Xtreme Fish food

[knee]

I noticed that a lot of people on this forum love Xtreme fish food. I personally love Northfin and NLS, and was wondering if I bought the correct ones or if I should change it.

When I buy fish food, I like to get a few different types of food from that brand and mix them all up in my salt and pepper grinder to feed my fish. I do this to ensure that I'm not missing out on anything when I feed them.

For Northfin I have the krill pro, community pellet, bug pro and veggie pellet all mixed together.

For NLS I have the super red, probiotix, algaemax all mixed together.

For Omega One I have the super color, veggie, cichlid pellets all mixed together (this brand gets fed the least or they usually go to my pest snail tank)

 

I got the Xtreme Nano pellets, NICE slow sinking and NICE semi floating pellets.

Is this enough or do I need to get something else?

I would want to get a spirulina pellet but they don't have it.

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/2/2024 at 11:12 AM, knee said:

For Northfin I have the krill pro, community pellet, bug pro and veggie pellet all mixed together.

For NLS I have the super red, probiotix, algaemax all mixed together.

For Omega One I have the super color, veggie, cichlid pellets all mixed together (this brand gets fed the least or they usually go to my pest snail tank)

 

I got the Xtreme Nano pellets, NICE slow sinking and NICE semi floating pellets.

Is this enough or do I need to get something else?

I would want to get a spirulina pellet but they don't have it.

I switched from xtreme towards northfin. 

Of the xtreme, I use the spirulina / krill flake.  The pellets, my fish couldn't chew on and they didn't sink for me.  the nano pellets might be better than the ones I had (1.5mm semi-floating)  I am talking 4-5 days later and they'd still be floating at the surface in the corners of the tank.  It got to the point where I ran some tests just to verify what on earth I was experiencing.  Simlar issue with the shrimp food where it was so dense and so hard that the shrimp couldn't actually break it apart.  Soaking it didn't help much either and it would take ~3 days for the shrimp to eat some food as opposed to 6-24 hours for other stuff I've tried.

In terms of the bug pro and things like that I will mention is oft because the food is that good.  Aqueon Nutrinsect is fish free and there's an advantage to that when it comes towards something like shark conservation (personally something I care about).  The food itself, apart from all of that has really solid ingredients from everything I can tell, but most importantly.... the texture of the food is spot on.  It's like a firm squish.  The fish can get in there and break it apart, but it's not going to leave a mess on you at all.  Pellet size if good enough that it works on any smaller mouth fish. 

I have used 2 northfin foods so far, the krill pro pellet (1mm size) and the cichlid veggie pellet (1mm size).  I use that in replacement of flake just because I only have corydoras and shrimp right now.  High flow, that stuff sinks extremely quickly.  With less flow, it is semi-floating.  It's not too hard that you can't break it up, and it's got good stuff in there.  I like the addition of things like rosemary on the ingredients list.  I was not a fan at all of the algae wafers, which is pretty much the exact same recipe as the cichlid veggie pellets.

NLS I haven't, but want to try the algaemaxx stuff when I have some fish in the upper regions of the tank. 

Omega one, I've used before, but it didn't last long once I just decided to get food online. 

But yeah, to your question at the end there.... crave flake is a mix of the krill and spirulina.  It's a good one to have on hand if you have upper dwelling fish.

[knee]

On 1/2/2024 at 1:25 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Aqueon Nutrinsect is fish free and there's an advantage to that when it comes towards something like shark conservation (personally something I care about).  The food itself, apart from all of that has really solid ingredients from everything I can tell, but most importantly.... the texture of the food is spot on.  It's like a firm squish.  The fish can get in there and break it apart, but it's not going to leave a mess on you at all.  Pellet size if good enough that it works on any smaller mouth fish. 

Will try this for sure. It's on sale at petco right now and I might be able to stop by after work 🙂

 

On 1/2/2024 at 1:25 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The pellets, my fish couldn't chew on and they didn't sink for me.  the nano pellets might be better than the ones I had (1.5mm semi-floating)  I am talking 4-5 days later and they'd still be floating at the surface in the corners of the tank.  It got to the point where I ran some tests just to verify what on earth I was experiencing.  Simlar issue with the shrimp food where it was so dense and so hard that the shrimp couldn't actually break it apart.  Soaking it didn't help much either and it would take ~3 days for the shrimp to eat some food as opposed to 6-24 hours for other stuff I've tried.

I'll try just the nano pellets in that case. My fish are a bit picky and NLS is a bit dense that northfin and I noticed that my cichlids would spit out NLS and then try again, then repeat the same cycle. They have never done this to Northfin.

 

Have you tried the Fluval Bug Bites Spirulina flakes and the Color flakes? It does have fish in it tho. Just wanted to see what you think of the food. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/2/2024 at 1:58 PM, knee said:

Will try this for sure. It's on sale at petco right now and I might be able to stop by after work 🙂

They just had it on amazon for something crazy like $2-3 for the jar.  I'd be very interested to hear your review on it!

