johnptc;2105075; said:
I agree. all fish food I buy is Hikari, pellets, frozen, and freeze dried.
The real skinny on fish food..
- Thread starter Balookis
- Start date
I agree. all fish food I buy is Hikari, pellets, frozen, and freeze dried.
I love using NLS and my fish love it too. I do like to throw some Hikari algae wafer in the tanks every now and then. They love those too.
For those that don't know me, I will preface my following comments by stating up front that I am a personal friend of Pablo Tepoot's, and I am a distributor of NLS in Canada. No hidden agendas on my part, but I feel that it's important that those that don't recognize my user ID from other forums know that I am actively involved in the pet food industry, and do have a vested interest in one particular company.
Having said that ........
Bingo! There is absolutely nothing wrong with Omega's source of protein, but IMHO their marketing technique was designed to fool the consumer. Your example of 'wet' chicken is a classic example of how some companies attempt to deceive the public. The sad part is, that for the most part it works. I became involved with the pet food industry approx 25 years ago, and have been speaking out on this subject long before I had any vested interest in any pet food company. I'm a firm believer in marketng through education, and not BS'ing your way into hobbyists wallets.
Percentages on labels are for the most part nothing more than numbers that someone wearing a white lab coat have come up with. As an example, the crude protein % is nothing more than the total nitrogen content found in the food, it doesn't tell you anything about the amino acid content, the overall quality of that protein, or even the total digestibility of of that protein. (as in the protein that your fish can actually assimilate) The author of the article linked to in a previous comment used a good example in leather shoes. You cannot judge the quality of one food over another by simply comparing percentages found on a label.
With regards to dog & cat food, I suggest that you read the comment that I made in another recent thread.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165376
I don't care what brand of fish food you choose, but please do your fish a favour & stop feeding them food that was designed for cats & dogs. Tropical fish have completely different requirements, and although your fish may appear ok on the surface, rest assured you are feeding them straight into premature death.
As far as the article that was linked to, overall a superb job done by the author. I wish that more people would take the time to educate themselves by reading articles such as that one. As far as him mentioning pre-soaking pellets, unless one is feeding a food that contains excessive amounts of starch, there is absolutely no need to ever pre-soak a pellet food. This logic goes back to the days when the vast majority of fish foods were very high in grain/starch content (40-50%) and although many still are, my advice is to find a food that is relatively low in grain content, and your problem will be solved.
Pre-soaking pellets will have the same results as allowing flake foods to float around in your tank for several minutes, all of the water soluble vitamins tend to leach out very quickly, and end up in your tank water, and not in the fish. This type of feeding is counter productive to providing your fish with optimom nutrition.
I keep, and have kept, species with some of the most ultra sensitive digestive tracts on the planet (Tropheus moorii, Labeotropheus, and even fancy goldfish such as Lionheads), and I have never once pre-soaked their pellet food. Never once have any of these fish suffered from any type of gastrointestinal issues.
With regards to Pablo's exclusive feeding suggestion, the main reason that he suggests this type of feeding with his product is due to the fact that if/when a hobbyist starts mixing foods up, and if they at some point have a health issue with their fish, he obviously can't assist them. He knows exactly what's in his food, and exactly how it's produced, but has no idea what other companies may or may not be doing. This goes directly to the money back guarantee that he offers.
The following is a direct quote from his article:
Two other minor comments on that article - squid meal can also be derived from "whole" squid, not just the processing waste as suggested in that article. It's extremely expensive, and I doubt that there are many companies that go to that extra expense. (New Life does)
Soybean Meal - besides the limiting amino acid issue that was mentioned in that article, soybean meal also contains anti-nutritional factors.
Most high quality fish food formulas now use either soybean isolate or concentrate as their source of soybean. While soy isolate costs more, like most things in life you get what you pay for.
You can read more on soybean meal, and some of the nutritional problems that can be associated with its use, in the following link: http://www.uoguelph.ca/research/publications/Assets/HTML_MAGS/oasis/nutrition3.html
HTH
Having said that ........
Bingo! There is absolutely nothing wrong with Omega's source of protein, but IMHO their marketing technique was designed to fool the consumer. Your example of 'wet' chicken is a classic example of how some companies attempt to deceive the public. The sad part is, that for the most part it works. I became involved with the pet food industry approx 25 years ago, and have been speaking out on this subject long before I had any vested interest in any pet food company. I'm a firm believer in marketng through education, and not BS'ing your way into hobbyists wallets.
