What is your Toyota Camry of Fish Foods?

[_Eric_]

Cory mentioned on a recent livestream that he thought Xtreme and a few other foods were excellent products, but were a little overpriced.  If he eventually rolls out a Co-op brand of food, he said he would look to make a Toyota Camry of foods - high quality but affordable. 

I don't have many tanks and none are very large so spending an extra couple of bucks an ounce on Xtrreme isn't a big deal.  However, it made me think about what would fall int he category of the current Toyota Camry of foods.  Omega One flakes are in this category for me and wanted to see if y'all had any other candidates.

 

[Guppysnail]

My Toyota Camry, Roles Royce and Gremlin of fish food is the same food brand. Ken’s Fish Food is the one my fish go crazy for. Quality ingredients. Every size and variety you can imagine for every fish type. It is also cheaper than even things like tetra or aqueon. It’s sold in small 4oz  jars to bulk 5 lb quantities. Wafers, flake granules, micron pellets to big kid chunks. My fish health is fantastic and reproduction has dramatically increased with this food. 1 order and I can get several varieties with different ingredients for the same fish and 1 order accommodates all my critters. 
They are geared towards making it affordable to be a hobby breeder or have just 1 tank by producing top quality food that is affordable. 
Several friends have tried this and love it also. 
@dasaltemelosguy found the benefits of this food also. 

[Lennie]

For me it's Tropical. I like their insect menu and hi-algae. Both are pretty affordable and has nice ratios. Gonna try their discus food next.

Otherwise, my favorite brand is New Life Spectrum. And It will always be my number  one in general until I find anything better as a commercial food.

 

I have 26 tanks rn, and gradually increasing the size. And even small sized packages last pretty long for me. I personally think buying something with best quality you can afford is the better idea overall, to have a healthier animal in general. Diet is really important. I personally aim to buy highest quality foods for all my animals. Otherwise, you will spend more money for vet, medicines, surgeries, and you will probably have a higher chance of ending up with a sick animal on hand.

It is always worth to spend a lil more for higher quality of food in my opinion. I'd rather cut the costs on something else rather than from their diet.

 

[dasaltemelosguy]

On 7/13/2023 at 10:49 AM, Guppysnail said:

My Toyota Camry, Roles Royce and Gremlin of fish food is the same food brand. Ken’s Fish Food is the one my fish go crazy for. Quality ingredients. Every size and variety you can imagine for every fish type. It is also cheaper than even things like tetra or aqueon. It’s sold in small 4oz  jars to bulk 5 lb quantities. Wafers, flake granules, micron pellets to big kid chunks. My fish health is fantastic and reproduction has dramatically increased with this food. 1 order and I can get several varieties with different ingredients for the same fish and 1 order accommodates all my critters. 
They are geared towards making it affordable to be a hobby breeder or have just 1 tank by producing top quality food that is affordable. 
Several friends have tried this and love it also. 
@dasaltemelosguy found the benefits of this food also. 

I fully agree. It did not take but a few weeks to see health improvements after using Ken’s. Prior to that, I was largely using Tetra and Hikari but once we started using Ken’s, we began to notice color improvement, more energy but mostly accelerated growth. In addition, at least with respect to the brands it replaced, the fish LOVE Ken’s and attack it with zeal. My big Oscar loves the 12mm carnivore pellets and literally will not eat unless he’s hand fed these now. His previous favorite was brine shrimp cubes which he now ignores until I drop four of the 12MM pellets in his open, canyon-sized yap!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I like Repashy for how versatile it is. I can

Make cubes with it to feed fish, or just mix it in a container and spoon some out when I want to feed.

Add things to it such as calcium for snails

Make shrimp lollies with it

Feed the powder to shrimplets, nerite snails, or microfauna

Put it into cute molds

Coat objects with it for fish to graze from

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 7/13/2023 at 10:49 AM, Guppysnail said:

Ken’s Fish Food

Tell me more. What do you like most? I went on the website and I'm seeing 1/4lb as the smallest size on some flakes? Am I looking in the wrong place?

[Guppysnail]

On 7/13/2023 at 2:57 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Tell me more. What do you like most? I went on the website and I'm seeing 1/4lb as the smallest size on some flakes? Am I looking in the wrong place?

