maxib Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Hi all. Ive been feeding with hikari cichlid gold and frozen cichlid mix for a while. I recently came across some NLS at the LFS and after hearing so much about it decided to give it a try. Well the color difference of my fish has improved dramatically after only two weeks on the food. I was getting some stringy, pale fish poo but its all gone. The pellets arent too dry and dont swell to quadruple their size when wet. It costs more but is well worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFishkeeper Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 I agree, I'm a long time user of NLS spectrum for my Malawi cichlids. I alternate it with other brands like Hikari and New Era due to the high cost, but it is still my favourite food. Yes, it does create more mess in your tanks, especially in sponge and mechanical filters. But in my opinion that is a small price to pay. Cheers, Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccal Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 It's a very safe food, because of its ingredients and way it's designed. It passes through the fish African fish very well,,, as Africans tend to have a more specialized diet with essential fiber qualities needed. If these food requirements arent met, then the fish won't be at their optimum and occasional minor issues may occur like occasional bloat, constipation, slight loss of color and lethargic with other little problems I'm sure. spectrum passes through the fish as it's got correct fiberous ingredients and maybe some secret mix that allows the food to pass through fish well. Food that passes through fish well means you can slightly over feed with no ill effects. but I also found you need to keep a bit more of the food up to the fish also,, meaning I can't go for as many days without feeding fish because they poo it out fast and need feeding again. When not including super G or any silly gaff like that,,,,,,, then what ever food your feeding your is,,, after making a switch to either spectrum or sera-flora, you will see the fishes natural color noticeably improve. Now as Dfishkeeper said, it's messier than most foods (because it passes through fish fast), but when one has a large system, then the bigger the system, the more compounded the messy issue becomes. long time ago I switched to sera when the prices of the buckets come down and wow, I've tried so many foods in my time and fish through history have taken many roller coaster rides doing this. sera passes through fish very well but not as fast as spectrum, but my life has improved with reduced maintenance to my facility and fish respond and breed showing color as well as spectrum does,,,, but for predatory fish and conditioning tweaks I use a higher protein fattier food with aquatic ingredients only. The waiste is now down to one third, and the waiste is firm sticking tightly to mechanical media,,, where as spectrum is a slimy dense sludge that blocks up easily and all breaks away trying to remove screens from monster center sump which was a pain. And peoples canisters fill and block up in rediculous short time when there's a good population. I also found my 50mm and 40mm pvc delivering water to tanks would build up chunks and line the insides, then break of and cause blockages and overflows in certain sections of the room. Cost of feeding fish over two months, sera is way cheaper, I promise. I always hated flakes, and that's what kept me away from it for all these years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benno Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 My green terror male used to love the stuff but started hating it a couple of months back and even stopped eating hikari gold. Dropped in some ocean nutrition cichlid vege pellets that I bought a couple of months back an wouldn't go near it and he started demolishing it like no other food I've offered him before. I'm still scratching my head as to why he went off the nls thra a and nls cichlid pellets when he used to love them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccal Posted January 25, 2016 Share Posted January 25, 2016 He may have gone through a little no eating cycle, sometimes they do this. have you tried nls since ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxib Posted January 25, 2016 Author Share Posted January 25, 2016 Thanks for the additional info from everyone. may give sera a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccal Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Use both 50/50 to begin with,,, then slowly peel back the unwanted food till it's no more or less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malrift Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Maxib I'm guessing you have africans, if so hikari cichlid excel is a better choice for them. Sera is an awesome food I always have it here, the other 2 I use is extreme pee wee and dainichi. Something worth looking into will be the repashy gel food range when it arrives. I have used this in the past and is awesome. I have been trialling a gel food made here on the Sunshine Coat which is also excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malrift Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Better be clear out of the hikari range the cichlid excel is better for Africans than cichlid gold. Don't wish to open another can of worms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccal Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Lol, I think when talking foods on these sites, the can of worms is always open. If you've come back back to this thread to check and see this question, as I like to hear from long term serious breeders like you,,,,,. What food are you mainly using for a staple,, in percentage ??? And is there presumably something different in excel that matches digestive/metabolisms of African fish rather than gold ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malrift Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Currently run 3 feeds of xtreme to 1 of sera flora for breeding colonies. They are fed twice a day. Once a week they have the gel food which is from human grade ingredients. First stage fry get a powder mix of aqua munch thrive 0.5mm, hikari high growth, deshelled brine shrimp cysts and nrd. Once the nrd is finished I will replace it with dianichi krill ultima. Second stage to saleable they are fed 3 times a day with dianichi krill ultima morning, aqua munch thrive 0.5mm lunch and crshed sera flora final feed. I am trying some other foods at the moment as well, I am finding xtreme a bit pricey although think its great. There is a new bulk food at aquaholics that is fish meal, fish oil, spirulina, vitamins, immune enhancer and soy. It only come in last week. The next batch will also have astax added. Its not aquamunch. Will see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malrift Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Hikari excel has higher levels of spirulina, caretanoids and only 35% protein. Hikari gold has 40% protein lower concentration of spirulina. Gold is more towards american and growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simy696 Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 funny this subject has bounced up i chose to leave only nls out for feeding my fish while on holidays as it was the only sinking food i had and figured it then wouldnt get sucked into my over flow boxes and then down into my filter and sump then causing dramas while away and yet it did cause a drama due to the excess fish wastage blocking filter pad next to return pump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccal Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Thanks malrift. werent you using new-era at one stage ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malrift Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Yep I stopped to give xtreme a go. I am thinking of getting some again. I have been doing a lot of number crunching to work out the best way to go. Especially w7th the varioous species, Im in a fine tuning stage to work out which way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benno Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Every couple On 25 January 2016 at 0:21 AM, Buccal said: He may have gone through a little no eating cycle, sometimes they do this. have you tried nls since ? Yea mate try it every few days and he still won't eat it again. I've never owned a pickier fish lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccal Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Some things just remain questions in fish keeping Benno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccal Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 16 hours ago, malrift said: Yep I stopped to give xtreme a go. I am thinking of getting some again. I have been doing a lot of number crunching to work out the best way to go. Especially w7th the varioous species, Im in a fine tuning stage to work out which way to go. Hah ha, I spent years fine tuning, I just could never seem to get there, or just changed my frame of mind all the time. Closest I got to satisfaction, was truckloads of sera-flora lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benno Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 15 hours ago, Buccal said: Some things just remain questions in fish keeping Benno. Sure do mate haha and that's why we love it hey. I'm just glad he loves the ON vege pellets as the only other thing hel eat is hikari discus bio gold, which I'll only feed when I've occasionally got fry in the tank but don't want him on a high protein diet as it's not considered the best for a Gts lifespan apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malrift Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 I am knowing that at the moment. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxib Posted February 9, 2016 Author Share Posted February 9, 2016 So i cleaned my cannister yesterday and definately noticed the differance in waste accumulation. Ive got hikari cichlid excel and am alternating foods which i think will be a better method. Another thing ive noticed is the NLS makes my tank smell like garlic. Will too much garlic affect my fish? At least the vampires wont get them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccal Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 The ingredients for nls is excellent, no need to worry there. Its only excessive mess that's the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simy696 Posted February 10, 2016 Share Posted February 10, 2016 yeah noticed that also there forever hungry with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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