Fish Food: The Real Deal

Hello, my name is Daniel, I'm 16 years old, and I love fish. I keep African Cichlids, Cats, Discus, and some South American fish as well. For about the last six months, I have been writing an article about fish food for the OCA. So before I turn it in to the President of the club, I thought maybe some of the people here would enjoy a sneak peak of my article...Fish Food: The Real Deal.




If you have ever been to an aquarium store to buy fish food you probably have noticed that the choices are endless. Not only are there many brands, but many formulas within those brands too. You may have also noticed that Tetra usually takes up a good percentage of the fish food isle. So the question that needs to be asked is, which fish food is the best? Unfortunately, I will not be answering that question because I am in no place to answer it. What I will do is give some history and objective evidence about some different fish food companies so that you can make a decision as to what food works best for your fish. I have decided to talk primarily about Tetra, Omega Sea, Marineland and New Life International Spectrum fish foods. I know that there are other brands besides the ones mentioned, but I feel that these four deserve the most recognition. In addition, all the information that will be discussed regarding these companies is based on information given to me from people I have interviewed.
   Before I talk about the different companies, I should probably talk a little about the “Guaranteed Analysis” that can be found on the fish food container. The Guaranteed Analysis is an analysis that is guaranteed by the fish food company that makes the food. The reason there is a Guaranteed Analysis is because the government has standards for fish food that must be met by the food’s maker. Now that I got that out of the way, I will discus the different aspects of the Guaranteed Analysis.
   Crude protein is simply how much protein is put in the food. Needless to say, some fish need more protein than others. For example, if I were feeding a Tropheus I would probably want to feed it a fish food that had a low amount of protein in it. On the other hand, if I were feeding a fish like a Red Devil, I would want to feed a food that had more protein in it. Each fish is different and therefore needs different requirements in the food that we feed to them.
   The percentage for crude fat gives us an idea of how much fat is put into that food. Again, we have to take a look at the type of fish that we are feeding. If you have a younger fish and you want it to grow faster, you might want to feed a food that has more fat in it than if you have an older fish which would need less fat. Another aspect of the guaranteed analysis is crude fiber. Fiber helps the fish with its digestive system. Fiber is put in the food for roughage. Too much fiber could make a fish sick. That is why most fish foods keep their crude fiber under 5%.
   Have you ever wondered how nutritious the mixture is in your fishmeal? A good way of telling how nutritious your fish food is is to look at the amount of ash in it. In general, ash refers to the amount of “by-products” (or shell parts, heads, etc.) used in a food product. For instance, some fish food companies may want to use shrimp, krill, even lobster in their food but find that it can be very costly. So in order to have the “attractant value” (smell and taste that draws the fish to the food) that is received from these products, but not has to pay as much for the whole animal that should be used, they will use the by-products. These by-products give the smell and some of the taste, but you don’t generally receive half of what the nutritional benefit should be. My suggestion is that if you see that your fish food has an ash content above 12%, it probably isn’t a good idea to use that food. In fact, the lower the ash content the better.
   Last but not least, I need to talk about phosphorous and moisture. All you really need to know about phosphorous is that it should be between .75%-1%. The reason is that the more phosphorous you have in your tank will also grow more algae in the tank. As far as moisture goes, that should generally be under 10%. Anything above 10% and you could have problems with molding and you could also have a problem with bacteria development. The reason is that when fish food is made it starts out with a batter. The process of cooking and then the process of dehydration is there so that the water is taken out of the food because if you have too much moisture you will more than likely have the problems mentioned earlier. Now, lets take a look at some of the great companies I mentioned and their fish foods.