That’s right 1/4 lb is 4 oz. Standard size pet shops sell maybe a touch bigger but it is inexpensive enough you throw away what dates out without feeling loss since you pay less than for a smaller bottle of other flake. 
I use high protein green granules different sizes, high protein growth granular different sizes. Micron golden pearls all sizes. 
My corydora  would revolt without meat wafers(yes name is actually meat wafer 🤣). I use veggie wafer. 
I do t feed flake but my friend swears by cichlid mix and spirulina. I also have floating betta pellet’s because my GBR likes to chase them about. Some veggie wafers. 

@xXInkedPhoenixX for size reference these are granules and micron 1/4 lb

[Lennie]

On 7/13/2023 at 10:27 PM, Guppysnail said:

That’s right 1/4 lb is 4 oz. Standard size pet shops sell maybe a touch bigger but it is inexpensive enough you throw away what dates out without feeling loss since you pay less than for a smaller bottle of other flake. 
I use high protein green granules different sizes, high protein growth granular different sizes. Micron golden pearls all sizes. 
My corydora  would revolt without meat wafers(yes name is actually meat wafer 🤣). I use veggie wafer. 
I do t feed flake but my friend swears by cichlid mix and spirulina. I also have floating betta pellet’s because my GBR likes to chase them about. Some veggie wafers. 

@xXInkedPhoenixX for size reference these are granules and micron 1/4 lb

Your fish eat better than I do

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

LRB turned me on to the Tetra Tropical Granules years ago and for the price it’s been great. On Amazon it’s always cheaper to buy multiples. 
 

I feed Extreme Krill and Spirulina Flakes but I’ve also got my combos where Ive mixed in Vibra bites, Massivore pellets, Pleco Ceramics wafers and the bottom Of my Tetra Tropical Granules. 
 

I also use tons of Repashy and I mix them as well 1/3 Soilent green, 1/3 Super Green, 1/3 Community Blend and some have either Morning Wood, Grub Pie or Gold Fish formula. I’ve also added other stuff in there like spirulina, dried mashed krill etc. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/13/2023 at 9:06 AM, _Eric_ said:

Cory mentioned on a recent livestream that he thought Xtreme and a few other foods were excellent products, but were a little overpriced.  If he eventually rolls out a Co-op brand of food, he said he would look to make a Toyota Camry of foods - high quality but affordable. 

I like the Krill / Spirulina flake from Xtreme.  There's a lot of foods I have issues with (sharkwater reference) and a lot of that comes down to a lack of clarity on what is in the food.

Some foods in my experience the fish just won't touch.  I don't mind paying $7-10 for a good size thing of flake food.  I couldn't even tell you what the price is, but I do not view extreme as overpriced at all.  (for the sake of science, I'll check price)

Most of the ingredients are a vitamin mix that I'm sure is in all their food as well as the protein base.

Quote

Ingredients:  Krill Meal, Fish Meal, Shrimp Meal, Wheat Flour, Soy Flour, Brewers Dried Yeast, Sodium Alginate, Spirulina, Soy Lecithin, Corn Starch, Paprika, Dicalcium Phosphate, Xanthophyll, Choline Chloride, Fish Oil, Emulsifier, Sorbitol, Red 3, Manganese Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Iron Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Supplement), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K Activity), Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Canthaxanthin, Beta Carotene, Ethoxyquin

Crude Protein Min. 38%, Crude Fat Min. 11%, Crude Fiber Max. 4%, Phosphorus Max. 1%, Moisture Max. 10%, Ash Max 12%

Quote

Ingredients: Spirulina, Fish Meal, Wheat Flour, Non-GM Soy Flour, Shrimp Meal, Wheat Germ Meal, Soy Protein Isolate, Grain Distillers, Dried Yeast, Fish Protein Concentrate, Soy Lecithin, Krill Meal, Sodium Alginate, Fish Oil, Dried Kelp, Emulsifier, Corn Starch, Sorbitol, Choline Chloride, Manganese Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Iron Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Selenite, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Supplement), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K Activity), Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, Anise Oil, Dicalcium Phosphate, Ethoxyquin, TBHQ

compare that to something like repashy, yeah... repashy is a bit better.  We aren't talking like this is NLS or Northfin or something extravagant.  This is sort of the "basic recipe" of what fish food should be.  There's a lot of ways companies use ingredients to make things cheaper.  Ultimately, I don't like to get into a habit of buying large sizes of food just because it's slightly cheaper.  It makes sense if you have the tanks to feed it, but I already have a seriously difficult time feeding enough food.  When you're talking smaller jars, getting enough food for a month of feeding at a time, the cost changes.  I want to have 2-3 foods to rotate, frozen, and repashy food.  This gives me a balanced diet and gives me the ability to keep the fish interested in different things.

