Best food for Red Texas?

[Flowerhorn Supply]

Once again....I am not claiming that Scarlets (or any other food) is the best, has the best ingredients, or is the most nutritious. OP asked for recommendations for food that would increase color and pearl which Scarlets Dark Rise and Endless Red do a great job of.

Astaxanthin does appear to be the only red color enhancing ingredient, but just because two different foods has it, does not mean they are equal as the amount of the ingredient can vary greatly.

I agree with you that as hobbyists we can not detect everything that is going on with our fish. But let me ask you this......if my fish live long, seemingly healthy lives (which they do), and your fish live long, seemingly healthy lives, what's the difference?

I am not claiming that anyone "needs" both staple foods and grooming foods. There are people that feed nothing but NLS, there are those that feed nothing but foods marketed for Flowerhorn, and there are those who don't feed pellets at all. I am am not trying to push the way I do things on anyone. All I have done is offer a recommendation based off my own personal experience and results.

Who says that "Hikari is the best food among cheap foods"? I personally use Hikari (Saki Deep Red & Saki Growth).

Excalibur has foods with higher protien (which I use) but what do you think of the ingredients in their Diamond Dust or Intense Red that have 41% and 42% (Hikari Bio Gold has 45%) protien?

Is NLS a great food? Yes! Is it the best overall food on the market? Might be! Is it as effective in increasing color, pearls, or head as some of the other foods? Nope!

 

[Ruturaj]

Once again....I am not claiming that Scarlets (or any other food) is the best, has the best ingredients, or is the most nutritious. OP asked for recommendations for food that would increase color and pearl which Scarlets Dark Rise and Endless Red do a great job of.

Astaxanthin does appear to be the only red color enhancing ingredient, but just because two different foods has it, does not mean they are equal as the amount of the ingredient can vary greatly.

I agree with you that as hobbyists we can not detect everything that is going on with our fish. But let me ask you this......if my fish live long, seemingly healthy lives (which they do), and your fish live long, seemingly healthy lives, what's the difference?

I am not claiming that anyone "needs" both staple foods and grooming foods. There are people that feed nothing but NLS, there are those that feed nothing but foods marketed for Flowerhorn, and there are those who don't feed pellets at all. I am am not trying to push the way I do things on anyone. All I have done is offer a recommendation based off my own personal experience and results.

Who says that "Hikari is the best food among cheap foods"? I personally use Hikari (Saki Deep Red & Saki Growth).

Excalibur has foods with higher protien (which I use) but what do you think of the ingredients in their Diamond Dust or Intense Red that have 41% and 42% (Hikari Bio Gold has 45%) protien?

Is NLS a great food? Yes! Is it the best overall food on the market? Might be! Is it as effective in increasing color, pearls, or head as some of the other foods? Nope!

There are too many variables in fish keeping and comparing 2 fish can mislead the comparison. Surveys and research studies use large dataset in humdreds or thousands for a reason. And we are not equipped or financially backed to do this. Companies like NLS spent time on analyzing fish poop, to find out how much nutrients were not utilized by fish.

I was genuinely asking what's the principal behind having two different foods, grooming and staple food. I didn't object your opinion.

I assume cheap is relative term. I meant compared to NLS or northfin it is inexpensive. And it is not as good as NLS or northfin because most of hikari product has rice, soybean, corn in it. Those are just fillers to save cost and are not good for fish as they are non aquatic items.

Diamond dust seem to be spirulina heavy and intense red is Astaxanthin heavy. I talked with a owner of excacalibur on phone as well. I am still not sure if I would buy the food. I don't know if the added Astaxanthin is synthetic version or natural. If I have to choose one I would get diamond dust. But I think there are better alternatives out there that are not as expensive. If some other food is bringing out hump, color, pearls better then what they have is a good question and mostly answer would be chemicals or hormones.

I am not sure how any food would help with head more than a nutritious food. As hump is mostly genetic then hormonal. It's filled with water and has slight amount of fat. Red dragons on cheap diet grow humongous humps.

NLS makes ultrared which has Astaxanthin in it, so it is pretty good for color.