flake foods - what's good, and what about "color enhanc

[Tostada]

I was feeding the fish yesterday, and it occurred to me that even with a pretty well stocked tank, my cheap 2.5 oz. can of Wardley flake food is probably going to last me six months. So, I spent $7.99 on the big bag of Hikari sinking wafers for my corys (which is probably going to last more like a year), and also got some frozen brine shrimp (and if I give them a big cube of that once a week, it'll last 8 months).

With just a single 30 gal. tank, I could probably get the most expensive food possible and still be spending less than $50/year on food as long as I'm not going crazy and giving them live food everyday. So, there's no reason for me not to get the best flakes along with some other stuff for variety.

The problem is, I don't really know where to start. I've heard people say that the Hikari wafers are noticably better than other ones as far as most fish are concerned, but what about other stuff?

Here's all the different flake food I saw at Petsmart:

TetraMin Tropical Crisps
Nutrafin Max Complete
Nutrafin Max Color Enhancing
Omega One Freshwater Flakes
Omega One Super Color
TetraMin Tropical Flakes
TetraMin Tropical Granules (small can for bettas)
TetraColor Tropical Flakes
Tetra Color Bits (for large fish)
Tetra Tropical Granules (for large fish)

Besides that, there are freeze-dried Hikari cans of:

Ocean Plankton
Daphnia
Blood Worms
Tubifex Worms
Brine Shrimp
Krill

All of this stuff is pretty reasonably priced, and then there are the refrigerated and frozen foods, which I didn't look at too long, but the Hikari frozen brine shrimp I got in 32 individual packages squares was only $3.79. The other stuff was more expensive (I think the baby brine shrimp was twice as much, and there were other things).

I've just been giving them about as much flake food as they can eat once a day, and along with that I'm giving them a pinch of betta food (the small dry pellets) and a sinking wafer every day, and I was planning on just giving them a cube of brine shrimp once a week after I do a PWC (the cubes seem big enough that I might have to skip all other food for the day).

I'm mostly just wondering about people's opinions on the flake food, how good the "color enhancing" stuff is, and how often you use each.

My current inhabitants are:

1 male betta
1 medium golden gourami
5 tiny panda corys
6 medium to small swords
5 glass shrimp (two are pretty big)
1 large gold mystery snail

The gourami eats a lot of flake food and is a real poop factory. The betta probably eats more flake food than betta food, but he's pretty inept at eating. He often just grabs a flake then just swims around confused with the flake sticking out of his mouth covering his eyes.The swords eat a decent amount of flake food and like to peck at the sinking wafers a little. The corys don't seem to eat much at all. The shrimp of course eat everything.

 

[Guest]

this post made me giggle.


stamped approve. the betta story was funny. i also like the poop factory. mine are poop factories also.

 

[joannde]

LOL I giggled also. The betta story had me rolling - mine do that when I feed them peas; if the pieces are too big they swim around with this green blob in their mouths until they figure out they have to let it go to get a bite ! The snail story was cute too - I really enjoy my mystery snails.

I wish I could offer some advice to you on the foods, but you seem to already have a good variety of food, which is important. you might also want to offer some lightly boiled veggies once in awhile for greater variety.

I've seen alot of posts about New Life Spectrum and Omega One brand foods - they seem to be preferred by alot of people here. There was also a post about someone finding a bone in the Omega One food. You can do a search on either of these terms in the forum to see folks views on the subject.

 

[Guest]

IMO, I would not be to concerned. There are some that are better than others, however they all do the same thing.

I think it is more important to feed a variety of foods and not to much. IMO, if you do those two things you are better off. Mix it up every now and then between flakes, bloodworms, frozen, and I give mine peas once every week or two.

When you say you feed as much as they can eat once a day still be careful. Even though it is once a day you can still overfeed.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

someone finding a bone in the Omega One

Um, that would be me.

In Omega Sea's defense, It was only one canister that has been particularly bad. I have found a lot of bone shards in that one. I still purchase other Omega One products because their shrimp pellets are actually mostly shrimp and their algae wafers aren't mostly fish meal and flour.

For a staple food I'm switching to New Life Spectrum. They guarantee that your fish will look better after ten days of feeding their product.

