Animal Planet Fish Food

[JDogg]

My wife and I were shopping at Target today for various things...

as i walked past the pet food department i noticed a shelf full of Animal Planet brand fish food 8O

usual i think Target offers few types of Wardley Brand fish flakes, spirulina and such...

the Animal Planet brand had a wide selections...Flakes Crisps, bites, African Cichlid bites....

has anyone heard of this brand? Is it any good? how does it compare to other basic flake foods like Wardley or TetraMin?

 

[WaterPond]

i was at target about a week ago too and saw it there. I thought it was kindof weird. It hit me more as a "novelty" food. I have no idea if it is a good brand or not. Just hit me as odd.

 

[Guest]

im sure animal planet would not put their name on something without researching it first and knowing exactly what it is and where it comes from. i would be willing to bet it might be of decent quality.

 

[JDogg]

I have not looked REALLY hard, but a quick goggle search did not bring up any info for me

 

[JDogg]

well it has been a few months since i originally asked about this stuff. now i have a coupon for it

was thinking of trying the cichlid sticks.

has anyone else tried this brand of food, or at least heard something about if it is good or not?

 

[Mosaic]

I know Kaytee brand recently started adding the Animal Planet logo all over it. They've done it for small animal and bird foods. I feed it to my guinea pigs and it's the same stuff it's always been. I bet the AP fish food is a brand owned by Kaytee. So it's not actually manufactured by Animal Planet, so no worries. I'd bet it's a mid-quality food. Kaytee is really known for their bird products and not fish stuff.

 

[Pleco]

I know Kaytee brand recently started adding the Animal Planet logo all over it. They've done it for small animal and bird foods. I feed it to my guinea pigs and it's the same stuff it's always been. I bet the AP fish food is a brand owned by Kaytee. So it's not actually manufactured by Animal Planet, so no worries. I'd bet it's a mid-quality food. Kaytee is really known for their bird products and not fish stuff.

Ding Ding we have a winner

http://www.kaytee.com/products/animal_planet/

 

[JDogg]

ok so based on what you know from the brid food

if given a choice between Animal Planet food and Tetra Min food which would you pick?

 

[Mosaic]

I know Kaytee brand recently started adding the Animal Planet logo all over it. They've done it for small animal and bird foods. I feed it to my guinea pigs and it's the same stuff it's always been. I bet the AP fish food is a brand owned by Kaytee. So it's not actually manufactured by Animal Planet, so no worries. I'd bet it's a mid-quality food. Kaytee is really known for their bird products and not fish stuff.

Ding Ding we have a winner

http://www.kaytee.com/products/animal_planet/

Woo! I win!

I'd go with TetraMin, personally. I don't think the AP is worth switching brands over if you're happy with what you've got.

 

[DepotFish]

Look at the ingredients. Its most likely corn and fish meal, not a quality food. Most fish food is full of the same fillers you find in low quality dog and cat food. Its all scraped up leftovers from after the human food industry uses it. Kaytee is a brand that uses these worthless ingredients, plus a whole list of chemical preservatives. Don't bother giving them your money, they're worse than wardley (who doesn't use ground corn as main ingredient).
Hikari and omega brands are ok. Personally I try not to buy anything with fish meal. There are no nutrients with fish meal and as a staple diet it makes the fish look a little dull. I don't know too many brands beyond goldfish food, but you should see the difference between goldfish fed good food and those fed fish meal food.

 

[7Enigma]

Hmm, I'd be interested in finding out what some "premium" foods would be for tropical fish. I purchase almost exclusively Hikari brands except for my Top Fin shrimp pellets, and was under the impression this was about as good as it gets for store-bought foods.

I've been throwing around the idea of making my own food from beef heart and the recipe that's been floating around the web, but just don't know how well that will work in my tank (I've read it can cloud the tank pretty well, and I don't know how it acts in the tank in regards to sinking floating). I have some aggressive fish that will eat everything quickly if I can only feed at one level (for instance floating food).

I'm forced to slightly wet all my food prior to feeding and quickly splash it into the tank to get a good dispersion so everyone gets a bite....

 

[Mosaic]

In addition to fish food, cat and dog foods whose first ingredient is wheat or corn meal should be avoided as well. First ingredient should always be meat, preferably not beef.

Premium foods are live, then comes frozen, then freeze dried. Staple foods are pretty low on the list. Of the staple foods, though, I think Hikari is one of the best.

Beef heart is full of fat and can cause health problems. I think maybe its ok to feed to juveniles of large cichlid and predatory species for growth, but not as a primary food source, and not for a long period of time. If I were making my own food, I'd use worms or fish for protein instead.

