Best marine flake food

[MarineEddy]

Does anyone have any opinions on a marine flake food. My tank is FOWLR so it does not have to contain the chemicals needed in a reef. If you have used a lot what was the fishes favorite?
Thanks in advance, Eddy

[FTMMWS]

None IMO,do not use flake...What are you feeding?

[Fishguy2727]

Chemicals in a reef don't come from the food.

IME the best food by far is New Life Spectrum. However, I have found pellets to be a MUCH better option than flakes. They are cleaner, fill them up better, and preserve their nutrients better than flakes. NLS pellets come in many sizes, from 0.5 mm up to 10mm so there is a size for everything. I recommend the Thera+A formula, it has enough extra garlic to kill some parasites (something very useful with marine fish since effectively all are wild caught).

[carey]

I use NLS food in all my tanks. Flake and pellets. I go every other day with frozen for my 125g and everyday for my cube for my "special needs" fish.

You don't wanna feed flakes exclusively though mix it up a bit here and there. I love pizza but wouldnt want it everyday for very long. lol

[FTMMWS]

I think we need to know what he's feeding first..
Your basic clowns which are almost all tank bred now (along with many other SW fish now) would do fine on krill,scallops,table shrimp and mysis

[Fishguy2727]

Their nutrition is more important than us comparing our super-varied diet to that of our fish. A high quality pellet should be effectively their entire diet, if they will eat it. If you have fish that simply refuse to convert, obviously you have to feed them.

Far from all clowns are captive bred. Yes, there are many varieties available and if you want captive you shouldn't have trouble getting them, but most are still wild caught. Even captive bred stuff doesn't need frozen food like that. High quality pellets provide more nutrition than frozen food, they need all that other nutrition. Frozen foods are basically protein sources (equivalent to only the first few ingredients in prepared foods, lacking all the other supplements that make up the rest of the ingredients).

[FTMMWS]

A good vit-chem,vitamin C ,Selcon or zoe soak is all you need to do...I personally don't know any SW fish keepers who use pellets or flakes..(till i joined here)
Captive breeding is booming now..They are ever so close to breeding yellow tangs now..
This is getting way off now,,but i think we still need to know whats being fed..
I would not feed an angel or trigger pellets

[MarineEddy]

At the moment my tank is still cycling but I am getting my fish in a week. I will be getting clowns first then a wrasse and a royal gramma if that helps
Thanks for all the comments guys

[Fishguy2727]

Yes, many people in the hobby still stick with a variety of frozen foods and a guesswork of supplements. This is because at one point that was the best option, there were no prepared foods proven to be sufficient for the long term nutrition of marine fish. But nutrition is too important to leave to the guesswork of a hobbyist untrained in animal nutrition and a hodgepodge of supplements. Leave it to professionals. At least one prepared food has proven to be all that is needed to properly feed marine fish (including moorish idols, lionfish, tangs, angels, mandarins, triggers, clowns, wrasses, etc.).

Yes, many fish are captive bred, but even within the species that are captive bred most individuals in the hobby are wild caught. 'Close to breeding yellow tangs' doesn't mean anything except we still don't even know how to breed most fish.

My personal opinion is that if you haven't tried both methods (variety of frozen foods and high quality pellets exclusively) you really can't say anything beyond 'the food I feed is at least good enough to keep them alive for years'. Experience in one type doesn't disprove the other.

[FTMMWS]

Those guys will all do fine on the stuff i mentioned above..Its your tank and your decision ..,but IMHO i would not use flakes or pellets...

[FTMMWS]

Originally Posted by Fishguy2727

Yes, many people in the hobby still stick with a variety of frozen foods and a guesswork of supplements. This is because at one point that was the best option, there were no prepared foods proven to be sufficient for the long term nutrition of marine fish. But nutrition is too important to leave to the guesswork of a hobbyist untrained in animal nutrition and a hodgepodge of supplements. Leave it to professionals. At least one prepared food has proven to be all that is needed to properly feed marine fish (including moorish idols, lionfish, tangs, angels, mandarins, triggers, clowns, wrasses, etc.).

Yes, many fish are captive bred, but even within the species that are captive bred most individuals in the hobby are wild caught. 'Close to breeding yellow tangs' doesn't mean anything except we still don't even know how to breed most fish.

My personal opinion is that if you haven't tried both methods (variety of frozen foods and high quality pellets exclusively) you really can't say anything beyond 'the food I feed is at least good enough to keep them alive for years'. Experience in one type doesn't disprove the other.

Isn't this the idea though...my fish eat what i feed them
Opinions are like..... ,,well ,you know..we all have em
I do respect all the research your throwing out though...Not going to get me to switch things up however...(if it ain't broke,don't fix it)
I also feed peas,carrots,spinach and broccoli plus other green veggies ...

Eddie,have fun and enjoy starting up your tank..

[MarineEddy]

Ok guys thanks for all the help,
I'll probably feed pellets on alternate days to mysis shrimp or something

also FTMMWS thanks, I'm sure I will

[Reef expert]

New era flake food is a brilliant nutritious marine flake food that includes all the vitamins and proteins that brine shrimp and small invertebrates have.
Even though it's expensive you pay for what you get!