   I think that since Tetra has been in business the longest, it is only right to talk about their company first. In 1951 Dr. Ulrich Baensch founded Tetra. Tetra was one of the first companies to make a fish food formula so that you would no longer have to feed your fish live food. Before founding the company, Dr. Baensch was a huge hobbyist. I wasn’t able to get an official answer, but Tetra probably got its name since Tetras were one of the most popular fish back in the doctor’s day. Dr. Ulrich Baensch is also the author of some famous fish books. He is currently enjoying his retirement.
   The next company that I would like to talk about is Omega Sea. Denny Crewus founded Omega Sea in 1998. Out of all the companies that I am going to talk about, Omega is one of the most interesting companies...to me anyway. Before he founded Omega, Denny was a national sales manager for Tetra. He was even a commercial fisherman at one time. These two jobs are the main inspiration for Omega using fresh ingredients in their food. As far as I know, Omega is the only company that makes their food in Alaska. This is beneficial to the company for a couple reasons. First of all, they can do their own fishing instead of having to have ingredients shipped. (They use a thirty-year-old fishing boat that is made out of fiberglass. They call it, “The Gamblers.”) Not only does this keep costs down for not only Omega, but they pass on “cost savings” as well. Also, because the “catch of the day” doesn’t have a long way to travel before getting to the factory where it will be turned into fish food, Omega only has to process their food once! (The more you process food, the more nutrients you take out of the food.) In addition to using extremely fresh ingredients, Omega Sea puts Omega 3 fatty acids into their food. These fatty acids are good for fish...hence the name “Omega.”
   Even though Marineland has been around almost as long as Tetra, they just introduced their fish food in October of 2002. Before Bob Sherman founded Marineland in 1967, he owned a chain of pet stores. Marineland is a privately owned company than now employs over 500 people. In addition Marineland also owns such companies as Perfecto and Jungle Talk. Marineland’s philosophy is to make the aquarium hobby as easy as possible. This is obvious with all of their products including their fish food. As far as I know they are the only company to design a container that allows you to shake food into the tank much like you would salt and pepper your food. Dr. Tim Hovanec is the one who developed the formula for the food. He has been keeping aquariums since he was six years of age and was also the President of the American Cichlid Association at one time.
   Finally I would like to talk about New Life International. New Life International is a small company compared to the others previously mentioned. Even if you are not familiar with their line of fish food, Spectrum, you are probably familiar with “Cichlids the Pictorial Guide, Vol. 1” and “Cichlids the Pictorial Guide, Vol. 2.” Pablo Tepoot started his business over twenty-five years ago and it has been growing ever since. However, Spectrum didn’t come out until four to five years ago. Spectrum was designed primarily for African Cichlids and to keep salt-water fish alive. Spectrum gets its name because of the amount of color it helps to bring out in fish.
   Not only do Pablo and his son Ian publish books and make Spectrum fish food, but they also have the largest fish farm specializing in African Malawi Cichlids in the United States. Located in Florida, New Life International proudly has two five-acre farms in which to raise their fish. The two farms together total 130 ponds and over 1,000 aquariums! Needless to say many people want to buy fish from Pablo, but the minimum order is $2,000. Nevertheless, if you feed Spectrum fish food to your fish they will look like they came from this incredible fish farm.
   So what is the final analysis? Well, hopefully now that you have some basic knowledge of fish food and some of the companies that make fish food, that long isle of fish food shouldn’t seem so intimidating. In addition, if you only walk away with one thing from this article, let it be this. A fish’s health is much like our health, it depends greatly on what we as the owner’s choose to feed them. With that in mind, take the time to plan a nutritious diet for your fish...it will show in the end.

