafer. Well, that's my 5 cents:D But, all you can do is get some educated information, and chose for yourself. I chose Hikari, lots of other people choose other brands and they're fish looks nice too. But also, your fish may not even like what you choose! My turtle starved herself when we tried a cheaper brand. As soon as we put in the old food, gobbled it right up. So, keep that in mind too. But, all my creatures are weird, so maybe thats just a unique problem. We all want whats best for our fish!:headbang2

Valid points, but when you say that they don't always like what you pick for them; which is sometimes true, the true possibility is that they are not accustomed to eating what you are trying to feed them. It's probably different in the case of your turtle, but most fish will not starve themselves. I have kept piranha in the past that once refused to eat anything dry based, 1-3 months later I had them on NLS & Hikari's massivores. Please don't say something like "well, piranhas are veracious eaters" because I can tell you from experience that simply isn't true, especially those of the genus serrasalmus. My point being people pick food based on nutrition facts as mentioned above, not on how good it must taste. i.e a parent will not buy their child a lollypop every time he or she is hungry simply because the parent knows their child will eat it. Nothing personal, I'm just trying to validate my opinion.
 
Ur right, u shouldn't buy food on just taste. Totally agree with you. But since their wasn't a massive differance in heath quality. I wasn't really concerned. If my beardie only liked wax worms, too bad. He needs to eat something healthy and balanced. He'll eat his veggies, fruit, silkworms and his little pellets. Or, he'll get fat, and be all around unhealthy and die an early death. If he doesn't like it. Too bad, he'll eventually eat. I should have clearified that all of the food i've tried to switch anyone to was more like a number two. So with the turtle. It was wardley compared to reptomin, or for the fish, hikari or omega one. It wasn't a massive differance in healthlyness, between the two brands. So it was more like a high quality steak, compared to a kobe steak. It wasn't like choosing a chocolate cake over a salad. That'd just b silly. Anyways. Yes, i should've clearified. Don't buy just based on taste. Nutrition is most important when choosing food.
 
Ur right, u shouldn't buy food on just taste. Totally agree with you. But since their wasn't a massive differance in heath quality. I wasn't really concerned. If my beardie only liked wax worms, too bad. He needs to eat something healthy and balanced. He'll eat his veggies, fruit, silkworms and his little pellets. Or, he'll get fat, and be all around unhealthy and die an early death. If he doesn't like it. Too bad, he'll eventually eat. I should have clearified that all of the food i've tried to switch anyone to was more like a number two. So with the turtle. It was wardley compared to reptomin, or for the fish, hikari or omega one. It wasn't a massive differance in healthlyness, between the two brands. So it was more like a high quality steak, compared to a kobe steak. It wasn't like choosing a chocolate cake over a salad. That'd just b silly. Anyways. Yes, i should've clearified. Don't buy just based on taste. Nutrition is most important when choosing food.

Glad to hear that. BTW, Kobe sounds/looks soooo good :drool:, but I don't thin I could ever really dish out that much $ for a steak.. Sorry O.P I know.. off topic.
 
NLS and Hikari tend to be more available in lfs than Omega because many of the middle-men wholesalers stock NLS and Hikari. Many lfs have to order Omega directly, which means a large order to meet a quota.

If a LFS can't find a distributor for Omega in the USA they can't be looking very hard.

Funny enough the owner of Omega, Dennis Crews, at one time stated that he would never sell out the mom & pop stores that helped build his business, by doing business with the large chains. That changed the first time a large chain approached him. lol

Below is a read on Omega that some here may find intersting. Make sure to read post #16, and when reading that keep in mind that according to AAFCO; Ingredients must be listed in order of predominance by weight, on an "as formulated basis". The ingredient that makes up the highest percentage of the total weight as it goes into the product is listed first.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?397026-Omega-One-vs-NLS

Which is why I mentioned "wet weight" in that comment. The bottom line is that if a manufacturer wants to manipulate an ingredient list to make their brand appear more favourable to the general public, it's not that difficult to do.
 
My opinion on Omega VS NLS... comparing the two, omega has too much fat, too much ash, artificial colors, and the primary protein source isn't as good as the krill in NLS. I will give one thing to omega, they are amazing marketers.
Let's be clear, there's plenty of worse food on the market than omega one. But comparing it to NLS, it falls short.

Thanks for this...Omega's adds and ingredient list have always made me wonder...my fish love the nls, grow fast, and look good...are always healthy, but I always wondered about omega's stuff.

RD. - Thanks AGAIN...this is really shocking. (Well not really...and who knows what goes into NLS...but still a very interesting read.)
 
Hey Fleshy, no problem, always glad to add my 2 cents worth to these types of discussions.
 
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