On 1/2/2024 at 1:58 PM, knee said:

Have you tried the Fluval Bug Bites Spirulina flakes and the Color flakes? It does have fish in it tho. Just wanted to see what you think of the food. 

I haven't. No.  It generally looks like a good food.  The aqueon one is 3 types of bugs, where the fluval ones tend to be just BSF larvae.  It's just a preference thing for me.  I think both work well.  I also feed the bug version of repashy which is BSF too.

[Lennie]

I think you have too many food already 😆 And all are good quality. I don't think you "need" more. If you buy good quality food already, they aren't usually extremely different compared to each other. as long as your fish like it and happy, I don't think you need to add 3-4 different food from each good quality brand. Save your money I would say. 

 

I would instead try to add more live or frozen foods to their diet instead of adding more commercial foods. Like grindal worms, white worms, daphnia, live bbs, etc.

 

[knee]

On 1/2/2024 at 2:00 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

They just had it on amazon for something crazy like $2-3 for the jar.  I'd be very interested to hear your review on it!

Look what you made me do 😂

 

I was suppose to try just one but I also needed dry food and then I saw that they have a floating one for the betta. Then I saw they have one for goldfish. I don’t have goldfish but I wanted to mix all three before feeding them to my fish.
 

I have a problem with buying fish food. I can never just buy one 😭

[knee]

On 1/2/2024 at 2:08 PM, Lennie said:

 

I think you have too many food already 😆 And all are good quality. I don't think you "need" more. If you buy good quality food already, they aren't usually extremely different compared to each other. as long as your fish like it and happy, I don't think you need to add 3-4 different food from each good quality brand. Save your money I would say. 

 

Too late 😝😝

 

I only have NLS and the spirulina flakes left. Northfin is almost gone except for the kelp wafers because I bought small bags only. The omega one pellets was already promised to a friend that will be setting up a tank next month. But I admit that I have a lot of fish food and I can’t stop trying new ones. 

I’ll hold off on buying the extreme pellets for now since I just bought a bunch of pellets. 

On 1/2/2024 at 2:08 PM, Lennie said:

I would instead try to add more live or frozen foods to their diet instead of adding more commercial foods. Like grindal worms, white worms, daphnia, live bbs, etc.

I currently have frozen spiruline brine, mysis shrimp and daphnia that they get twice a week. I would love to try live food but I’ve never been successful at keeping daphnia alive so that kinda put me off other live foods that you have to culture. I wouldn’t mind trying it soon tho cause I wanna get back into breeding some fish again. 

[Lennie]

On 1/3/2024 at 1:15 AM, knee said:

I currently have frozen spiruline brine, mysis shrimp and daphnia that they get twice a week. I would love to try live food but I’ve never been successful at keeping daphnia alive so that kinda put me off other live foods that you have to culture. I wouldn’t mind trying it soon tho cause I wanna get back into breeding some fish again. 

I have vinegar eels, white worms, and daphnia. Feel free to ask anytime in dms dude in case you need help on how to keep them going. I'm planning to get me some grindal worms too for pea puffers

[knee]

On 1/2/2024 at 2:59 PM, Lennie said:

I have vinegar eels, white worms, and daphnia. Feel free to ask anytime in dms dude in case you need help on how to keep them going. I'm planning to get me some grindal worms too for pea puffers

I will for sure. I hope you won't get annoyed because I'll probably ask you a lot of questions 😅

Once I'm done with the major tank stuff that will be next on my list 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/2/2024 at 2:10 PM, knee said:

Look what you made me do 😂

LOL

I've never used the "stick-ems" or seen them before.  Can vouch for the nutrinsect stuff tho.

On 1/2/2024 at 2:10 PM, knee said:

I was suppose to try just one but I also needed dry food and then I saw that they have a floating one for the betta. Then I saw they have one for goldfish. I don’t have goldfish but I wanted to mix all three before feeding them to my fish.
 

I have a problem with buying fish food. I can never just buy one 😭

I try to limit myself to two, but YEAH.... I understand that! 

[Lonkley]

Also remember to only buy as much as you can use in a few months. You're better off being able to finish and get fresh food than change it up.

And frozen foods. Or live food. Can't be beaten when part of a balanced breakfast

[Guppysnail]

On 1/2/2024 at 4:58 PM, knee said:

I noticed that my cichlids would spit out NLS and then try again, then repeat the same cycle.

When foods are a touch to big or to hard cichlids use their inner jaw to “tenderize” and gnaw iff bits.  They spit the larger piece out while they chew up and swallow the bits they broke off. Then go back and gnaw some more. 

[knee]

On 1/3/2024 at 4:25 AM, Lonkley said:

Also remember to only buy as much as you can use in a few months. You're better off being able to finish and get fresh food than change it up.

