YFS brand food compared to NLS & Northfin food

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JackEmerson said:
Awesome. Happy to hear you found a good staple pellet. It seems like we have both been in the hobby for about the same amount of time (about a year).

I am still narrowing down my staple diet for my cichlids. Currently I feed a mix of NLS, NF , xtreme, omega, YFS, and Ron’s. But this diversity of pellets is not sustainable and I am in the process of picking one or two pellets and being done with it.
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Thank you very much JackEmerson JackEmerson , I am too!

Yes very close in time! I am a little over a year into keeping Mbuna, but I have had a few planted community tanks over the last few years. When I moved across the state I sold my planted tanks and was out of the hobby for a year and then I could no longer fight the urge to get back into it and well, now I'm deeper (and more in love) with the hobby than ever!

I would definitely say based on all the facts presented by many contributors on this forum and my mbuna's initial reaction to the food I will be sticking exclusively with NLS!

I currently have a 40G Breeder with Saulosi colony at the moment that are breeding like crazy, and am putting the finishing touches on my completely over engineered 75 Gallon Mbuna tank (I know KISS method works wonders, but hey if an extra piece of equipment makes you happy then I say go for it).

My new 75 gallon build has a Fluval FX6, Fluval 407, Fluval UVC Inline Clarifier, 2 aquaclear 110's, Fluval aquasky 2.0, 3d Background and nearly 100 LBS of red lava rock. I purchased a sleek looking stand and overengineered that as well reinforcing it with 2x4's (could probably hold the weight of a small car now lol). I initially purchased more fish for this build over a month ago from an online vendor I hadnt tried before. Had them in quarantine and the fish came with a slew of nasty internal parasites, and what appeared to be some fungal infection. Needless to say after dosing well over $100's of dollars of meds following advice from the owner of my LFS and this forum over the course of a month to no avail I decided to reach out to the seller and shipped them back to them for a full refund.

I now have an order from imperial tropicals coming in this week (hands down the best source for fish online in my experience, I purchased many fish from them for my planted tanks in the past and the saulosi I currently have came from them and they have all been of the upmost quality) for Maingano, Rusty, and Acei, and I am going to put some of my Saulosi in the 75 as well. Very excited for this if you cant tell by message above lol!

What cichlids are you keeping at the moment?
 
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NLS or Northfin. 2 great foods. Readily available in many variants for different types of fish. I see no reason to try potentially substandard different brands when NLS & Northfin are readily available.
 
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aussieman57 said:
NLS or Northfin. 2 great foods. Readily available in many variants for different types of fish. I see no reason to try potentially substandard different brands when NLS & Northfin are readily available.
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I tend to agree, with the exception of those who have larger systems/fish rooms where bulk ordering of commercial aquaculture feeds suits their needs better. Not everyone can afford to feed the “best”, and some folks are set firmly in their ways with specific brand loyalty, which is fine too.
 
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RD. said:
I tend to agree, with the exception of those who have larger systems/fish rooms where bulk ordering of commercial aquaculture feeds suits their needs better. Not everyone can afford to feed the “best”, and some folks are set firmly in their ways with specific brand loyalty, which is fine too.
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That ^ is a definite "thing" for many folks. I also think...or perhaps I am merely rationalizing my cheapness :)...that it's worthwhile to feed an assortment of foods to prevent the fixation that some fish seem to develop with a certain food that is fed to the exclusion of all others. I've noticed it a few times with a few fish over the years; feed nothing but X food, and then when X food runs out or is otherwise unavailable, the fish need to be coaxed onto a substitute. It's never been a huge problem, but feeding a variety of foods eliminates it altogether.
 
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Just yanking your chain amigo, lol. In this case, mbuna are typically non fussy eaters, they have been known to eat rhino turds in the wild - but my experience has been that some species/individual fish can indeed become picky eaters, so with those species/individuals feeding more than 1 brand or formula can definitely be a good idea.
 
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Yeah, that was one of the reasons that I gave up on African cichlids many years ago. I had them on an exclusive diet of frozen Hikari Black Rhino turds; when Hikari quietly switched to the cheaper White Rhino turds...remember the great Rhino Turd Scandal back in '90 or '91?... I almost lost a bunch of fish.

Nowadays, I just feed them any old s**t...:)
 
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cichliduser said:
What cichlids are you keeping at the moment?
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I have kept community tanks(neons, guppies, etc) on and off for most of my adult life, but got into cichlids a little over a year ago. I have a pretty basic setup: TopFin 55 gallon kit, which I got for quite a deal at PetSmart 2 black Fridays ago. Cichlids are of the "assorted" variety.; I overcrowd to avoid aggression and so far no major issues: yellow labs, yellow fin blue aceis, a few zebras, a venutus, a bumble bee, and some random peacocks. I also have a juvenile Frontasa in a grow out tank. Most of my fish are of the PetSmart quality, though a few have been purchased through online breeders.

RD. said:
some folks are set firmly in their ways with specific brand loyalty, which is fine too.
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Yep, that sounds like me. I seem to have (illogical) brand loyalty to YFS. This loyalty started when I first got cichlids, and for some reason, this was one of the few brands my new fish would eat. So, I keep YFS in the mix and hold it in high regard (perhaps irrationally) despite it not being as high of quality as NLS and NF.

All that said, with my YFS loyalty, I just put in an order for their WonderWorms mini sticks. Here are the first 5 ingredients along with the analysis. Unless they are being tricky with their ingredients, this seems like high quality stuff.
jjohnwm said:
or perhaps I am merely rationalizing my cheapness
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Ha. perhaps that is why I still buy YFS, I am super cheap and still has some degree of quality. That and I just became a father 4 weeks ago and most of my money is now quickly disappearing. YFS is looking better and better :)
 
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JackEmerson said:
I have kept community tanks(neons, guppies, etc) on and off for most of my adult life, but got into cichlids a little over a year ago. I have a pretty basic setup: TopFin 55 gallon kit, which I got for quite a deal at PetSmart 2 black Fridays ago. Cichlids are of the "assorted" variety.; I overcrowd to avoid aggression and so far no major issues: yellow labs, yellow fin blue aceis, a few zebras, a venutus, a bumble bee, and some random peacocks. I also have a juvenile Frontasa in a grow out tank. Most of my fish are of the PetSmart quality, though a few have been purchased through online breeders.



Yep, that sounds like me. I seem to have (illogical) brand loyalty to YFS. This loyalty started when I first got cichlids, and for some reason, this was one of the few brands my new fish would eat. So, I keep YFS in the mix and hold it in high regard (perhaps irrationally) despite it not being as high of quality as NLS and NF.

All that said, with my YFS loyalty, I just put in an order for their WonderWorms mini sticks. Here are the first 5 ingredients along with the analysis. Unless they are being tricky with their ingredients, this seems like high quality stuff.

Ha. perhaps that is why I still buy YFS, I am super cheap and still has some degree of quality. That and I just became a father 4 weeks ago and most of my money is now quickly disappearing. YFS is looking better and better :)
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I totally feel the same way about YFS. The prices and customer service are top notch. Bill, the owner, has been so helpful with various items ive needed shipping them expedited at no extra charge etc and offers advice promptly when asked.

However after learning what I have about non aquatic ingredients, until they offer a Mbuna formula that has all aquatic based ingredients I unfortunately will no longer be using their food. That being said though everything else I need I will purchase from them (seriously their prices on everything are incredibly fair), and as a small business owner myself I love supporting other great small businesses I come across.
 
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