 

[7Enigma]

In addition to fish food, cat and dog foods whose first ingredient is wheat or corn meal should be avoided as well. First ingredient should always be meat, preferably not beef.

Premium foods are live, then comes frozen, then freeze dried. Staple foods are pretty low on the list. Of the staple foods, though, I think Hikari is one of the best.

Beef heart is full of fat and can cause health problems. I think maybe its ok to feed to juveniles of large cichlid and predatory species for growth, but not as a primary food source, and not for a long period of time. If I were making my own food, I'd use worms or fish for protein instead.

Thanks for the post! For my cats I feed Eukanuba which I find to be in the better portion of the common brands that won't break the bank.

Hmm, I guess my FD blood worms, krill, and tubifex worms are OK, but not the best. And staple flake is what they get on a daily basis, so I might have to look at substituting some frozen or other food.

The beef heart recipe uses the heart as a cheap form of protein and fat, along with a host of other vegetable and protein matter. It's not the predominant ingredient, but part of it. Here's one of the recipe's (but not the one I had seem before and planned on using):

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Stone_beefheart.html

Here's another:

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/management/Foreman_Beefheart_Recipe.html

And one more that has several recipes on it:

http://www.tropicalfishforum.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=20

It looks like when properly prepared (ie removal of ALL fat on the heart), that it is probably better then any staple food.

 

[toddnbecka]

Hmm, I'd be interested in finding out what some "premium" foods would be for tropical fish.

NLS (New Life Spectrum) is about as good as it gets, Omega One is also a better-quality brand than Wardley's, etc.
Also, you need to consider the dietary requirements of different species. Veggie-eaters like most pleco's do well on a spirulina-based food, rather than one that has fish meal as the main ingredient...

 

[7Enigma]

Hmm, I'd be interested in finding out what some "premium" foods would be for tropical fish.

NLS (New Life Spectrum) is about as good as it gets, Omega One is also a better-quality brand than Wardley's, etc.
Also, you need to consider the dietary requirements of different species. Veggie-eaters like most pleco's do well on a spirulina-based food, rather than one that has fish meal as the main ingredient...

Where does Hikari rank on that list?

 

[Pleco]

Hmm, I'd be interested in finding out what some "premium" foods would be for tropical fish.

NLS (New Life Spectrum) is about as good as it gets, Omega One is also a better-quality brand than Wardley's, etc.
Also, you need to consider the dietary requirements of different species. Veggie-eaters like most pleco's do well on a spirulina-based food, rather than one that has fish meal as the main ingredient...

Where does Hikari rank on that list?

I would rank Hikari as the highest of premium foods. I import most of my Hikari foods from Japan as they have different varities over there.

 

[kennef]

let me say that i like Hikari, but i never really cared for the ridiculous prices on fish food. i use their algae wafers mostly.

Actually, my vote goes to www.kensfish.com for bulk food.

i have an order of food and supplies arriving today, and I think Ken is a superb source for reasonable prices on bulk food, and other dry goods. He's not a big corporation, in fact i called him a few days ago to check on my order and he answered the phone himself.

is there a forum for rating retailers? i'm going to have to write a review when the package comes in...

 

[7Enigma]

Hmm, I'd be interested in finding out what some "premium" foods would be for tropical fish.

NLS (New Life Spectrum) is about as good as it gets, Omega One is also a better-quality brand than Wardley's, etc.
Also, you need to consider the dietary requirements of different species. Veggie-eaters like most pleco's do well on a spirulina-based food, rather than one that has fish meal as the main ingredient...

Where does Hikari rank on that list?

I would rank Hikari as the highest of premium foods. I import most of my Hikari foods from Japan as they have different varities over there.

That's good to know. I currently have the algae wafers (everyone including my BN pleco loves these), FD krill, FD tubifex worms, and FD bloodworms (probably the #1 loved food).

I plan to try the vegetarian frozen recipe from greg watson's site, with possible future plans of the beef heart recipe (also on his site). I just don't know what to do with 2+ pounds of food! I think I've gone through maybe 1/2 pound in a year with my tanks...

 

[DepotFish]

For goldfish, Hikari is considered a middle ground food, by no means high quality. Omega, Tung Hoi, Hai Feng- those are high quality.

I'm not sure about the ranking of hikari for trops: the ingredients are better than most of the substandard cheapo foods, but its certainly not the highest of high. It might well be the best quality you can find in chain stores though. You want good quality find an expert in the field who makes their own food like Jack Wattley's professional formulas.