Fish food

[smoutylad22]

What is the best community and bottom feeder fish food available in the UK?

 

[Caliban07]

Like many other things to do with this hobby, all the best stuff is in the US. Try ordering new life spectrum brand off the net. That's about one of the best alongside omega one which I couldn't get hold of.

 

[smoutylad22]

Thanks, I've found new life spectrum on ebay so I'll give that one a go. As for Omega One I can get that from amazon.com ?

 

[Caliban07]

You can get it off amazon too.

 

[Caliban07]

It's the shipping cost that makes it a nightmare. You get a big tub that will probably be ineffective after a few months as the flake ages.

 

[Canary bird]

Nls on eBay , I'm the same it costs more than the flakes to get posted to Tenerife !

 

[pip walters]

Don't believe everything you hear about fish food ageing. IMO, this is something the manufacturers tell you to encourage you to buy new food when you think the food has gone off or deteriorated. The reason they do it is because they cannot guarantee how a fishkeeper is going to store the food. Heat and damp are detrimental to the freshness of the food and will affect the stability of the vitamin content... therefore, the manafacturers only tend to guarantee the food for around 6 months.

It is a little bit like human foods with a 'best before' date... it isn't a 'totally un-useable after date' !!

Keep your fish food cool and dry. Damp will affect the stability of Vitamin C, which is most important to fish health. Damp food can also harbour aflotoxins, which will do your fish no good at all!

As a general fish food for tropicals, there is nothing wrong with the big sellers like Aquarian (American!) and Tetra. At work, we use JBL products.... all of these products have been subject to extensive and expensive research and testing, so should a good base.

I also strongly suspect that some commercial fish foods are not manufactured by the company selling them, but rather by big manufacturers, like Coppens, in Holland, then re-packaged under a brand name. Coppens make tropical and coldwater flakes, but where do you see a tub of Coppens Flake???

I have fed may tropicals on the same pelleted food I used to use for rearing carp and goldfish fingerlings. The protein content and vitamin content is very much the same as many pelleted tropical fish foods.

 

[smoutylad22]

Thank you for your expert advice, it's much appreciated.

 

[Caliban07]

Don't believe everything you hear about fish food ageing. IMO, this is something the manufacturers tell you to encourage you to buy new food when you think the food has gone off or deteriorated. The reason they do it is because they cannot guarantee how a fishkeeper is going to store the food. Heat and damp are detrimental to the freshness of the food and will affect the stability of the vitamin content... therefore, the manafacturers only tend to guarantee the food for around 6 months.

It is a little bit like human foods with a 'best before' date... it isn't a 'totally un-useable after date' !!

Keep your fish food cool and dry. Damp will affect the stability of Vitamin C, which is most important to fish health. Damp food can also harbour aflotoxins, which will do your fish no good at all!

As a general fish food for tropicals, there is nothing wrong with the big sellers like Aquarian (American!) and Tetra. At work, we use JBL products.... all of these products have been subject to extensive and expensive research and testing, so should a good base.

I also strongly suspect that some commercial fish foods are not manufactured by the company selling them, but rather by big manufacturers, like Coppens, in Holland, then re-packaged under a brand name. Coppens make tropical and coldwater flakes, but where do you see a tub of Coppens Flake???

I have fed may tropicals on the same pelleted food I used to use for rearing carp and goldfish fingerlings. The protein content and vitamin content is very much the same as many pelleted tropical fish foods.

Thanks pip so I'll keep at it with this tub of new life I've had for about 5 months.

What do you know about new era? Out or nowt?

 

[Pandicorn]

Oh, I once spilled some water in my flakes... Only part, now all dry. I've had my tub for almost a year now, fish seem OK... I mean it's dried food how bad can it get!

 

[pip walters]

Thanks pip so I'll keep at it with this tub of new life I've had for about 5 months.

What do you know about new era? Out or nowt?

Sweet FA lol.

Had a look online, but can't find list of ingredients / nutritional analysis. Looks very much like pellets I have used for young carp, but then a lot of fish pellets look similar.

There is a lot of re-packaging going on in the world

An interesting thing I have noticed, certainly with carp diets (from fry to adult) is that the Vitamin bundle is exactly the same. Just the protein and lipid content tends to differ.