And frozen foods. Or live food. Can't be beaten when part of a balanced breakfast

I’ve learned that before. I used to buy the biggest bag/container of what they have available. Now I just buy the smaller size and my fish were able to finish the food before it expired. I guess I carried the habit over because I used to keep monster fish before I switched over to planted tanks 😂

 

[wuht]

I am also a serial fish food tester, I've had great luck with all the new varieties coming out made with black soldier fly larvae, with fluval bug bites cichlid formula being my south american community's favorite food.

My most recent batch was northfin and I expected the bug pro wafers to be the favorite but their 1 mm veggie pellets are my cory's current favorite, it sinks to the substrate much faster than other pellets so I don't have to worry about tetras getting too much.

 

I always go back to extreme pellets at least once a week though, everything will eat it even if it's not the favorite.

[Lonkley]

It also depends on the fish.  I bought bug bites for my community guppy/cardinal tank and while they like it, they don't go crazy.  Drop a algae wafer and the entire tank fights over it, and the amano slip in to steal it. It's probably the tanks favorite, and I feed like 6 different foods including frozen.  Fish be fish.

[Schuyler]

On 1/2/2024 at 1:25 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Aqueon Nutrinsect

How does that compare to Fluval Bug bites?

[Flipper]

On 1/2/2024 at 1:12 PM, knee said:

I personally love Northfin and NLS, and was wondering if I bought the correct ones or if I should change it.

I read your routine mixes and I feel they are just perfect.  You don't need to feed Xtreme, that's just what they sell on the co-op, unless you feel the need for a change.  I feed similar to your mixes.  Perfect, in my mind.

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/7/2024 at 12:09 PM, Schuyler said:

How does that compare to Fluval Bug bites?

Bug bites has fish in it. Aqueon food does not.

Bug bites:

Ingredients

    Black soldier fly larvae, salmon, fish protein concentrate, green peas, potato, wheat, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, DL-methionine, lecithin, choline chloride, L-lysine, vitamin E supplement, biotin, niacin, calcium L-ascorbyl-2-monophosphate, marigold extract, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, D-calcium pantothenate, vitamin B12 supplement, beta-carotene, rosemary extract, riboflavin, copper sulfate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, inositol, folic acid, vitamin A supplement, calcium iodate, sodium selenite, vitamin D3 supplement.

Guaranteed Analysis

    Crude protein (%) (min) 40.0, Crude fat (%) (min) 12.5, Crude fiber (%) (max) 5.0, Moisture (%) (max) 10.0, Ash (%) (max) 9.0, Calcium (%) (min) 1.50%, Phosphorus (%) (min) 0.80%, Vitamin A (IU/kg) (min) 2,500, Vitamin D3 (IU/kg) (min) 2,400, Vitamin E (IU/kg) (min) 75.

 

Aqueon

 

Edited January 7 by nabokovfan87

[knee]

On 1/7/2024 at 12:28 PM, Flipper said:

I read your routine mixes and I feel they are just perfect.  You don't need to feed Xtreme, that's just what they sell on the co-op, unless you feel the need for a change.  I feed similar to your mixes.  Perfect, in my mind.

 

Thank you! I didn’t go through with my purchase of extreme but I did try the aqueon nutrinsect and my fish went crazy for them because it was on sale at Petco. They showed the same excitement when I feed northfin 😁

[Flipper]

Along with the dry foods I noted, I feed frozen bloodworms or frozen mysis shrimp once a week.  I have a weekend feeding schedule; 1st day freeze dried Daphnia (to get some roughage for the tummy) and 2nd day, they all fast (let's empty our bowels, now 💩 ).  It's been working great for my fish (Harlequin Rasboras, Rummy-Nose Tetras and a 2" dwarf Clown Pleco.   My pleco gets 1/2 Sera Catfish chips once a week and cleans the tank for me. 

I recently lost my darling Betta, then decided to add my very first Neocaradina shrimp, yellow type, so things may change soon.  I've got a lot to learn about the shrimp. 

 

[knee]

On 1/7/2024 at 1:07 PM, Flipper said:

Along with the dry foods I noted, I feed frozen bloodworms or frozen mysis shrimp once a week.  I have a weekend feeding schedule; 1st day freeze dried Daphnia (to get some roughage for the tummy) and 2nd day, they all fast (let's empty our bowels, now 💩 ).

 

Sunday is my fasting/water change day for the fish. I also have the same spirulina flakes that I keep forgetting about 😬

 

On 1/7/2024 at 1:07 PM, Flipper said:

I recently lost my darling Betta, then decided to add my very first Neocaradina shrimp, yellow type, so things may change soon.

Sorry about your betta 😞

Shrimp are really fun! I'm planning to setup a 5g tank for them with some ottos.