Expensive food vs Cheaper food - myth or fact?

[henward]

here is the thing

pet shops sell expensive foods. Vitamin this, vitamin that.

i feed my pellet eating fish mostly economy pellets - pond koi pellets. They eat it, it grows them - and it seems to be fine. dont actuallyknow - how much exactly does a fish consume of vitamin c in the wild? i mean - do they go up to the local 'fish' market and buy the freshest veges? or is it opportunistic - what ever comes up.

i have dwarf gouramis, extremely bright in red and blues. i ook at mine and compare it to the pet shops - the colour is the same. same brilliance and vividness of colour. i feed mine pellets, they feed theirs fancy expensive spirulina.

how does someone actually measure the colour of their fish. i mean i have seen my friends and cousins fishes especiallyin the philippines- some as bright as in a magazine, bt they feed cheaper pellets not the fancy ones you see in the shops that costs 60 per kg and stuff.

anyone here actually have any info on why these are claimed to be better?

as an example, my jardiniis colours are the sma as the "nice" examples i have seen online. i feed mine shrimp while others feed theirs fancy hikari and branded foods. they claim it makes the colour nicer.........does it really?

cos i dont believe it

[Caryl]

I think variety is the answer. If you feed a variety of foods the fish ought to get all the vitamin requirements they need.

I have found, from personal experience, the main difference beteween the cheap and expensive foods was the amount of "bulk" if that's the word. I had some cheap pellets and some dearer ones. The fish did not like the cheap ones and refused to eat them. When I added one of each to water, the cheap ones swelled up twice the size of the dearer ones (due to a "bulking" agent?). This caused problems for the one fish who did eat the cheap ones - major balance problems as it had difficulty digesting the pellets as they bulked up more inside the fish and it couldn't swim right until it finally managed to get the pellet through its digestive system.

More to the point is to use fish foods quickly once the container has been opened as they lose their 'goodness' rapidly once exposed to air.

[jn]

Could it be a water quality thing too? ie: the cheap stuff may contain stuff that might foul the water more quickly?

example: I have some godfish in a bathtub. I was feeding JBL Pond vario. Fish were healthy. water was crystal clear. Ran out of jbl, started feeding cheap red pellets.. water was green inside a week!

[danilada]

Must taste different to the fish in my opinion, I know if I buy cheap flake it gets ignored and ends up in the gravel, unless they are starving of course.

[jayci]

I feed trout pallets. I don't know if that is wrong to do or not.

I just figured, if trout pallets are good enough for a muilti million dollar trout industry, then trout pallets must be good enough for my fish.

Correct me if I am wrong.

[jn]

jayci - I apologise in advance for being cheeky :-?

but you did say to correct you if you were wrong...

you mean trout PELLETS I think

[markoshark]

With marines food is important, must check to make sure that it contains no phosphates or you get baaaad alge

[Stella]

Where do you get trout pellets from? (preferably not by the sackload...)

Apparently native fish do well on them and like them (unlike other commercial foods). Would be good to try some and include it in my book.

[jayci]

PELLETS

doh!

Got trout pellets from trade-me. 1/2kilo for about 5 dollars I think.

[evilknieval69]

Yea theres a guy in rotorua who sells trout pellets on trademe. Pretty alright price too. i got a kilo off him ages ago and i still have heaps left :oops:

[carla]

If you search for 'trout pellets' on trademe there are currently 4 different auctions going for 400g, 500g and 700g bags. Prices look quite similar if compared for 100g.

[AMAZONIAN]

Hi All.

Trouble is, you have all overlooked the fact that "Bugger", not baked beans again tonight.

You wouldn't eat the same food week in week out so when you feed your fish, think They had flake last night, I'll give them daphnia tonight.

Expensive versus cheap: You may well ask. :oops:

Read the nutrional value on a packet of Brand "X" that costs $9.95 a packet as COLOUR ENHANCING FLAKES.

Then read the nutritional Value on a packet of "AMAZON AQUARIUMS" El Cheapo fish food.

The values are identical; and in some things better, but never worse. :roll:

However, it is what is put into the mixture at manufacture that matters.

Different foods that are added to the different cost products may also be different, but what those foods are "WE" are never given that information.

But whatever you think is right, feed your fish plenty of variety, and a bit of live food whenever you can get it.

[alanmin4304]

There are however a few tricks with labelling. I recall many years ago when some of the small rural poultry abattoirs where having problems getting rid of all the feathers. A large nameless abattoir was heat and pressure treating them to denature them and adding them to stock food as utilizable protein. A smaller place thought that was a good idea but couldn't afford the equipment so just chopped them up finly and added them to the blood and bone which allowed them to claim a higher percentage of protein on the label even though it was unutalizable.

95% fat free means 5% fat.

[alanmin4304]

Because they are not food for human consumption the labelling requirements will not be as tough (especially if imported) so often the problem may not be that the labelled contents are the same but the unmentioned contents are different and one has ingredients you might be better off without. And that may or may not be the cheaper one. The best fish food is the cheapest one that works best for you.

[Bastables]

Carp's have different requirements to most tropical fish. Gold fish and Koi lack a stomach, they just process using intestines.

Unlike tropical fish who have evolved stomachs. Most Tropical fish species require a higher protein content and less carbohydrates.

For example house cats, In Brazil and in Indonesia most cats are fed bread or rice soaked in water, carbohydrates. They;re much smaller than the house cats we have here which tend to be fed protein rich manufactured dry or wet foods. Guess which country has bigger cats and more muscular ones: NZ. Indonesian and Brazil cats are still affectionate, energetic and active, they're still much smaller on a lower quality diet.

Looking at JBL flake foods, the higher quality ones increase the protine and Spurlina content with more fish fillet and algae added and less wheat and corn. Wheat and corn is added to fish food to bulk it up. It's harder to process and ends up as more feaces.

Look to your own body, Eat more bread and you produce larger feaces. (less of it is processed and enters your body). Ristrict your diet for a week to Meats (fish chicken beef's) and note the difference. You'll also experience constipation. It's a bit of a balance. For fish it's the same and also goes some way to explain why Gold fish and Koi are "Poo" machines, most of the food goes right through. espically as there is no stomach to process the food.

For Human's the instructional sets issued by the Australian and NZ army in text warn us that Indonesian soldier due to diet (if and when we work with them or conversely fight with them). Will be unable to match a NZ soldier in extended heavy psychical labour. I could see this even though it may be confirmation biases when Singaporean Commandos were unable to keep up with our joint NZ Singa foot patrols in the tropics.

As to Vit C and the others it needs to be stablized other wise it "evaporates." In the wild not an issue as the fish are eating things that have recently been producing or are continuing to produce vit C. Other wise you get Ribina where they add Vit c (through Grapes) at the start but when you drink it it no longer contains Vit c.

[smidey]

i believe that variety is good for them. i have africans that i feed & few different flakes, sinking sticks, frozen blood worms & sushi wrap. they get a flake everyday plus sticks or sushi wrap & blood worms on the weekend. sometimes i gently crush the sticks for a diiferent size, it has worked for me.

[Ira]

I don't think it matters much if you're gentle while crushing the sticks or vicious.

[smidey]

I don't think it matters much if you're gentle while crushing the sticks or vicious.

it does, vicious = powder, gently = bigger chunks

[livingart]

it does, vicious = powder, gently = bigger chunks

i see the difference

i chuck gently then