Daniel,

Thank you for the article. very informative. Have you done any research on the vitamin & mineral content of the food? It would be interesting to see how these companies differ in that respect.

Thanks again.
O.

I really don't know too much about the vitamin part of the fish food. I questioned it a few times and the general answer was, "you can see how much vitamins are in the food." I plan to do more research later on, but for now I need a little break from "fish food." :)

Understandable! Thanks for the info. Looks like it's going to be a great article!

O.

Thank you, the complement really means a lot. :)

Daniel congrats on your research as I too have the passion of balanced nutritional diet for Tropical Fish. Nicely written and informative... ;D

A-

Hi Daniel,

Nice write up! Thank you for sharing it. I will sticky this for a while here!

-al

Good article man. Try publishing to TFH, worth a try. :)


Bruce

:thumbsup: :) 8)

Hi Daniel,

and welcome to simply!

that was a great article and very enjoyable read, I think your a very talented aquarist, and I hope next time I pick up a FAMA or TFH, I'll get to read something from you!

Just want to ask if any of your research took you to the aquaculture and fishfarming industries?

again, good job Dude! :thumbsup:

Fantastic write up! thanks for posting it! Keep pursuing your talent writing articles! It is a gift seldom realised!

Good work!

Thank you for the complements!!! As for the question about did my research take me to the aquaculture and fishfarming industries, the only place it did take me was to New Life Internationial. But, maybe a write up on the aquaculture and fishfarming industries would make a good article in the future! However, I need about a month before even considering doing more research (even though I did have fun writting this article). I did send my article in to TFH and Aquarium Fish, but I don't think I will get anywhere. I just don't think magazines like that would be interested in a little tiny article that I wrote. To be honest, I like my article, but I feel it could have been better some how. Well, in the great words of Forest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

You'd be surprised! if you beefed it up with a conclusion based on facts, a few pictures of the foods they may very well accept it and publish it!

Remeber the old addage, "you never never know if you never never go!"

Why true Chong. :thumbsup:

Great job Daniel. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[quote]Very nice thread going here, too.

So I thought i'd interject my post from the Omega food
topic in here also:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by "Bernie"

Let me throw one or two more factors into this hopper, since we have some
"food enthusiasts" following this thread...


When animal proteins are first exposed to heat (processing), the cells burst, mixing their contents and then "gelling" them together in a process
called "binding". Fish foods that use fish meal, PDP or other processed
protein ingredients have lost alot of the "quality" by using large amounts
of plant starches as binders which are not only much less nutritious, but less attractive or appealing to the fish.
Omega uses a "natural gel" made up of undenatured (un-processed)
animal proteins.

The high ash content of much of the foods are a result of using large
amounts of grains and yeasts (again, adding very little nutrition).

Omega uses kelp and algae instead and is able to keep the ash
content under 2%.

Vitamin retention--- Foods that use plant binders (like the meal makers);
do add vitamins. Problem is; the binders are water soluble; therefore
the vitamins begin to leach out into the water often before the fish get
to consume enough.
Omega's use of un-denatured marine proteins in a natural gel ARE NOT
WATER SOLUBLE and therfore the fish get to consume the full amount
of vitamins added.

Bear with me...for one more point.

Let me touch again on color enhancers..... as this area is something I,
myself, was unaware of until we started with Omega.
Fish skin, particularly salmon which contains silver, yellow, blue and red
caratenoids offer the highest useable level of color enhancers possible.
Unlike shrimp and krill who's high level of caratenoids are mostly
"UN-USABLE" due to its poor digestibility; ... the skins of fish can be
fully utilized and digested thereby helping fish reach their "peak" coloration.
The dark flecks visible in the Omega flakes are, in fact, tiny pieces
of finely groundfish skins which are included in the fresh, whole fish
ingredients of the Omega flake.


OK.... we're done for today!!

See ya all

Bernie

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Daniel,

Excellent article. :)

For a 16 year old, you are well on your way to a promising career. I am currently working as a technical editor, and I have to admit, your article is excellent.

Continue the outstanding effort, and if you need someone to proof your efforts, I will be happy to do so.

And yes, pictures help. Ensure they are of good quality and show well on the Internet.

Thank you, but it really isn't my best work. You mentioned that you are a "technical editor." What does a technical editor do? Also, who are you an editor for? Anyway, thank you for the compliment :)

so all and all, which brand of flakes food do u guys prefer? i tried using some information that daniel had given to find a good and nutrisious food. but after using it, i find that it clouds water and my discus dun like the food.

