Best fish food brands

[Kieflow]

What is your opinion on the best flake, pellet, and wafer brand? Also, what is the best/easiest live food culture to keep? 

[Garren]

I really like the xtreme fish brand. They make many different products. My fish go nuts over it and it gets all eaten up fast. Been feeding it for a few weeks now and the colors in the fish are brighter. 

[Daniel]

Blackworms are the easiest live food culture to keep for me. I keep them in the fridge.

Baby brine aren't the easiest (but still very easy overall) because you have to do a couple of minutes of easy chores each day, but they are really inexpensive for the amount of food you get. Less expensive by far than blackworms. So at the intersection of cheap and easy I would pick baby brine shrimp.

Or sometimes in the utility sink with cold water dripping on them.

Hikari Vibra Bites are my fishes favorite prepared food.

Mosquito larva and Daphnia are pretty easy because I don't keep them so much as catch them from outdoor containers.

[Steph’s Fish and Plants]

I haven’t tried culturing live so I can’t touch on that, but my favorite prepared food brands are the fluval bug bites, hikari wafers and vibra bites, and I’m playing around with Xtreme foods. Have only tried the nano pellets so far so I need to try the krill flake too.

[BrandyLaRae]

I'm brand new, but I do have one ridiculously finicky betta that I've had for years.

He'll eat Bug Bites or Xtreme pellets, and frozen brine shrimp. He also like the Hikari pellets when I fed those before I heard about Xtreme.

He spits out dried or frozen blood worms and frozen mysis shrimp. There were other dried foods he hated before but it's been so long I can't remember.

BTW, I tried hatching baby brine shrimp for him and he would just float there and watch them. I have no doubt they all ended up in the filter. LOLOL

Edited October 17, 2020 by BrandyLaRae

[Terry Ellacott]

If anyone is interested in breeding fish I would highly recommend white worm and microworm cultures. I find that there is nothing better than white worms for getting fish to produce eggs and I find most fry that are big enough to eat brine shrimp will eat microworm. Once you have a starter culture you can have almost limitless quality food for almost nothing, mine are fed on white bread and oatmeal. 

[Kieflow]

3 hours ago, Terry Ellacott said:

If anyone is interested in breeding fish I would highly recommend white worm and microworm cultures. I find that there is nothing better than white worms for getting fish to produce eggs and I find most fry that are big enough to eat brine shrimp will eat microworm. Once you have a starter culture you can have almost limitless quality food for almost nothing, mine are fed on white bread and oatmeal. 

I have a micro worm culture and I feed them instant potatoes. My smaller fish eat them but larger fish don’t. 

[ange]

I don't think there's really one brand that's really killing it, just formulas that are doing well. My favorite commercial foods are Xtreme Krill Flakes, Repashy Soilent Green, and Hikari Vibra Bites.

[Randy]

90% of my feeding is Xtreme, Krill Flake and 1.5mm Sinking Pellets.

The other 10% is when I am testing foods we don’t carry.

For live food I would have to say vinegar eels, although I have only fed them once.  Baby Brine Shrimp would be the easiest that I actually do feed.  I’ve messed with blackworms but wasn’t to fond of having them in the fridge.

[Ryan W]

Honestly, the “best” is whatever your fish will eat. I remember Cory’s tour of LRB’s fish room and he was amazed that every tank tank only got Tetra Color Granules but that’s what his fish ate and they thrive on it. 
 

I use to be a big NLS fanboy until they switched most of their formulas to “Naturox” probiotic. My fish literally went from pigging out on NLS to straight up refusing it. Then I switched to frozen and Xtreme. For Xtreme, my fish really enjoyed the “Community Craze” flakes but I think my jar went stale (they pack a lot in those little jars) after going through half because my tiger barbs started getting very picky. That’s when I started trying frozen. Frozen brine is accepted about 80% of the time and frozen bloodworms are always a hit.

