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First impressions of New Era fish food.


mattrox

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  • 2 weeks later...
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I have started feeding my large Malawi Haps half nls and half rift lake red. The growth rate is very good and so far so good. I got the rift lake red from pet care 2000 at Castle Hill and I also have some rift lake green that we won in the cichlid society raffle. The pellets have an interesting texture, must be oils that hold them together and as people say, they don't break apart in the water but the whole thing gets gobbled up by the fish.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just received my order of New Era Rift Lake Green and tried it out. It is a bonus that the pellets sink straight away, unlike other brands that have to be soaked in a bit of tank water. However, my fish (mainly mbuna) didn't seem very interested in it (they would engulf it and then spit it out again). This may just happen because they are not used to it??? They seem to enjoy NLS better.....

Thanks,

Tim

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Tim

my pulpicans did the same at first they don't now :). They all had to get used to the fast sinking as well, especially my fronnies. The fronnies are a little more scared so they hide when anyone comes near their tank. With the nls it was still on the way down the water column so they knew they had been fed. Now it takes them a while to realise that they have to look for food.

Cheers Rosco

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Do the cichlid pellets come in a larger pellet than 1.5mm?

I am interested in feding New Era for my frontosa but at 1.5mm I think most will get missed by them.

I have had a look at the AoA website and there aren't any larger pellets listed.

Cheers

Joel

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next size up is 6mm I believe.

I was going to ask if 6mm was available in the Rift Cichlid Red pellet because I can't see it listed on their website.

Comparing the nutritional information of the Rift Cichlid Red and the Central/South American Cichlid pellets it appears that there is no difference whatsoever. So I guess this is exactly the same but it is available in the 6mm pellet size :confused:

Joel

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Hi Joel,

Thanks for trying out the New-Era foods. I have been working very closely with the New-Era team and we will be bringing out a 4mm pellet in the New-Year. You can also squeeze the 1.5mm pellets together to make a bigger one. I did that for my WC Kitumba frontosa and did not use the 6mm pellet even for the 25cm males. I personally like the smaller pellets because the fish tend to "chew" the bigger ones and expel excess food via the gills. The idea behind the New-Era foods is that when they are processed the modified starch forms like a skin (similar to a sausage skin) and holds the ingredients together. When the fish swallows the food, the skin breaks and releases the food into the gut and is readily absorbed.

To answer some of the other questions, I have use the Rift Lake Green and Red (mixed in the bucket) for my F1 tropheus Ilangi. :)

Cheers

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I just received my order of New Era Rift Lake Green and tried it out. It is a bonus that the pellets sink straight away, unlike other brands that have to be soaked in a bit of tank water. However, my fish (mainly mbuna) didn't seem very interested in it (they would engulf it and then spit it out again). This may just happen because they are not used to it??? They seem to enjoy NLS better.....

Thanks,

Tim

Hey Mate it is the same with any new food ou have to give it a good go rather than just make the decision on a couple of weeks feeding.

A couple of my fish also played with it a bit and within the month they realised it was food and hammered it.

Just recently I got rid of all my africans and strted to concentrate more on catfish. They love the food are always in great condition and breeding constantly. These are not just bristlenose neither I am concenrating on some of the harder cories and tetras as well so I am really running the food through its paces.

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It's funny but my fish won't touch nls, even though this wad what they were being fattened up on initially when I purchase them. I have just finished a little tub of the aegis flake and again have nothing but good things to say, fry are growing well on it and every fish I own loves it, even in other tanks with fussy eaters, namely my peacock gudgeons, who I have had heaps of trouble with on anything other than frozen foods in the past!

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Hi Joel, Thanks for trying out the New-Era foods. I have been working very closely with the New-Era team and we will be bringing out a 4mm pellet in the New-Year. You can also squeeze the 1.5mm pellets together to make a bigger one. I did that for my WC Kitumba frontosa and did not use the 6mm pellet even for the 25cm males. I personally like the smaller pellets because the fish tend to "chew" the bigger ones and expel excess food via the gills. The idea behind the New-Era foods is that when they are processed the modified starch forms like a skin (similar to a sausage skin) and holds the ingredients together. When the fish swallows the food, the skin breaks and releases the food into the gut and is readily absorbed.