It has been about a year since I have written this article. I personally, prefer Spectrum out of the three foods I mentioned. However, as far as a good flake food, wet thumb aquatics is a good place to buy flake food from. Also, ON is a good food in my opinion. Omega is ok, but there are better foods like WTA that many people do not know about.

Very nice article, keep up the good work, IMO ON is one of the best food's, but thats just me ;D

Very nice string, excellent article. We are a tropical fish food wholesale company in Canada. We sell to stores, breeders and hobbiests all cross Canada and the US. We believe nutrition and Vitamins are the most important aspects to keeping healthy fish. If you are thinking about trying something different, give us a try. Your fish will let you know the difference.

Northern Aquaselect Food & Supply
http://www3.sympatico.ca/joudekerk

The highest quality foods, available in bulk boxes, at wholesale prices.

Great article Daniel. I'm also a fish food nutrition nut, and a New Life Spectrum fanatic. I've written a few fish food nutrition articles that have been published, one of them being for Pablo Tepoot & his NLS line of fish food.

Here's an excellent read that was written by the inventor of New Life.
http://nlsfishfood.com/index.php?opt...d=29&Itemid=63

very good!

pat.

THE REASON THERE ARE SO MANY TETRA PRODUCTS, AND THEY'RE ALMOST ALWAYS ON THE TOP SHELF, IS THAT THEIR REPS STOCK THE SHELVES, THEY ALSO OFFER THE STORES FREE FOOD IF THEY WILL STOP CARYINS SOME OF THE OTHER BRANDS. ALSO THE MOST IMPORTENT THING TO CHECK IS HOW OLD THE FOOD IS, OLD FOOD MEANS LESS NUTRITION,
ALL THE BEST....... UNCLE

If you want good discus pellets, see unclerick.com on aquabid.com. I have purchased several times from Uncle a supply of Pro Grow Growth and Color, Better than Brine, etc. Highly recommend.

Mat (Larmat7 on AB)

this is a great post, one i would not have stumbled upon on my own. the writer is close to my age now :-)

Hello Bernie,

For what it's worth, I would have happily run such an article when I was editor of TFH. It was challenging to find articles on fish nutrition. Yes, a few good photos would help.

While we're on the topic of fish nutrition, I was happy to receive an order of whiteworms recently. Good food. Discus love them and get into condition very fast when this food is added to the diet.

What we don't always realize though, is that the wriggling foods create an inducement to discus to eat their fry...especially if you are trying to cut down on the whiteworms! They are better fed on prepared food when they have fry in the tank. Live foods somehow "confuse" the parents, and they will eat their fry. Withholding live foods after they spawn also induces them to eat the fry. When the live foods are stopped, they will go back to work taking care of the fry as per usual. Funny fish.

Best fishes,
Mary Sweeney

Daniel
Great article. As you mention the list of brands is inmense. Also out-there are the food color enhancer's that sometimes are not too popular. Although the opinion is starting to change. for example since FDA approved Carophyl . some companies start to use it.
One example is Brine Shrimp Direct. com. They have a new Beef Heart flake that contain carophyl, also a marine flake too.
There is nothing wrong with this, just that We as fish keeper's should be aware of what we feed to our fish. I personaly preffer a more natural approach, as is easy with the fish. but I have to admit some fish with this "synthetic" color enhancers are great looking.
we should watch careful in the long term health of this somewhat new aditives.

just my two cents.

Good stuff!

Thankx for sharing this articles which is very informatic for all. But i think there is some wrong concept about vitamin you have just discussed . However all over is very good and i hope this going to be very helpfull for all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by linkn

Thankx for sharing this articles which is very informatic for all. But i think there is some wrong concept about vitamin you have just discussed . However all over is very good and i hope this going to be very helpfull for all.

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This thread is 10 years old.. not sure how valid info still is..