Percentages on labels are for the most part nothing more than numbers that someone wearing a white lab coat have come up with. As an example, the crude protein % is nothing more than the total nitrogen content found in the food, it doesn't tell you anything about the amino acid content, the overall quality of that protein, or even the total digestibility of of that protein. (as in the protein that your fish can actually assimilate) The author of the article linked to in a previous comment used a good example in leather shoes. You cannot judge the quality of one food over another by simply comparing percentages found on a label.
With regards to dog & cat food, I suggest that you read the comment that I made in another recent thread.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=165376
I don't care what brand of fish food you choose, but please do your fish a favour & stop feeding them food that was designed for cats & dogs. Tropical fish have completely different requirements, and although your fish may appear ok on the surface, rest assured you are feeding them straight into premature death.
As far as the article that was linked to, overall a superb job done by the author. I wish that more people would take the time to educate themselves by reading articles such as that one. As far as him mentioning pre-soaking pellets, unless one is feeding a food that contains excessive amounts of starch, there is absolutely no need to ever pre-soak a pellet food. This logic goes back to the days when the vast majority of fish foods were very high in grain/starch content (40-50%) and although many still are, my advice is to find a food that is relatively low in grain content, and your problem will be solved.
Pre-soaking pellets will have the same results as allowing flake foods to float around in your tank for several minutes, all of the water soluble vitamins tend to leach out very quickly, and end up in your tank water, and not in the fish. This type of feeding is counter productive to providing your fish with optimom nutrition.
I keep, and have kept, species with some of the most ultra sensitive digestive tracts on the planet (Tropheus moorii, Labeotropheus, and even fancy goldfish such as Lionheads), and I have never once pre-soaked their pellet food. Never once have any of these fish suffered from any type of gastrointestinal issues.
With regards to Pablo's exclusive feeding suggestion, the main reason that he suggests this type of feeding with his product is due to the fact that if/when a hobbyist starts mixing foods up, and if they at some point have a health issue with their fish, he obviously can't assist them. He knows exactly what's in his food, and exactly how it's produced, but has no idea what other companies may or may not be doing. This goes directly to the money back guarantee that he offers.
The following is a direct quote from his article:
Two other minor comments on that article - squid meal can also be derived from "whole" squid, not just the processing waste as suggested in that article. It's extremely expensive, and I doubt that there are many companies that go to that extra expense. (New Life does)
Soybean Meal - besides the limiting amino acid issue that was mentioned in that article, soybean meal also contains anti-nutritional factors.
Most high quality fish food formulas now use either soybean isolate or concentrate as their source of soybean. While soy isolate costs more, like most things in life you get what you pay for.
You can read more on soybean meal, and some of the nutritional problems that can be associated with its use, in the following link: http://www.uoguelph.ca/research/publications/Assets/HTML_MAGS/oasis/nutrition3.html
HTH
So dial back your comment to oh ya maybe it has the same percentages of ingredients... The truth is In the long run it works. Ill let you know if something dies. So far so good. I like that hehe I have had no deaths in over two years and i feed two Clownknifes that are over 2 feet each dried dog food. Hey it works.. Maybe you just cant get past that when something gets labeled something it only has one purpose. My clowns are working on 5+ years old. my sharks 3 years old. Oscar 7 years old. All feed on dry cat food and dog food... Havnt you realized maybe we as fish owners want big fat fish... 
Bring on the fillers! And keep selling your fish food.
Bring on the fillers! And keep selling your fish food.RD.;2105298; said:
They are alive! infact they are healthy. Plus my tank is completely overstocked and i LOVE IT, Cuz my filtration is madman! WAIT im Argueing with a telemarketer damnit... Epic fail.
No death in 2 years, and you want what, a medal? 
I never said that feeding those types of food would cause sudden death syndrome, you might want to go back & actually read what I posted.
I never said that feeding those types of food would cause sudden death syndrome, you might want to go back & actually read what I posted.
He's talking about the fish's long term life span. Think of it in terms of malnutrition.Finalfire9;2106143; said:
WAIT im Argueing with a telemarketer damnit... Epic fail.
