Fish food

[Amicus]

Hi all,
I went to a fish store wanting to buy a better food. The employee sold me New Spectrum cichlid sinking pellets. I have tropical fish and he assured me that the formulas are all the same except for the pellet size. I got home and fed my fish and as the pellets were sinking the fish were spitting them out. Will they get used to them or did I fall for a sale?

 

[jetajockey]

NLS is a good food. A bit overpriced in the LFS but it's good quality.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Hi all,
I went to a fish store wanting to buy a better food. The employee sold me New Spectrum cichlid sinking pellets. I have tropical fish and he assured me that the formulas are all the same except for the pellet size. I got home and fed my fish and as the pellets were sinking the fish were spitting them out. Will they get used to them or did I fall for a sale?

The various NLS are about the same formula from what I can tell, but I feed all my pellet eating fish the Thera+ A formula (different sized pellets). It's the best from what I can tell and my Goldies, Betta and Cards all love it. All my snails and shrimp love it too lol.

 

[Amicus]

So do you all think my fish will eventually eat it? It sinks quickly and they seem to try and chew it and spit it out. It seems like the only ones to benifit will be my Cories and pleco. The employee at the lfs said the cichlid formula will work regrding the size of the pellets, 2mm.

 

[mfdrookie516]

2mm is pretty big, especially for smaller fish. I feed mine .5mm pellets, my tetras won't eat the 1mm pellets.

 

[HUKIT]

I use 1mm for over seventy percent of my fish, even my large mbuna/peacocks are still fed on that size. With small fish under 1.5" I would only use the 0.5mm, what your looking for is the fish can swallow the pellet whole without chewing on it which produces more waste. I have fish that are fed on 7.5mm and it's still to small, finding the right side pellet is important.

 

[Amicus]

I should have asked the forum first, it was an on the spot thing. Thanks

 

[Mr. Limpet]

I should have asked the forum first, it was an on the spot thing. Thanks

Maybe try soaking them in a bit of tank water first to soften them up?

 

[jetajockey]

the 1mm is a bit big for most of my community type stuff, guppies, etc, I prefer using .4-.6mm pellets for those.

 

[Amicus]

I will switch in the future but will try soaking them first too. Thanks all.

 

[jetajockey]

you could also crush them with a rolling pin, just put them in a bag first.

 

[Amicus]

That's a good idea, I don't bake but I'll figue it out.

 

[WendiDell]

That's a good idea, I don't bake but I'll figure it out.

For about $4.00, you can get a small mortar and pestle (not sure how to spell it) at Pier One Imports. It's like the one used in pharmacies and for crushing herbs. With it you can make your pellets any size all the way to a fine powder and the pellets won't pop around all over the place.

When I first switched from flake food to NLS pellets, my Mbunas didn't like eating even the .5mm pellets. The bigger flakes were easier to eat I guess. So for the first couple of days I just made powder, but didn't soak it so it would float longer. They ate it no problem and then I gradually crushed it less every day, after a week, 10 days at most, they were all eating the .5mm. Then when the fish got a bit older I switched to the 1.0mm and they didn't have any trouble with the change.

 

[Amicus]

I like that idea too, never thought I would have a reason to use one of those! Will my Cories get enough to eat using the crushed pellets?

 

[WendiDell]

I like that idea too, never thought I would have a reason to use one of those! Will my Cories get enough to eat using the crushed pellets?

Soaking can take a little of the nutrition away, but it should stay the same when you crush it.

 

[Amicus]

Those pellets are hard to crush! They still won't eat them. I'll try a blender.

 

[HUKIT]

Ive used my wife's coffee grinder, took 7.5mm floating to make food for the fry. It worked great but she was pissed, and I had to buy her a new one but that just means the first ones mine now for fish food.

 

[WendiDell]

What are you using to crush the pellets?
The first time I tried to crush them with a hammer. Even in a plastic bag pellets were flying everywhere and not much was getting crushed.
It was my 10 year old grandson that suggested I try the mortar & pestle. It crushed a lot in just a few minutes. It's more like it grinds the pellets down, rather than crushes them, but it's easy enough that he did some of it.

 

[Amicus]

Well, I tried the blender and wound up with powder. It all floated and slowly sank, the fish still did not eat it.

 

[WendiDell]

Well, I tried the blender and wound up with powder. It all floated and slowly sank, the fish still did not eat it.

Next step. Don't feed your fish for a day or two, it won't hurt them, but it will make them hungry.
They just aren't used to the shape and texture of the pellets, but if they are hungry they will eat, give them time.