Hikari vs. NLS

[TamponVampireTBag]

Hikari is the best for south americans hands down but its debatable for africans. Once on another forum i asked something about hikari and this crazy african cichlid dude comes along and like attacks me with some nls crap, this dude was like psycho over that stuff! But both i and my father have been raising cichlids with crazy growth rates and stunning colors on hikari

Would you care to explain as to why Hikari is best for South Americans ?

 

[RD.]

Umm, yeah ... I was wondering the same thing.

I've lost count as to how many SA fish myself & others have raised on NLS.

 

[fishguts]

i dont understand why people look at hikari and nls like its the super formula for fish. i look up hikari gold ingredients and guarreneed analysis and kens fish food has the same ingredients as hikari plus more. on the guarenteed analysis the hikari has 40% min protein and kens has 45% so thats 5 percent higher on the protein for kens all the others are the same except for the fat and hikari has 5% while kens has 9%. i dont understand how hikari could be better and why people pay the extra money for it when you can buy kens fish food for about 3 dollers for a half pound bag and get any size mm you want. the small sizes for africans sink and the bigger sizes mostly float but i think you can get them either way. if you can explain why hikari or nls would be better then plz feel free.

 

[Chaitika]

i dont understand why people look at hikari and nls like its the super formula for fish. i look up hikari gold ingredients and guarreneed analysis and kens fish food has the same ingredients as hikari plus more. on the guarenteed analysis the hikari has 40% min protein and kens has 45% so thats 5 percent higher on the protein for kens all the others are the same except for the fat and hikari has 5% while kens has 9%. i dont understand how hikari could be better and why people pay the extra money for it when you can buy kens fish food for about 3 dollers for a half pound bag and get any size mm you want. the small sizes for africans sink and the bigger sizes mostly float but i think you can get them either way. if you can explain why hikari or nls would be better then plz feel free.

Oh boy, Neil should be along any minute, lol.

 

[fishguts]

If anyone is interested this is what kens consist of wheat,fish meal,blood pork meal,stabilized fish oil,capsanthin,spirulina,xanthophyll,krill meal,d1 calcium phosphate,vitamina acetate,dactivated animal sterol,d-3, vitamin b-12supplement,riboflavin,niacin,folic acid,calcium pantothenate,pyridoxine hydrochloride,thiamine,biotin,dl alphatocopheroi, (e), l-ascorbyl-2 polyphosphate(c).color enhancers red yellow blue green pigments.

analysis 45% protein min, crude fat 9%min crude fiber 5.0% moisture 9% ash 10%
not sure what most of those ingredients are but to those of you that know may this help .

 

[RD.]

I'd be happy to explain it, again. From post #34 in this thread.

You can't simply look at the crude protein level and determine the nutritional value of a food. (which I suspect is what you based your comment on)

There are many ways that one can boost the nitrogen (crude protein) level in a food, but that doesn't necessarily mean that all of that protein is in a form that a fish can fully assimilate. One should look closer at the source of those proteins, as well as how many sources there are for the various amino acids that make up those proteins. Then ask yourself if that % is made up from a generic fish meal (which typically equates to processing plant leftovers - resulting in high ash content) or whole units, such as whole krill, whole herring, and whole squid.

Somethingfishy touched upon this in his mention about whitefish meal, and although it's not just all bones & scales (some muscle tissue is still attached to the leftover processing scraps) it does typically contain a lot of
minerals that cannot be utilized by your fish, hence the high ash content in the food. Bio-Gold is listed as having 15% ash content, so that should be your first clue as to the type of "fish meal" that they use.


Both foods will get the job done, but IMO one is most definitely a superior product.

Protein is basically just a nitrogen reading taken in a laboratory. The crude protein % does not tell you a whole lot about the quality of the protein, only the quantity of nitrogen. The value of protein is directly related to amino acid content. It doesn't tell you how that protein was processed, or if it's even in a form that your fish can properly utilize.
As an example, the feathers from slaughtered poultry are used to make feather meal, which can be as high as 85% crude protein.





And this is without even beginning to compare micronutrient levels, such as vitamins & trace minerals. Would you prefer that your fish are receiving 100 mg/kg of Vitamin C, or 600? The answer to that should be a no brainer, especially for those of you that have set ups where stress from breeding, aggression, etc is the norm.

Sometimes what's not listed on a label, can be just as important as what is.

 

[RD.]

Fishguts - the main ingredient is "wheat", that should be your first clue as to the overall quality.

Ken doesn't manufacture his own line of food, he simply private labels commercial feed made by a feed mill (or mills). IMO if you prefer to feed that type of quality of feed to your fish, buy directly from a feed mill, or consider one of the various feed mill foods that are sold at local hardware stores. You'll save a considerable amount of $$$ over the long haul.

This will save me a ton of typing, and should answer your question/s in detail.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=324394


HTH

 

[fishguts]

ok i listed all the ingredients in kens food now look at hikari gold, can you really tell me that gold is better? looks to me there made up of much of the same stuff and without either of them telling me how much percentage of each ingredient is in the forumula then i have no reason to believe one is better then the other. imo

 

[fishguts]

posted my reply before i could read yours
so let me ask you this. after you seen the make up of kens food if i switch to gold am i going to see a difference in color of my fish? yes or no

 

[Guapoako318]

posted my reply before i could read yours
so let me ask you this. after you seen the make up of kens food if i switch to gold am i going to see a difference in color of my fish? yes or no

That would be a poor way to assess if the food is better or not.