Some foods you try once, never again, it happens.  Sometimes you feed a food and they love it, but then you look at the back and it's not worth the risk (so to speak).  Certain brands I just won't feed.  Other brands, the fish literally don't eat.  The "cheap stuff" tends to be $7-12 per package here and the expensive stuff is $18-20 per package.

So... that's sort of where I'll end the thoughts.  I don't really agree about xtreme.  I think they can do a job of offering different sizes and there is always going to be a manufacturing side of things where efficiency can help.  Ultimately, you get what you pay for and there is always a range to that.

[Tanked]

Ken's has been mentioned here a few times and they are cheaper than the Tetra product I usually buy so I will give them a shot.

As they say, 'no good deed goes unpunished'.   I've been on line nearly an hour with Amazon, trying to buy Ken's Super Tropical Flakes.  My goal was to purchase fish food and inform them of a problem with the listing. I don't want to buy two pounds of a new product.  The title offers an 8oz. container. The product description says it is a 32 ounce container. In a few days I will either receive 8 ounces or 32 ounces of flakes for $8.99.  The flakes will either be seafood or shrimp flavored.🍤  After talking to 3 CSRs, they must have ghosted me because after thirty minutes of "checking", they never came back.

They did offer to let me keep the flakes and refund the purchase I hadn't yet made!😲

[DanPlanted]

On 7/14/2023 at 11:15 AM, Tanked said:

Ken's has been mentioned here a few times and they are cheaper than the Tetra product I usually buy so I will give them a shot.

As they say, 'no good deed goes unpunished'.   I've been on line nearly an hour with Amazon, trying to buy Ken's Super Tropical Flakes.  My goal was to purchase fish food and inform them of a problem with the listing. I don't want to buy two pounds of a new product.  The title offers an 8oz. container. The product description says it is a 32 ounce container. In a few days I will either receive 8 ounces or 32 ounces of flakes for $8.99.  The flakes will either be seafood or shrimp flavored.🍤  After talking to 3 CSRs, they must have ghosted me because after thirty minutes of "checking", they never came back.

They did offer to let me keep the flakes and refund the purchase I hadn't yet made!😲

Ken's has a number of poor Amazon listings. That's why I just buy direct from them, although I haven't placed an order in a while.

On 7/13/2023 at 2:00 PM, Lennie said:

For me it's Tropical. I like their insect menu and hi-algae. Both are pretty affordable and has nice ratios. Gonna try their discus food next.

Otherwise, my favorite brand is New Life Spectrum. And It will always be my number  one in general until I find anything better as a commercial food.

 

I have 26 tanks rn, and gradually increasing the size. And even small sized packages last pretty long for me. I personally think buying something with best quality you can afford is the better idea overall, to have a healthier animal in general. Diet is really important. I personally aim to buy highest quality foods for all my animals. Otherwise, you will spend more money for vet, medicines, surgeries, and you will probably have a higher chance of ending up with a sick animal on hand.

It is always worth to spend a lil more for higher quality of food in my opinion. I'd rather cut the costs on something else rather than from their diet.

 

Are you in the US? If so where do you find Tropical foods? They are rather hard to find here.

On 7/13/2023 at 12:06 PM, _Eric_ said:

Cory mentioned on a recent livestream that he thought Xtreme and a few other foods were excellent products, but were a little overpriced.  If he eventually rolls out a Co-op brand of food, he said he would look to make a Toyota Camry of foods - high quality but affordable. 

I don't have many tanks and none are very large so spending an extra couple of bucks an ounce on Xtrreme isn't a big deal.  However, it made me think about what would fall int he category of the current Toyota Camry of foods.  Omega One flakes are in this category for me and wanted to see if y'all had any other candidates.

 

Omega One changed all their foods and shut down their factory when they were bought out by Tetra/Spectrum. They're definitely not as good as they used to be. I've been feeding Fluval Bug Bites flakes a lot lately and really like them, plus pretty inexpensive when you buy them online. I really just go for variety and always try something new. I think I have some Cobalt flakes right now too, they're nothing special but were cheap and different.

[Lennie]

On 7/15/2023 at 2:08 AM, DanPlanted said:

Are you in the US? If so where do you find Tropical foods? They are rather hard to find here.

Ah I didn’t know! And no I’m not from US. so they are more common in European countries I guess. It is very commonly available in here