Fish Food - Which brands are the best?

[rbradbury]

I'm wanting to find out what people think are the best brands of fish food and the worse ones to avoid.

I'll start out that I love how Tetra Tropical & Goldfish flakes enhances the colors on my tropical fishes and goldfish. Feeding a goldfish tropical does not enhance it's color like feeding it the goldfish formula by experience.

The wost brands from my experience is Petsmart "Top Fin" and Ocean Nutrition - Formula One Flakes . With the Top Fin flakes, the fish just will not touch them unless they are very hungry. I believe its a sup par generic brand manufactured by Tetra just like the Top Fin power filters are generic Tetras rebranded for Petsmart. The problem I had with Ocean Nutrition - Formula One Flakes, it caused the water in the tank to turn orange, just like the flakes. The fish ate it up eagerly and the colors were great. If it didn't turn the water orange, it would be a good brand in my books. (Only used it on one tank, 22gal fresh water, running Ehiem Ecco 3336 filter with plenty of water changes.)

[Holey_Rock_of_Texas]

i am currently using NLS and have seen a vast improvement in my fishes color over the color shown while using kens food (tropheus lover flake and vit boost). dainichi is also good.

[khrister]

i am currently using NLS and have seen a vast improvement in my fishes color over the color shown while using kens food (tropheus lover flake and vit boost). dainichi is also good.


What about the smell :hehe: I highly recommend NLS and Dainichi too!

[Holey_Rock_of_Texas]

yeah the thera A+ has a very interesting smell and i would not recommend feeding it all the time. lol.

[spxsk]

I love NLS, but supplement with frozen foods all the time.

[Incaico]

I use NLS as well. Just bought a 5lb bucket of it.

[JMatthew]

Wow - what did you pay for a 5 gallon bucket?

[Holey_Rock_of_Texas]

$60 is what they run or around that. not too bad. i purchased 2 of the 5 pound buckets. no really as much food as you would think tho.

[Yask214]

I've heard a lot of things about NLS but never use them. I've always use Kens. Is there a link that I can use to order some? I'm curious and want to try some. Also is there a link for Dainichi as well?

Another stupid ?. I the NLS pellet or lfake?

[Holey_Rock_of_Texas]

i am using pellets and i know Dane sells it at rift to reef. why dont you shot him a pm.

[Plano_Jeff]

DNA has NLS as well. All of my fish except the discus love it. If I can ever get the discus to try it I suspect they will like it, too.

I just got my first can of Ocean Nutrition Formula one for my discus juvies. It's highly regarded amongst the discus fanatics as a decent flake for grow out. So far the fish love it and I don't think the water has changed color, but now you've got me wondering.

For freeze dried food, I like San Francisco Bay. Their dried bloodworms and brine shrimp are very popular here.

And like Greg said - frozen food galore and a little bit of beefheart now and then. We feed lots and lots of frozen spirulina brine shrimp and bloodworms.

[spxsk]

I have NLS for sale under what you can order smaller quantities for online or in a store. Let me know if you are interested.
http://www.dfwfishbox.com/forums/production/showthread.php?t=14343

[k20z3]

I've heard a lot of things about NLS but never use them. I've always use Kens. Is there a link that I can use to order some? I'm curious and want to try some. Also is there a link for Dainichi as well?

Another stupid ?. I the NLS pellet or lfake?

Pick up some NLS pellets! That is what these Geo Tapajos you are getting are eating here. They won't touch regular flakes.

[Holey_Rock_of_Texas]

i will say that i was feeding flake food from kens for a while and i do have a few mbuna who will not touch the NLS pellets and it has been over 3 weeks now. i had to movw them to another tank and feed them flake food. needless to say i not long have room for them. lol. :D

[rbradbury]

I have NLS for sale under what you can order smaller quantities for online or in a store. Let me know if you are interested.
http://www.dfwfishbox.com/forums/production/showthread.php?t=14343

Spxsk, I now definetly want to try it. It seems the general consences is that NLS is the best. Is this for tropical only or can I feed it to my fancy goldfish? Is the Thera+A the medicated version? Which one is better?

Who normally carries NLS and Dainichi? What do people think about Hikari?

[Typical Tony]

75% of my food are hikari and the rest consists of nls, dainichi, and kens. I wish they would eat the nls more but they prefer the hikari stuff

[rbradbury]

75% of my food are hikari and the rest consists of nls, dainichi, and kens. I wish they would eat the nls more but they prefer the hikari stuff

If you read the ingredients of the Hikari food, every single product contains mono sodium gentianate (MSG). I bet the fish are full at first but will be hungry again in 30 minutes.

What makes NLS so much better than other brands? I'm trying to understand fully. Everyone says to use it but tell me why?

rbradbury added 1 Minutes and 27 Seconds later...

I have NLS for sale under what you can order smaller quantities for online or in a store. Let me know if you are interested.
http://www.dfwfishbox.com/forums/production/showthread.php?t=14343

Friday is payday. I'll buy some from you. What is your schedule like. I can pickup till after 5pm.

[Holey_Rock_of_Texas]

here read this and you will understand. you can buy the stuff at most local fish stores. the thera A+ has garlic in it which is a natural anti parasitic but if feed al the time like me will make you water smell!!!!

http://nlsfishfood.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=63&limit=1&limitstart=0

[rbradbury]

I just got my first can of Ocean Nutrition Formula one for my discus juvies. It's highly regarded amongst the discus fanatics as a decent flake for grow out. So far the fish love it and I don't think the water has changed color, but now you've got me wondering.

Jeff, I just got a message from Ocean Nutrition about the water color issues. I never thought about the issue coming from the carbon. I've been using carbon pads from Eheim. I'll be adding regular carbon bags to it.

"Your water color can be eliminated with a good grade carbon. With your Ehiem do you have a place to add carbon? If you are using carbon now, how often do you change it? With good carbons, they are exhausted within days after replacement and I would suggest using a Chemipure type product. They last months compared to a few days.

With the Formula One flakes there is a significant red to orange color in the flake itself. This is due to the high amounts of natural carotenoid pigments in the food. These pigments are in Salmon and Plankton which help in developing rich colors in your tropical fish. Unfortunately not all the pigment is absorbed by the fish and then passes through the digestive tract and is released back into the water. They have no harmful effect on the aquarium or the fish but it does discolor the water. We are working on a new type of flake formula to alleviate this problem but so far no one has found anything that works, including all our competitors. May I suggest you use our frozen foods as they do not have this problem and are much better for the fish. You can feed less food, have less waste, and less tank maintenance when compared to flake or dry foods. The freshwater variety pack would be a good choice which has 5 different single ingredient cubes to give your fish a good varied diet. This will enhance their health, growth, and color. You can check the products out on our website at www.oceannutrition.com

Thank you,

RD Webster
Ocean Nutrition Americas
801-956-0662 x 124
801-956-2868 Fax
rd@sfbb.com"

[rbradbury]

Is anybody bringing some of the NLS fish food to the swap meet?

[fishman76092]

OSI is considered the Cadillac of fish foods by most in the hobby. Its not carried in many of the stores due to price but most online places have it. IMO-they have the best flake on the market.