Best dry food for C/A cichlids? Northfin vs NLS?

[RD.]

thread. I wouldn’t expect your fish to eat Northfin when you’ve been solely feeding them NLS their entire lives

Lol, I’ve fed that fish almost every make of dry food known to mankind. Still do feed several different formulas, from different manufacturers. Northfin is the only food that he has ever flat out refused. To the point of if he even smells it, he goes off his feed entirely for a couple days.

You need to spend more time using the MFK search feature, and less time speaking on a subject that you clearly know very little about. If one stores their dry food in a cool, dry, dark environment, it will typically never go rancid, fat included, fish oil included, until loooooong after the expiry date.

 

[ccichc]

Lol, I’ve fed that fish almost every make of dry food known to mankind. Still do feed several different formulas, from different manufacturers. Northfin is the only food that he has ever flat out refused. To the point of if he even smells it, he goes off his feed entirely for a couple days.

You need to spend more time using the MFK search feature, and less time speaking on a subject that you clearly know very little about. If one stores their dry food in a cool, dry, dark environment, it will typically never go rancid, fat included, fish oil included, until loooooong after the expiry date.

Dry food with many many different ingredients. Sir, you know nothing about oxidization of polys. This topic is stupid to argue about. When oil is in a tin or capsulated in a pill.. yes it can probably last a few months to possibly a year. A plastic container where you open and close the lid multiple times everyday is exposing the oil and food to oxygen. It would be hard to test the rancidity of that product when it smells like dead fish already. But I can promise you it goes bad pretty quick.

Out of the two, Northfin has better ingredients even though they're very similar. Both are good products.
Feeding fresh/frozen would the best IMO dosing with Vitachem.

 

[Fallen_Leaves16]

...I'm a bit confused here. You ask a question, wanting feedback/answers, and then go on to answer your own question and argue with others over their own views of the topic?
Seems somewhat counterintuitive, but then again I'm probably somewhat biased.

Anyways, most of my fish are rather unenthusiastic about Northfin, and seem to prefer NLS in general. Not saying anything against Northfin; I feed it to my fish often and look upon it as a high-quality food, but something about it is just unappetizing, apparently. And I'm not some NLS supremacist or advertiser; I'm just some random fellow that happens to feed a random assortment of fish foods to fish for the sheer fun of it.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there a good number of antioxidants and preservatives added to conventional fish foods that exist mainly to counter the decay/oxidation of PUFAs?

 

[Jexnell]

Those of us that buy in bulk don't feed from the bulk bottle. We fill a smaller jug for daily use and only open the bulk one possibly once a month. Don't make any kind of sense to feed from a 5lb bucket for daily feeding. Goes against the very principle of buying in bulk.

 

[ccichc]

...I'm a bit confused here. You ask a question, wanting feedback/answers, and then go on to answer your own question and argue with others over their own views of the topic?
Seems somewhat counterintuitive, but then again I'm probably somewhat biased.

Anyways, most of my fish are rather unenthusiastic about Northfin, and seem to prefer NLS in general. Not saying anything against Northfin; I feed it to my fish often and look upon it as a high-quality food, but something about it is just unappetizing, apparently. And I'm not some NLS supremacist or advertiser; I'm just some random fellow that happens to feed a random assortment of fish foods to fish for the sheer fun of it.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there a good number of antioxidants and preservatives added to conventional fish foods that exist mainly to counter the decay/oxidation of PUFAs?

Very good question, preservatives would likely help the whole foods like krill, squid, fish etc.. it's hard to say how much of affect it has on certain ingredients. I don't think it would do much to oil as oil doesn't mix well , polys aren't ever paired with any preservatives in general and there might be a reason for it.

I don't want to continue a long debate here, but there are a lot of cheap garbage fish oils out there.. Not pointing fingers but I'd love to know what type NLS is using for mass production.


Fish rejecting Northfin is not a surprise, I reject my broccoli too

 

[RD.]

