kd123 Posted October 29, 2010 Report Share Posted October 29, 2010 Why does fish food cost so much? Is it really that difficult to make? Over the time I have been keeping fish (about 5 years) it seems to have increased by about $10.... Does anyone have good alternatives? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted October 29, 2010 Report Share Posted October 29, 2010 You can breed your own live foods or get cheaper food off trademe (who knows what the quality is like) or band together with a bunch of you and buy 2.27kg buckets of NLS and split it up it works out cheap as if you do that.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted October 29, 2010 Report Share Posted October 29, 2010 fish food has much research that goes into them. Either that or its fantastic marketing. Its debatable. NLS has the best value vs quality i know of. if you keep fish like tinfoils, silver sharks, giant gourami... certain fish dont need fancy food, i have succesfully raised them to big sizes, healthy, good colour with aqua one economy works out to about $12/kg it hink roughly. but if you have things that have nice colours, africans, south american cichlids, even silver arowana, then good qual food is key. I have noticed also, Brands like HIKARI grows fish much faster, you feed less, less poo. fins grow further out than normal. I found that some of my fish grew fins when you think their fins are full grown, it literally pushes them out. NLS is great, good feedack from everyone i nkow, my clowns love them. but i did an experiment, i trained my aro to eat both, with zest.... so what ever i fed, it will consume it no matter what, but putting both pellets together, the fish still prefers Hikari. when thats out then it will eat the NLS.. For my aros, i will stick to Hikari sticks, now there is that super hikari stick thing, thats awesome. but for the rest, a mix of NLS and economy pellets. Clown loaches PURE NLS THERA A supplemented by a home made mix of beef heart mix. If you want cheaper, calculate how much food costs if you buy it fresh. You acn buy prawns at$16/kg. Beef heart $6 per kg, fish at 15/kg. if you mix and match, blend it to a fine paste, freeze, this can be a good alternative, also really beefs up fish using the combo of both. there are a lot of ways of going cheap on food, but you have to weigh up time vs cost and vitamin content. most if not all aro keepers will say that feeding a mix of pellets and meaty food like shrimp grows aro best. I would have to agree. depends on the fish. QUESTIONS: what fish do you keep?? what food do you feed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxxnz Posted October 29, 2010 Report Share Posted October 29, 2010 You can breed your own live foods or get cheaper food off trademe (who knows what the quality is like) or band together with a bunch of you and buy 2.27kg buckets of NLS and split it up it works out cheap as if you do that.. try fish burley! they are used for commercial fish farming+ $$cheap azz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Why does fish food cost so much? Is it really that difficult to make? Over the time I have been keeping fish (about 5 years) it seems to have increased by about $10.... Does anyone have good alternatives? It doesn't cost that much. The two containers I've been feeding my fish cost about $80 all together, bought about 4 months ago(Maybe longer, actually) and probably good for another month. So that's about $.50/day. So that's basically the price one meal for me per month to feed my fish. That's not bad at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Why does fish food cost so much? Is it really that difficult to make? Over the time I have been keeping fish (about 5 years) it seems to have increased by about $10.... Does anyone have good alternatives? Or give up fish and play golf with weekly costs of say $40 for 4 hours on one after noon per week? Fish keeping has to be one of the least expensive per hour hobbies you could ever wish for Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henward Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 i guess if you put it that way its easy to say its expensive per KG i guess. but youd ont need to feed fisht aht much i woudlnt say its the cheapest. Maintenance for my power bill is somewhat high. but then dogs eat lots, vet bills, cats same too. Birds? proably expensive too. Outlay for most birds are hundreds some thousands i think thre is a middle ground. making your own food is great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Or give up fish and play golf with weekly costs of say $40 for 4 hours on one after noon per week? Fish keeping has to be one of the least expensive per hour hobbies you could ever wish for good point never thought of that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malevolentsparkle Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 ish keeping has to be one of the least expensive per hour hobbies you could ever wish for ah but did you count time spent doing water changes in that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 hey don't quote me man.. hahaha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 so are we counting the time spent now? I play bowls and practice at least 2 hours a day and play all day both days at the weekend You decide the dollar value. Maybe we should just look at dollars spent eh? Honestly look at what you need to spend and think about the live food you can grow/collect Tin of brine shrimp eggs is say $60 to $80 dollars and will feed your fish for a year mozzies daphnia micro worm grindle worm white worm black worm oh and may be a bit of flake every now and then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Yeah live foods are easy and cheap most times you can get starters for free, and to the average person with only a few tanks their fish food bill would be stuff all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice222 Posted October 30, 2010 Report Share Posted October 30, 2010 Yeah live foods are easy and cheap most times you can get starters for free, and to the average person with only a few tanks their fish food bill would be stuff all. Unless if you're like me, and keep getting new foods for the fish to try. Most of the time they don't really seem to like it or I end up finding something better. Atm NLF seems to be doing them good though, so I'll stick with that for awhile . I think I have at least 7 containers of unused food, and various packets of frozen foods, as well as bloodworms/mozzies outside in a bucket. Pretty overkill on food for only 3x 30L tanks . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David R Posted October 31, 2010 Report Share Posted October 31, 2010 Or give up fish and play golf with weekly costs of say $40 for 4 hours on one after noon per week? Fish keeping has to be one of the least expensive per hour hobbies you could ever wish for +1 Maybe give up the fish and take up Suiseki instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted November 3, 2010 Report Share Posted November 3, 2010 Why does fish food cost so much? freight, MAF fees, Permits. Volume of fish food sales is low in nz, so margins need to be higher If you work it out is is cheaper than going to the movies for one day. The best food like Fauna Marin is used by many aquaculture farms due to the high quality Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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