# Everything you ever wanted to know about fish food



## mistersprinkles (Nov 4, 2013)

http://www.oscarfish.com/fish-food-ingredients.html

An amazing read. Discusses all the common fish food ingredients and additives, explains what they are, what their value is, etc. Includes additives and ingredients to avoid. Very useful information IMO.


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## randy (Jan 29, 2012)

A VERY good read. Thanks for sharing.


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## LTPGuy (Aug 8, 2012)

Thanks for the informative post.


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## greg (Apr 29, 2012)

Excellent link - thanks


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## mitko1994 (Dec 12, 2012)

I Haven't finished reading the whole article yet, but it certainly gave me some important clues as to why my nitrates sky-rocketed a while back and had me lose a few fish. I usually have an oily film on the surface of my tank. From what I read , people say it's caused by proteins. I'm assuming I was overfeeding, but it's weird because the fish end up eating everything they get in less than 30 seconds.


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## mistersprinkles (Nov 4, 2013)

mitko1994 said:


> I Haven't finished reading the whole article yet, but it certainly gave me some important clues as to why my nitrates sky-rocketed a while back and had me lose a few fish. I usually have an oily film on the surface of my tank. From what I read , people say it's caused by proteins. I'm assuming I was overfeeding, but it's weird because the fish end up eating everything they get in less than 30 seconds.


30 seconds is way too long.


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## Mykuhl (Apr 8, 2013)

Thanks for the excellent article, really informative. Northfin was not one of the products reviewed but based on the article and how it reviewed the foods, it looks like Northfin would rate at 6 stars...or at least 5. If this article provides accurate information...Northfin really is the best pellet food on the market. Based on the article Repashy gel foods would rate at the top as well. I am going to stop being lazy and start feeding my fish the Repashy food I have.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

At the risk of de tracking this discussion, I don't think that 30 seconds is too long. Every spring for about a month to six weeks i keep live food in front of my fish 24/7, and have every year since 1995. Growth during this time is much better than when feeding prepared foods. . Even mbuna have no issues with this but put on a big growth spurt. The food is primarily daphnia, although it includes blood worms, and assorted other aquatic larvae, an some cyclops. More water needs to be changed because of the extra waste.
As to the info in the article, it pretty much agrees with what we were told by a presenter on fish nutrition from Martins. Martins makes food for the aquaculture industry. A few years ago they added a pond fish food, which also happened to be good for cichlids. This gent keeps cichlids so he kept that in mind when formulating the food. I used it for the two pound sample and found it produced good results with my severums. Some things he might dispute are the need for protein sources to be aquatic. (Perhaps this why beef heart recipes produce such good results, and not just with discus.) If you have the correct collection of amino acids it doesn't matter where they came from. The cause of fatty livers isn't fat but digestible carbs. Old methods of production using steam rendered the carbs undigestible. Modern extrusion doesn't so it is more important to eliminate them from the food as much as possible. 
One thing that is often mentioned about aquaculture foods is that they are used to grow fish quickly and efficiently at low cost for the market. Longevity isn't considered (so the argument goes) yet the breeding stock is fed the same food, and they get large and live relatively long. It is a balancing act for manufacturers to produce a product that does the job for the least amount of money so they make a profit. Those buying the food for aquaculture need a low price to make a profit for their efforts.


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## mistersprinkles (Nov 4, 2013)

BillD said:


> One thing that is often mentioned about aquaculture foods is that they are used to grow fish quickly and efficiently at low cost for the market. Longevity isn't considered (so the argument goes) yet the breeding stock is fed the same food, and they get large and live relatively long. It is a balancing act for manufacturers to produce a product that does the job for the least amount of money so they make a profit. Those buying the food for aquaculture need a low price to make a profit for their efforts.


That's not what you want though, when you keep a small number of fish at home as a hobby. You want to feed them the best quality food, as the cost per feeding doesn't go up that much by going from the $10 food to the $20 food.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

What I do want is the best for the best price, same as anyone else. Price isn't always a true indicator of quality. Regardless, even the best foods are manufactured with profit in mind.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Very informative article!


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## zfarsh (Apr 7, 2011)

Thanks for the link, I just printed the whole thing and will read with a lot of details, but it already confirms some of the things I thought, as in Krill and Spirulina is good


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I went home and checked the ingredient list of my fish foods. The Hikari pellets seemed to be the best, containing fish meal and krill meal as the first and second ingredients.

OSI marine food came second, containing fish meal as the first ingredient, and algae meal as the 3rd or 4th ingredient, with the 2nd being wheat or something.

The worst was those $0.99 marine omnivore pellets from BA (I forget the name). It contained mostly fillers like wheat, brown rice, and potatoes.


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## BillD (Jun 5, 2006)

While I found the article interesting, and basically in line with my own thoughts, discus keepers around the world would disagree that the source of the food needs to be aquatic. The traditional beef heart recipes, in their various forms, contradict much of what is in the article. It is in fact more in line with manufacturers' ideas that the important thing is to provide all necessary amino acids, and that their source isn't as important as striking the right balance. Clearly, the proof is in the pudding. If you look at Vern Archer's recipe for beef heart, it is quite different in many ways from what is espoused in the article. According to Bob Wilson, who himself has been a discus keeper for over 50 years, Vern has the finest discus in North America. He has spent years studying and keeping the fish and has refined his techniques and his food. Nothing from freshwater is fed to his fish. So, no bloodworms or black worms, which he claims will eventually lead to tapeworms.
The bottom line here is that the article, while for the most part factual (I believe), is in the end, an opinion. Still, I have to agree with it.


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## mistersprinkles (Nov 4, 2013)

BillD said:


> While I found the article interesting, and basically in line with my own thoughts, discus keepers around the world would disagree that the source of the food needs to be aquatic. The traditional beef heart recipes, in their various forms, contradict much of what is in the article. It is in fact more in line with manufacturers' ideas that the important thing is to provide all necessary amino acids, and that their source isn't as important as striking the right balance. Clearly, the proof is in the pudding. If you look at Vern Archer's recipe for beef heart, it is quite different in many ways from what is espoused in the article. According to Bob Wilson, who himself has been a discus keeper for over 50 years, Vern has the finest discus in North America. He has spent years studying and keeping the fish and has refined his techniques and his food. Nothing from freshwater is fed to his fish. So, no bloodworms or black worms, which he claims will eventually lead to tapeworms.
> The bottom line here is that the article, while for the most part factual (I believe), is in the end, an opinion. Still, I have to agree with it.


I agree that there is proof that feeding certain fish with mammal proteins is harmless, and may actually be more beneficial to the fish than feeding aquatic proteins. My cat can eat fish, so why can't my fish eat cat?

For the most part though, the article makes a lot of good points that make sense. Their ratings for a lot of foods are very sketchy, though. "While we don't know where Dainichi's fish meal comes from, we will give them the benefit of the doubt that it is from a high quality source given the reputation of this food". They only really seem to know where Hikari's fish meal comes from. Everybody else seems to have mystery meal.


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