NF also contains fish oil. So does Omega, so does Hikari, etc-etc. Any brand of commercial fish food that contain raw ingredients derived from fish products. Not sure what part of this you aren’t grasping? The oil, becomes part of the extrusion process, as the fish slurry gets cooked into pellets, flakes, etc. My Omega Veggie Rounds, that my Midas pounds back like a fat kid eating M&M’s, contain herring oil. It’s listed separately on the ingredient list.

Absolutely nothing wrong with these dry foods containing oil derived from seafood, most fish require those fatty acids for survival. Some manufacturers may list those fats separately, some may choose to only list the whole food on their ingredient list. Either way they all have oil in them. I understand more than you think. Go visit a commercial manufacturing facility, then come back and tell me how an inclusion rate of 5% oil turns rancid overnight in pet food. Cheap farm feed back in the day would be dripping oil, seed oil, that would indeed sometimes go bad when sitting in an uncooled building. Todays pet foods are a different story, and are tested over time, and various exposure elements such as heat/humidity/light and oxygen to ensure the safety and nutrient levels of their various products. Most commercial fish foods manufactured for the pet trade have a shelf life of 2-3 yrs. How long they retain their nutrient levels is up to the consumer.

Several decades into this hobby, and I have never once experienced rancid fat, in a commercial fish food destined for the pet trade. And trust me, rancid fat makes fish meal smell like baby’s breath in comparison. The pet food industry is a multi billion $$$$ industry, and they all use independent as well as in house labs to constantly check quality control during, and after the food is made. Fish, dog, cat, whatever. Ditto to the larger trout/salmon\catfish farm feed suppliers, such as Skretting.

Innovation - Skretting

Innovation at Skretting is fully focused on achieving the best economics for our clients throughout the production cycle.

www.skretting.com

Call them up, maybe they can explain to you how fish oil is utilized in high quality feed.

 

[ccichc]

NF also contains fish oil. So does Omega, so does Hikari, etc-etc. Any brand of commercial fish food that contain raw ingredients derived from fish products. Not sure what part of this you aren’t grasping? The oil, becomes part of the extrusion process, as the fish slurry gets cooked into pellets, flakes, etc. My Omega Veggie Rounds, that my Midas pounds back like a fat kid eating M&M’s, contain herring oil. It’s listed separately on the ingredient list.

Absolutely nothing wrong with these dry foods containing oil derived from seafood, most fish require those fatty acids for survival. Some manufacturers may list those fats separately, some may choose to only list the whole food on their ingredient list. Either way they all have oil in them. I understand more than you think. Go visit a commercial manufacturing facility, then come back and tell me how an inclusion rate of 5% oil turns rancid overnight in pet food. Cheap farm feed back in the day would be dripping oil, seed oil, that would indeed sometimes go bad when sitting in an uncooled building. Todays pet foods are a different story, and are tested over time, and various exposure elements such as heat/humidity/light and oxygen to ensure the safety and nutrient levels of their various products. Most commercial fish foods manufactured for the pet trade have a shelf life of 2-3 yrs. How long they retain their nutrient levels is up to the consumer.

Several decades into this hobby, and I have never once experienced rancid fat, in a commercial fish food destined for the pet trade. And trust me, rancid fat makes fish meal smell like baby’s breath in comparison. The pet food industry is a multi billion $$$$ industry, and they all use independent as well as in house labs to constantly check quality control during, and after the food is made. Fish, dog, cat, whatever. Ditto to the larger trout/salmon\catfish farm feed suppliers, such as Skretting.

Innovation - Skretting

Innovation at Skretting is fully focused on achieving the best economics for our clients throughout the production cycle.

www.skretting.com

Call them up, maybe they can explain to you how fish oil is utilized in high quality feed.

Thanks for this informative post. I see with Northfin they list it as High DHA Whole herring meal which explains the extrusion process you stated, not fish oil. You’re probably right in the sense Northfin uses fish oil and doesn’t state it in the ingredients. I guess I do appreciate the honesty on NLS part, my main question would be whether or not they’re adding a fish oil verse oil that is naturally in the fish meal they process.