 

[Tostada]

There are a bunch of different New Life foods, like:

New Life Spectrum Community Fish Formula
New Life Spectrum Thera A Formula
New Life Spectrum Freshwater Garlic Flake
New Life Spectrum H2O Stable Wafers

So is the community food like a pellet version of regular everyday food? It seems like all your fish might not get to a sinking pellet, then you'd just have to clean it out of the gravel (or you'd be overfeeding your bottom fish).

Is Thera A something people actually use? Is the garlic flake the same as everybody else's color enhancing food? Are the wafers the same as other peoples sinking wafers?

Anybody have any advice on the color-enhancing foods in general?

Also, is there any particular food that will keep my fish from running around with 2" hanging poo most of the time? It's pretty tacky.

 

[Mosaic]

Lol, you're funny Tostada.

If your flake food is around for a long time, just check to make sure it still smells the same and the color is still ok. Flake food goes stale faster than other types of food, generally.

Carotene is color-enhancing for reds and I think it's what's in most brands. But feeding a variety of high quality foods and occasional live foods would be best for all-around color enhancement. As for granules, I like to soak or crush them first because they seem to be kinda sharp and I don't want the fish to get hurt while swallowing.

Right now I'm feeding my fish a mix of frozen foods (I've gotten spectacular color on my cichlids and tetras from this). You don't have to give them the entire cube. You can smash it up or split it with a knife before thawing it. Then I thaw it in a little bowl with some tank water, pour in as much as they'll eat, and then re-freeze what's left in the bowl until next time. I do add in some dry prepared foods to feed my snails, so the fish usually get some of that too. I tried fresh veggies but nobody ate any of it(!).

When do you feed? You could probably tweak your schedule so they poop at a time when you're not around to see it, lol. I feed at night and never see mine poop.

 

[Tostada]

I usually feed them in the morning. I guess that would be a good idea to feed them later.

What foods work well as freeze-dried and frozen foods? I'd like to give them some variety, but it'd be a pain to thaw stuff out every day. So, for example, would it be good to give them frozen brine shrimp once a week but give them some freeze-dried blood worms every day? Or maybe it would be better the other way around -- freeze-dried brine shrimp every day then frozen blood worms once a week? Are there certain things that are a good idea frozen but not when freeze-dried?

I hear people talk about brine shrimp, blood worms, and tubifex worms as though they're all good now and then for most fish, but I really don't have any idea about the nutritional differences in any of this stuff.

 

[Sicklid]

I think all of your fish are okay with the worms, but double check cause I believe some fish get gut blockage from them... As far as flake food I will say this: I just grew out some convict fry given to me and I started them off on Tetra brand flakes cause thats what was in my "pantry". When they got old enough to spawn, they did so, but then the female couldn't keep up with the males advances cause she was underweight and not producing eggs from the lack of nutrition. So I started feeding cichlid pellets and offering spirulina flakes- then I noticed I had NO MORE ALGAE growing on the walls of tank! This directly coincided with the time I started them on a more expensive diet (well plus the bio-load went down some beacuse they KILLED the other fish in the tank). I mean, I had what I considered to be "normal" algae growth which meant I was scraping some good growth off the walls of the tank weekly, but after getting off flakes I did'nt even see a haze on the glass for three to four weeks! Just some "food" for thought...

 

[Mosaic]

For some reason I think thawing stuff out is easier for me, and thats a lot of the reason I do it - laziness. Any frozen food for freshwater fish should be ok. Some you can feed more often than others though. I feed mine BS and spirulina everyday with good results. I've heard bloodworms should be fed only occasionally, and beefheart should be fed only rarely because it's very fatty. Just feed a variety of foods, and you won't have to worry about deficiencies.
Just pay attention to what it looks like when it thaws. It ought to break up into the little individual shrimps/worms. If they stay stay in a big cubish lump even after its warm that means it thawed out during transit or in the store for a while, then was re-frozen. Don't feed it, its not good anymore.

That's very interesting, Sicklid. I bet the higher quality food gets digested better by the fish so there's less coming out the other end and less nutrients to feed the algae. Just a hypothesis.

 

[Sicklid]

Also got GREAT color from those convicts by feeding frozen bloodworms, Mosaic, and they also went nuts for blanched green veggies like zucchini and green leaf lettuce. Like everyone says, a varied diet is best, but I think for most fish a flake food only diet is like eating cheap, boring, fast food meals at every feeding time. Research what they eat in the wild, and look into culturing worms or other live organisms. Its fun, beneficial to your pets, and it's a reason for another tank!