# Marine food



## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

The other day I was looking at my marine food stock, and I realized that all my frozen food (San Francisco Bay, Hikari, etc) have only 5%-8% crude protein and up to 94% moisture. The only good one I have is PE Mysis with 68% crude protein.
I am trying to feed them good food, but the market in GTA is somehow limited.

What food are you using to feed your saltwater fish? Pellets only? Frozen food only? Home made recipes? Live food? Dry seaweed or frozen seaweed?


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

I make custom cubes with defrosted, rinsed Hikari mysis (my seahorses don't seem to like PE), cyclopeeze, Fauna Marin coral foods, selcon, and Phil's famous phyto.


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

Depends on the type of fish you have.
I use nori sheets, hikari seaweed extreme (33% protein), New Life Spectrum Marine formula (37%). Once in a week I feed them flakes and a pe Mysis cube. I have mostly tangs. They also get a lot of residual brine/Mysis/cyclopeez from me feeding my corals.

New Life Spectrum (imo) is the best pellet food out there and they have some very specialized varieties. Bit more expensive but worth it.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

My fish love NLS!! One of my clowns went a full year only eating NLS even though I was feeding pretty much everything else including live brine!!


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

I use Omega One floating marine pellets and PE Mysis


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

I am out of pellets/flakes. I want to try only live/frozen food.
I have: krill, plankton, mysis, brine, cyclopeez, fish (mackerel so far). My tang gets her fair share of nori every other day (small cuts soaked in vitamins)
Is anyone familiar with fish eggs? I looked at LFS, but they don't have any. Any idea where to find some?

I noticed something interesting in 2 weeks, since I started feeding them diverse food. They don't like brine anymore. I don't say it's a bad thing, but when I got my cardinals, one week they didn't eat, and after that only brine they took. Now they are crazy about plankton and krill.


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## Taipan (Feb 12, 2012)

I believe that once you start introducing alternatives to frozen brine shrimp (aside from live ones); most fish will prefer the alternatives (mysis, cyclopeeze) over brine. Don't get me wrong; fish will still eat froazen brine shrimp especially if they are hungry enough. However; given alternatives the fish will prefer the alternatives. Frozen brine in general are low in nutrients and generally are fortified or supplemented with other types of food and vitamins. The running joke is that "it tastes like cardboard" to fish. 

Fish eggs (roe) can be found at local Sushi shops and fish mongers. Make sure there are no other ingredients/supplements added to the fish roe (for human consumption - additives and flavours are occasionally added).

In terms of frozen food; I generally pick up what is convenient and even on sale at the time. I just make sure that there is a variety for my fish. I rotate types of food throughout the week.

In terms of dry foods - my personal preference is a little known (at least in the GTA) niche company called Dainichi. I visited their facilities in California years ago. They truly make their own specialized food on site. Long story short - This company first become famous when its founder was one of the few "Western" individuals to be accepted in Japan for Koi breeding, selection, and auctions. The founder originally created his own formula for feeding his Koi stock. He was a handful of people that helped bring the art of Japanese Koi to the U.S. and North America....so the story goes  The company he founded later moved on to Cichlid and eventually Marine food. Koi and Cichlid food make up most of their revenue. They really don't market in Canada much; nor do they really promote their Marine line as much. I think the founder's daughter is still running the company he founded.

The "Baby" sized pellets are usually the most ideal for feedings.

P.S. - I'm assuming that PetSmart ended their relationship with Dianichi a while ago and were blowing out their remaining stock.....at ridiculous prices. You may get lucky. AK is also one of the few stores that carry this brand.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

FWIW, go to your local fish monger (a real fish monger, not loblaws) and ask them to save you the egg sacs that come out of fish that they clean. Those eggs are super nutritious and aren't processed - you just have to free them from the membrane, then freeze them down for feeding. Everything goes ape shoot when I add it to the tank.

Also, I'd avoid the makerel for fish food - it's really oily. Try a dryer white fish for your fish protein (haddock/hake/cod are good for that).


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## disman_ca (Nov 12, 2011)

ameekplec. said:


> FWIW, go to your local fish monger (a real fish monger, not loblaws) and ask them to save you the egg sacs that come out of fish that they clean. Those eggs are super nutritious and aren't processed - you just have to free them from the membrane, then freeze them down for feeding. Everything goes ape shoot when I add it to the tank.
> 
> Also, I'd avoid the makerel for fish food - it's really oily. Try a dryer white fish for your fish protein (haddock/hake/cod are good for that).


I would have never thought about asking for the egg sacks. I'm sure most stores would think your insane.


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

Reef Nutrition and Nutramar have fish eggs, but none is in Canada.


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## teemee (Aug 29, 2009)

I've read about people buying capellin roe from Chinatown- basically small fish full of eggs. 
And you can get nutramar ova from reef concept in Quebec. They've shipped it to me a few times before.


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