As far as brands go for me, for flake my fish seemed to enjoy Xtreme the best. Early on I had success feeding Omega One and Colbalt flakes. I also liked Omega Ones freeze dried brine. For wafers, I like Xtreme and Hikari. For pellets, I really want to like NLS but their offerings are getting harder to find without the “Naturox” additive. I do have a jar of Thera a+ that my fish like but it’s the .5mm pellets and it’s basically like feeding sand. VERY small for .5mm. I wish Xtreme would come out with a 1mm pellet but Xtremes pellets to tend to expand a lot so I’m thinking if I pre-soak the Nano pellets, they might expand large enough for my fish to care about. I swear I have the pickiest fish lol. Vibrabites are also enjoyed by all of my fish (tiger barbs, black neon tetras, panda cories, and a betta and yes he’s in his own tank).

 

So, good brands in my book; Xtreme, Hikari, NLS (if it’s the the correct version), Omega One (freeze dried), and San Fransisco Bay for frozen brine. Omega One also has some pretty decent frozen offerings. I’m currently using their bloodworms.

I remember and old video with Cory and Dean discussing foods and the consensus was pretty much all of the foods we have now as hobbyists are relatively better than what we had available just 10-15 years ago let alone 40-50 years ago. Brand doesn’t really matter now a days. It mostly comes down to what we as fish keepers feel comfortable spending coupled with what our fish will actually eat. If your fish thrive off Wardley’s, keep feeding Wardley’s. If you want to feel like you’re giving your fish “the best”, then buy a higher-end brand but don’t get confused if your fish don’t want “the best”. Sometimes, they just want the “same ol’ same ol’” which there’s nothing wrong with that. I know we always want to give our pets the best but sometimes we just need to give them what they want. Sometimes that’s a “cheap” or “inferior” brand. But if the fish thrive from it, what makes it inferior? Our perception on what makes a “brand” good? The difference between “whole” and “meal”? At the end of the day, does it practically matter? As long as the nutrients are there and the price is right, brand is negligible. Thankfully, there really isn’t that many brands to choose from and the ones that are available are pretty much the same thing to our fish. Decent to good food. As long as they eat it. If not, try another brand. Hard to go wrong now a days. 

[varanidguy]

I'm practically in love with New Life Spectrum. The ingredients are top notch, quality is great, doesn't foul the water, and I've never had an issue with fish not eating it.

I've heard great things about XTreme and plan on trying it someday. But for now, my staple is New Life Spectrum.

Additionally I'll feed frozen blood worms, mysis shrimp, and brine shrimp as well as live roaches. I breed the roaches for monitor lizards, but when they're newborns, even tetras and rainbows can eat them. And my archers appreciate the bugs.

[Kieflow]

5 hours ago, Ryan W said:

Honestly, the “best” is whatever your fish will eat. I remember Cory’s tour of LRB’s fish room and he was amazed that every tank tank only got Tetra Color Granules but that’s what his fish ate and they thrive on it. 
 

I use to be a big NLS fanboy until they switched most of their formulas to “Naturox” probiotic. My fish literally went from pigging out on NLS to straight up refusing it. Then I switched to frozen and Xtreme. For Xtreme, my fish really enjoyed the “Community Craze” flakes but I think my jar went stale (they pack a lot in those little jars) after going through half because my tiger barbs started getting very picky. That’s when I started trying frozen. Frozen brine is accepted about 80% of the time and frozen bloodworms are always a hit.

As far as brands go for me, for flake my fish seemed to enjoy Xtreme the best. Early on I had success feeding Omega One and Colbalt flakes. I also liked Omega Ones freeze dried brine. For wafers, I like Xtreme and Hikari. For pellets, I really want to like NLS but their offerings are getting harder to find without the “Naturox” additive. I do have a jar of Thera a+ that my fish like but it’s the .5mm pellets and it’s basically like feeding sand. VERY small for .5mm. I wish Xtreme would come out with a 1mm pellet but Xtremes pellets to tend to expand a lot so I’m thinking if I pre-soak the Nano pellets, they might expand large enough for my fish to care about. I swear I have the pickiest fish lol. Vibrabites are also enjoyed by all of my fish (tiger barbs, black neon tetras, panda cories, and a betta and yes he’s in his own tank).

