food specs... doing some reading this morning....

[Magnum Man]

I noticed these quotes on a food, that I've had on my watch list.... I've not tried them yet...

" KEEP A CLEANER TANK: Our Super Color Mini Pellets are naturally insoluble, which reduces water pollution, and they have significantly less starch, which reduces fish waste

• SUPERIOR QUALITY: No meals, hydrolysates, digests, or any other pre-processed protein"

If they are "naturally insoluble" to me that sounds like, they are harder to digest??? being as the fishes digestive system is fully emersed in water, I would think if they were soluble, they would be more easily digested??? thoughts???

 

[Magnum Man]

ingredients still have cereal grains... and the feed 3 times a day doesn't work with how I keep fish... hmmm feed them like Americans...

 

[GaryE]

I think the great lack in prepared fish foods is fibre. Algae, plants, fish, crustaceans, insects - all are fibrous foods to varying degrees. When Lake Malawi's 'aufwuchs' (plant matter/crustacean and algae) eaters came into the hobby, the death rates from bloating exposed a lot of then popular foods. Now we have Bettas bloating. It's the same old, same old. Insect exoskeltons aren't water soluble or digestible, but they aid digestion and bowel health.

You want food that can be digested, not dissolved. As for 4 times a day - the companies want money that can be pocketed, and the welfare of the fish doesn't natter to most food companies. The cheapest ingredients in the largest quantities will do that.

As much as possible, I try to avoid processed fish foods. They have their uses, but in combination.

 

[Colin_T]

ingredients still have cereal grains... and the feed 3 times a day doesn't work with how I keep fish... hmmm feed them like Americans...View attachment 372970

Keep the salmon, whole herring, whole shrimp, herring oil & kelp, and dump the rest, and you have a good food for predatory fishes.

If the wheat flour, wheat germ, wheat gluten, rice bran and pea protein were last, they would be in smaller amounts and less of an issue. But having them at the top of the ingredients list (3rd & 4th) means they are a bulking/ filler agent. The shrimp even comes after them. Since fish can't digest grains, it's kind of pointless having fish food with lots of grains/ flour in.

Having vitamin A in fish food containing whole fish is pointless. The whole fish will have plenty of vitamin A in. If the manufacturers were really concerned about the fish getting enough vitamin A, they could add betacarotene and it would improve red, orange and yellow colours in fish and provide them with all the vitamin A they can use and in a safe manor. You can store huge amounts of betacarotene in your body and it converts it to vitamin A as required. But if you have too much vitamin A, you get sick.

The vitamins (especially B vitamins) are going to break down rapidly in a humid environment so it probably won't be of any benefit once the container is open. The Astaxanthin might be helpful for blue colour in fish but the rest of it isn't really useful.

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I have used dry pellet fish foods that were really hard and didn't break down readily in water. The nitrates went just as high in the tanks that got those pellets as they did on other types of foods. The only good use I found for hard insoluble fish pellets was to use as baits in my fish traps when collecting fishes in the wild. The insoluble pellets would be used all day and still stay together.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

There will always be some sort of grain as a binder. The difference in prepared foods is do they use more grains than necessary as filler, and the quality of the main ingredients.

Much like feeding a capybara to your anaconda in your Amazon biotope aquarium, you want to feed whole prey items. So "fish meal" isn't always bad if it's from the whole fish.

 

[gwand]

What is the garlic for. Italian fish?

 

[GaryE]

What is the garlic for. Italian fish?

About every 10 years or so, there is a short fad for garlic as an ultimate natural miracle med in fishfood. The marketing is everywhere, then it's nowhere. So having garlic in there is good marketing for the next flare up, or leftover ingredients from the last.

It may or may not be useful, but if it did what the ads claim when it's "in", there'd be no kissing gouramis in the hobby.

 

[Magnum Man]

Can Freshwater Fish Eat Garlic? Benefits, Safety, And Myths For Your Aquarium [Updated On- 2025]

Freshwater fish can eat garlic. It enhances appetite and boosts the immune system. Use fresh garlic or garlic extract as fish food. Avoid high concentrations,

fishingandfish.com

 

[AJ356]

There will always be some sort of grain as a binder. The difference in prepared foods is do they use more grains than necessary as filler, and the quality of the main ingredients.
View attachment 372972
View attachment 372973
Much like feeding a capybara to your anaconda in your Amazon biotope aquarium, you want to feed whole prey items. So "fish meal" isn't always bad if it's from the whole fish.

I assume companies are not using the whole fish if they are stating fish meal? Or they would state whole fish? Or maybe not. But fish food companies probably know that 99% of fish keepers are probably clueless when it comes to fish food ingredients. Nearly every single most well known brand of fish food in the UK starts with fish meal as the main ingredient.

 

[Colin_T]

What is the garlic for. Italian fish?

to make the fish taste better

 

[GaryE]

Can Freshwater Fish Eat Garlic? Benefits, Safety, And Myths For Your Aquarium [Updated On- 2025]

Freshwater fish can eat garlic. It enhances appetite and boosts the immune system. Use fresh garlic or garlic extract as fish food. Avoid high concentrations,

fishingandfish.com

The article has an AI feel, and contradicts itself a bit. A few more "may" and "might" statements pop up at the end than at the beginning. But if garlic is as good as its proponents believe, there's no saying how much is in these foods.

There are no standards or regulations on fish foods, so gimmicks abound.