Hi Chilli,

Thanks for that. I agree about the fish "chewing" and dispelling food from the gills. I am currently feeding Hikari Gold Sinking pellets and alot of it ends up suspended in the water column for a while and then of course in the filter media - very annoying.

I will wait for the 4mm pellet as I think this would be an ideal size for frontosa. I cant see myself moulding the smaller pellets into larger ones. I would like to keep it simple wherever possible.

Looking forward to giving it a go.

Cheers

Joel

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I have Oranda Goldfish & have started feeding them New Era Goldfish pellets.

I like that it's a sinking pellet as Orandas are prone to swim bladder problems if fed floating foods.

So far so good they really enjoy their new food & there's very little poo from them too so the water stays cleaner longer than usual.

Just wish i could buy i bigger container than the current 300gr tub.

cheers

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Yes they are available in 10kg and 20kg. It's not something that I intended for the public due to its size but the fish farms and public aquariums are using in that quantity buckets. I will work towards getting a price that will be suitable. Cheers

10kg? I didn't see that and I'd probably be interested if it were priced nicely.

A bit of feedback that I think you might want to consider bouncing on to new era arj... the 1.8kg tubs (as in the actualy buckets not the food) are atrocious. We (cdas) split several lids and one of the buckets just opening them the first time and I had to put some into old/empty NLS buckets I had sitting around which isn't doing a lot for 'brand recognition' :-)

Is the 20kg (or preferably the 10kg) bucket a bit more solid and better sealing?

re: pellet sizing; Rather than a 4mm pellet I'd be happy with existing 6mm pellet sizing for frontosa if they were simply cut shorter. eg use the same extrusion equipment but cut into half the length they are now so we end up with a pellet approx 6mm x 6mm

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Hi Laurie,

Thanks for your feedback mate. Yes we only came across this issue after the AQIS mandate to irradiate the product. Basically because an import risk analysis (IRA) has not been conducted on the importation of worms (such as blood worms) and bi-valve molluscs such as mussels for use as ornamental fish food, we have to get it irradiated. So to test the whole process, I got a batch sent to AUS, got it irradiated and sent back to London for a full lab analysis. The only ingredient affected was Vitamin A and we then compensated for that. However, we didn't even think to test the buckets and lids as they are becoming brittle during the irradiation process. So until we come up with a solution, I have spare buckets and lids that are been given out. Ken should have some already and I'm getting more. I sincerely apologise for this issue and hopefully you guys can accommodate me until we get it sorted.

With the 10Kgs, it's an AQIS requirement for me that any product containing Spirulina is no greater than 10Kg per individually packaged unit. Not sure why but that's why I have to do it. But I can then turn around and sell someone 20Kg. Go figure. New-Era doesn't do it normally but because of the import condition, we had to get the 10Kg bucket. I generally don't sell them priced at 10kg but I can if shops and the like give me a forecast of how much they would like. I prefer not to keep a lot of these in stock.

I'll give your feeback about the 6mm pellet to New-Era. We have a monthly brain-storm session with the global team. Really great to work with these guys. We are actually 'tweaking' the marine flake food recipe just for AQWA as a trial (Aquarium of Western Australia). It's great to be able to do that for a customer.

Yes, I'm jumping through many hoops to get this product in :)

Please give me a call if you need any spare buckets and lids. Happy to help.

Cheers

Arj

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Hi Arj

ive had the same issue with the buckets..like Laurie Ive swapped to using old NLS buckets...i also must admit that my water quality is DRAMATICALLY improved since swapping from NLS to New Era

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Yeah.. it's really disappointing with this slight setback given that it is an awesome food and I want all you guys to have only a great experience with the product. I'm definitely working on it. I looked into getting it packaged here but it was way too expensive and didn't make sense to send it large bulk quantities as the pellets would squash due to their softness. I will keep you guys updated with my progress.

I'm also asking AQIS to reconsider some of the import conditions. :)

But if anyone is having issues with the buckets and lids, please email me. My distributors will have spare buckets and lids and hopefully the shops do too.

Cheers

Arj

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