 

So, good brands in my book; Xtreme, Hikari, NLS (if it’s the the correct version), Omega One (freeze dried), and San Fransisco Bay for frozen brine. Omega One also has some pretty decent frozen offerings. I’m currently using their bloodworms.

I remember and old video with Cory and Dean discussing foods and the consensus was pretty much all of the foods we have now as hobbyists are relatively better than what we had available just 10-15 years ago let alone 40-50 years ago. Brand doesn’t really matter now a days. It mostly comes down to what we as fish keepers feel comfortable spending coupled with what our fish will actually eat. If your fish thrive off Wardley’s, keep feeding Wardley’s. If you want to feel like you’re giving your fish “the best”, then buy a higher-end brand but don’t get confused if your fish don’t want “the best”. Sometimes, they just want the “same ol’ same ol’” which there’s nothing wrong with that. I know we always want to give our pets the best but sometimes we just need to give them what they want. Sometimes that’s a “cheap” or “inferior” brand. But if the fish thrive from it, what makes it inferior? Our perception on what makes a “brand” good? The difference between “whole” and “meal”? At the end of the day, does it practically matter? As long as the nutrients are there and the price is right, brand is negligible. Thankfully, there really isn’t that many brands to choose from and the ones that are available are pretty much the same thing to our fish. Decent to good food. As long as they eat it. If not, try another brand. Hard to go wrong now a days. 

Thank you for the in depth reply. The flake I am currently using is TetraMin plus. I felt like I was shorting my fish bc of how cheap it was, but they love it! I’m going to keep feeding it but I recently bought xtreme krill flakes (which they also love) so I think I will keep both. Pair that with bug bites, and omega 1 veggie rounds and everyone is happy. I also feed blanched zucchini and frozen bloodworms/brine shrimp for a treat once a week. 

Edited October 18, 2020 by Kieflow

[ange]

I think it's less about "what brand is good" and "what formula is good." My best experiences with commercially prepared foods are with Xtreme Krill Flake, Hikari Vibra Bites (pellet), and Repashy Soilent Green (gel).

[ADMWNDSR83]

I have a crazy wide selection that I rotate through, including Hikari Vibra Bites, Fluval BugBites, Omega One Color pellets, and Tetra Color flakes.  Twice a week, on my off days so I can enjoy the frenzy better, I dose some frozen bloodworms from OmegaOne.  I've contemplated brewing up some live BBS, since I fed brine shrimp once before from my LFS, and the fish and even the snails went cuh-razy!

[Wesley]

10 hours ago, Kieflow said:

I felt like I was shorting my fish bc of how cheap it was

Fish food prices are all over the place and usually the smaller containers are more expensive. Recently came across some price for bulk which made me realise how overpriced everything is:

Small 250ml container here is about 6 euros.
1 liter container is about 20 euros.
10 liter container is 40 euros.

I dont think flakes can last 3 years even though thats the best before date and I dont have that many fish (yet) to justify buying 10 liter tubs of fish food.

Edited October 19, 2020 by Wesley

[James N]

For anyone in the UK, I can fully recommend Fish Science foods. I use vegetable flakes, micro granules and also feed the marine krill flakes to my freshwater fish (tried it after the story of how the coop converted xtreme marine krill flakes into a freshwater orientated food)

[Maggie]

Just got my order of Ocean Nutrition instant baby brine shrimp in a jar from the coop and my baby rasboras went nuts! They're going to get this every day for one of their feedings. I'm starting a hatchery soon. 

[RyanR]

I don't think I have a favorite brand, but there are quite a few that I like the ingredients of.  I like Xtreme, but I think that a lot (not all) of their products have very similar ingredients.  I might feed the Krill Flakes to my tropical tanks, but the slow sinking pellets are almost the same ingredients.  I'll feed the pellets to my cichlids.  The same with Bug Bites.  I like theirs too, but a lot of the first 3 or 4 ingredients are the same.  And I like Repashy too.  To me, these all have too quality ingredients and my fish love them all.

