Hikari Gold

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Earlier today I purchased some medium sized Hikari Gold floating cichlid pellets to feed to my 3 inch Flowerhorn. Are these a good staple pellet to give him? Iv heard good things online about them but would greatly appreciate anyone's knowledge and/or personal experiences with feeding these to their cichlids. I gave him a couple earlier and he seemed to love them, they didn't last even 30 seconds from the time they hit the water.

Iv fed him other floating cichlid pellets before which again he likes. These are King British and JBL (medium) and also sinking cichlid pellets which are NLS (new life spectrum). Which of the 4 mentioned would be better as I want to stick to one brand of pellet if possible and then use bloodworm as a treat maybe twice a week and then frozen prawn now and again.

Thanks

 

[thereverendturtle]

I've used the regular and the gold. The gold has more protein and color enhancers. I also have heard of fish being more aggressive on the gold. Personally I feel it best to vary the diet of my fish, so I tend to buy a different brand each time I need food. I believe the fish get better nutrition this way,as not all foods have the same ingredients.

 

[dbanner]

Thanks for the reply, I never thought about it the way you described but it does make perfect sense. Iv heard good things about the Hikari Gold and the New Life Spectrum so maybe it would be ok to use them both? Say a week on one and then a week on the other? What would you suggest?

Also he seems to like the JBL pellets but they make a mess in the tank so I'm not too keen on using them. I do give him JBL "Flowerhorn" granuales every 3 days or or so. They are very fine granules and are meant to be specifically for colour enhancement in Flowerhorns. Not sure if they are any good and/or if what they state to be is 100% true but again he seems to like it.

 

[thereverendturtle]

I feed my fish two or three times a day and switch what I feed each time. But switching weekly is good too. Sorry not familiar with JBL, but Hikari and NLS are both excellent foods, and should provide all your flowerhorn needs. Freeze dried or frozen kill once or twice a week, would also help bring the red out in your fish. The frozen is less messy in my opinion, unless you need to crumble it.

 

[fishprotector]

I used to feed my Cichlids Hikari Cichlid Gold, but recently changed over to New Era CA / SA Pellets and have found that in my view they are better. My fish seem more active, less aggressive and their color seems to be blossoming. I will be sticking with it now. Good stuff.

Oh and I feed my fish twice a day in the week and three times at the weekend.

 

[dbanner]

I feed my fish two or three times a day and switch what I feed each time. But switching weekly is good too. Sorry not familiar with JBL, but Hikari and NLS are both excellent foods, and should provide all your flowerhorn needs. Freeze dried or frozen kill once or twice a week, would also help bring the red out in your fish. The frozen is less messy in my opinion, unless you need to crumble it.

Thanks for that... All I will say is my FH has no red to bring out, it's a Blue Thai Silk FH lol but will it work the same and bring out the blue more?

Mine loves frozen bloodworm (thawed 1st), I heard too much is bad for them but it helps to bulk them up?? I'm currently giving him 2 per week

 

[dbanner]

I used to feed my Cichlids Hikari Cichlid Gold, but recently changed over to New Era CA / SA Pellets and have found that in my view they are better. My fish seem more active, less aggressive and their color seems to be blossoming. I will be sticking with it now. Good stuff.

Oh and I feed my fish twice a day in the week and three times at the weekend.

Iv not come across New Era pellets before, il have to keep a look out. Thanks for that. I think il see how I go with these pellets 1st though.

I'm not too bothered about aggression issues as mine is alone in a 125gal so he can't bring any harm to any other fish

I was only feeding once per day but then Mattlee advised me to feed 3 times a day. Since then my FH has put on some good growth

 

[thereverendturtle]

Blue is a tricky color to intensify. Krill won't do it. I'll have to research that one. I know that my Africans are just blue, but I do feed them spirulina, don't know if that has anything to do with it.

 

[dbanner]

Blue is a tricky color to intensify. Krill won't do it. I'll have to research that one. I know that my Africans are just blue, but I do feed them spirulina, don't know if that has anything to do with it.

I was thinking the same, he has gone a much better blue than when I got him. He was a rather dull blue but has now gone darker. Would be good to better his colour further if possible. If not then I won't be too bothered by it, as long as he is healthy that is my main concern

 

[star4]

I stopped feeding my cichlids Hikari as I found it made them very agressive. I feed sticks and pellet from a company, pm on its way so you can have a look at their stuff

 

[dougie]

I stopped feeding my cichlids Hikari as I found it made them very agressive. I feed sticks and pellet from a company, pm on its way so you can have a look at their stuff

I use the same supplier as Star (Hi Star it's Mark {bought the Metae!!}), as she kindly shared the contact info with me.
Highly recommended

 

[star4]

Hiya Mark, you'll have to start a thread on the metae put up some pics of them I have lost my e-mail account, but if you need me I now have my pm's back

 

[dbanner]

Hi star4, I'm not too bothered with aggression issues as he is in a 125 gal on his own and I'm not adding anymore fish but if it gets to a point where he's attacking me if I try doing water changes then il look into swapping his food lol I have seen and heard of these aggression issues with Hikari products, any idea why it brings out aggression?

Thanks for the pm but for some reason I can't view or send pm's from my phone so il have a look later when I go on the laptop

I stopped feeding my cichlids Hikari as I found it made them very agressive. I feed sticks and pellet from a company, pm on its way so you can have a look at their stuff

I use the same supplier as Star (Hi Star it's Mark {bought the Metae!!}), as she kindly shared the contact info with me.
Highly recommended

Hi, thanks for the reply. I can't look at the pm star4 sent yet as I'm on my phone and it won't let me, il have a look later.

 

[star4]

I have no idea what causes the aggression but its only in some fish, and not the same species. One of my severums a red spot was as wicked as a wasp when he was being fed hikari, but other severums were fine on it. Personally I put it down to they enjoy it so much that they will squabble to get as much as possible, I also noted that on pure hikari they did seem hungrier, maybe it wasnt filling them satisfactory I am not sure, it was just my observations with my own fish. Now I just add a mix of different pellet, sticks and vegiflake to the tank and they get a bit of everything. The link I sent you his sinking pellet (cichlid) is very good, its stays whole for ages not making a huge mess either I have my pm's back now so if you have any questions on the foods just ask, I have been using him now 2 years + cant recomend him high enough

 

[fishprotector]

Blue is a tricky color to intensify. Krill won't do it. I'll have to research that one. I know that my Africans are just blue, but I do feed them spirulina, don't know if that has anything to do with it.

I was thinking the same, he has gone a much better blue than when I got him. He was a rather dull blue but has now gone darker. Would be good to better his colour further if possible. If not then I won't be too bothered by it, as long as he is healthy that is my main concern

The new era pellets have intensified the colours of my EBJD if that helps. I also have a red and blue bulb in my tank which I also thinks helps.