I like to feed a variety, so I have a lot of different brands to mix up ingredients.

[ange]

10 hours ago, RyanR said:

I don't think I have a favorite brand, but there are quite a few that I like the ingredients of.  I like Xtreme, but I think that a lot (not all) of their products have very similar ingredients.  I might feed the Krill Flakes to my tropical tanks, but the slow sinking pellets are almost the same ingredients.  I'll feed the pellets to my cichlids.  The same with Bug Bites.  I like theirs too, but a lot of the first 3 or 4 ingredients are the same.  And I like Repashy too.  To me, these all have too quality ingredients and my fish love them all.

I like to feed a variety, so I have a lot of different brands to mix up ingredients.

The reason I like Xtreme so much is because the majority of their diets are the same nutritional formula, but a different delivery system. It only took a little bit of testing to find my favorite delivery system (flake is my #1 pick for my tanks) and now I just repurchase the same thing that I like a LOT instead of switching around, not being sure, trying other brands, etc.

Edited October 26, 2020 by ange
clarity

[Jim O]

Has Northfin food fallen from favor? I was surprised not to see it mentioned in this discussion, as I know it had developed quite a following a few years back. In many of the forums, it seemed to be getting people to defect from NLS...

[ChefConfit]

I've had success with omega one supercolor flake as a staple food, but am just about out and am trying bug bites color enhancing flakes next(want to try extreme but refuse to place an order for just one thing so probably next time I run out). The other food in my rotation that have been doing well are omega one frozen baby brine; Hikari mini algae wafers, bottom feeder wafers, freeze dried brine shrimp, fancy guppy pellets and vibra bites; and fluval bug bites for shrimp. For most of my food I buy the largest container available since it's usually the cheapest per ounce and freeze the original container only taking out a months worth at a time which I keep in tiny Tupperware. The flake food I feed every morning though I usually buy 1/2 oz containers and leave it out since I go through it we'll before it would go bad or even stale. 

[AndyG]

I’ve been using omega one tropical flakes for a while, but recently bought some Xtreme krill flakes from the coop. All my fish love them except for a picky blue ram, he likes the omega one, but spits the krill flakes. Kind of weird to me, but who can argue lol I do like that they use all seafood and no meal products.

Edited November 2, 2020 by AndyG

[Sblev]

I saw a livestream where Cory talked about his opinion of the best frozen food brands. One was Hikari for frozen bloodworms and I cant remember what the brands were for the frozen cyclops and frozen baby brine. If anyone knows or remembers which stream it was I would be grateful.

Thanks

 

 

[Philip]

Big proponent of live foods. I culture many different things and by far the easiest is Vinegar eels. 

I'm not saying it's the best or easiest to harvest (that would be either the White worms or Grindal worms). Your question was easiest to keep. 

You can have a jar of Vinegar eels you forgot about for months and you still got a zillion of them going strong.

[kevibruy]

There are a great deal of good food marks out there. 

By and large, you need to stay away from food sources who's initial not many fixings are "fish dinner", "wheat flour", or "potato". Those are the enormous three I'd say. (Most fish food sources triumph when it's all said and done these last two, they are fasteners and fillers. Be that as it may, for the most part you don't need them to be in the initial 3 or 4 fixings.) 

For instance, the entirety of the Nutrafin food varieties are extremely bad quality and I would not suggest. 

The new Bug Bites food line, nonetheless, made by a similar organization (Hagen), has dark officer fly hatchlings, salmon, and fish protein concentrate as their 3 first fixings. Much better. 

Extraordinary food organizations incorporate Omega One, New Life Spectrum, North Fin, Tropical, and Fluval Bug Bites. Cobalt Aquatics likewise is by all accounts making some great quality stuff. I get Stouffer's Lasagna with Meat & Sauce Frozen Meal frozen food from my nearby Harris Teeter store.

Edited July 29, 2021 by kevibruy