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Does fish food go off?


spedwards

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I'm not paid by NLS at all & I think their product IS the best, from personal experience, not regurgitated vendor info - so nerr nerr tongue.gif

Would you like me to name the other popular colour enhancing foods is does a better job than?

Might not be able to legally (hey Admins?), but hell they are at different price points so it's like saying a BMW is better than a Falcodore so maybe I can? The others are good, just not as good.

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Hi,

If we are going to talk about a good product then the Spectrum H20 Stable Wafers are the go for the cats. I have started feeding my albinos, long fin b/n and L number cats on this product over the last few months and the results have been great. I use to feed them Wardley premium algae discs and the Spectrumn product won't break down as quick and make your water cloudy.

Overall as a breeder I am very happy with the product and it will last quite a while before going off.

Thanks

Dale

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Pity I just ordered a bag of the Wardley discs, I was going to try out the H2O stable wafers but forgot

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Hi,

If we are going to talk about a good product then the Spectrum H20 Stable Wafers are the go for the cats. I have started feeding my albinos, long fin b/n and L number cats on this product over the last few months and the results have been great. I use to feed them Wardley premium algae discs and the Spectrumn product won't break down as quick and make your water cloudy.

Overall as a breeder I am very happy with the product and it will last quite a while before going off.

Thanks

Dale

But don't you own half of PFF with Gavin?

Doesn't exactly make you impartial if your making money selling it now does it ?

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Some of the people selling NLS claim to have used it privately before they got the opportunity to sell it. I know if I was in business, I'd happily sell the stuff I'd found to be the best - who wouldn't?

Sure you can be conspiracy theorist about vendor endorsements like Marcus, hey I'm paranoid & skeptical about most things too! but for under $20 to try the stuff out & see if it works on your fish or not - why the hell not? The number of tropheus keepers who've switched to it says something about it's quality IMO

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I bought a tub of NLS......went mouldy in 2 weeks.

That isn't to say that I wouldn't try it again.

I'm happy with the Hikari I am using at the moment, and like NLS they feed their own breeding tanks and fish with the product. Obviously works.....(Plus it is the most popular Japanese brand in Japan and the Japanese are always anal about getting the best)

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I bought a tub of NLS......went mouldy in 2 weeks.

That isn't to say that I wouldn't try it again.

Should have taken it back! shock.gif

I still use hikari cichlid gold on my dirty old "big brusier" tank, just cause of the amount they go through!

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I feed my colony of Tropheus exclusively on NLS Cichlid Pellets. I honestly wouldn't feed them anything else. The increase in size and vitality of my fish is very substantial.

I have had 3 very experienced Cichlid keepers over the last few days comment on how impressed they were with the growth rate and health of my fish. I recently sold juveniles that are about 6 months old. These people commented that they thought they were 12 months old.

I recently bought a wild caught colony that are the parents of my fish and are several years older. My fish are much bigger. After a gradual introduction these wild caughts are going nuts over it and showing improved condition and energy.

Before this colony I used to keep Fronts and Haps. They were also fed this food with similar, impressive results.

Now, I'm not forcing anyone to feed this food, nor do I believe that there aren't other quality food on the market. I do know though that this food has done wonderful things for my fish and I am in no hurry to feed my fish anything else.

Jamie.

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Hi Jamie...if those guys are 6 months old, then that alone speaks volumes for the food (and probably a great water change/tank size etc. regime). I was the one who purchsed these fish and they average 6cm or more which is an incredible growth rate for Tropheus blink.gifsmile.gif

Andrea smile.gif

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Just so there's no confusion ..... I began using NLS in all of my tanks in Oct. 2003, I began selling NLS in Feb. 2005. I was using & endorsing this food long before I ever considered selling it. I also only sell it within Canada, and I don't get paid to post on forums, least of all Australian forums. wink.gif

As far as this product "going off", you can read my comments on the shelf life of NLS in the following article.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/new_life_spectrum.php

Pablo reduced the moisture content of NLS over a year ago to help prevent spoilage, and unless it's stored in a damp environment it will not go moldy.

FYI - NLS is also sold in Japan, as well as the USA, Canada, Germany, Finland, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Philippines, Israel, UK, and of course, Australia.

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This is also for the record.

I started using NLS in early 2003 after reading the article on TFH magazine. It was shown to me by Paul (Owner, Morley Aquariums. W.A) and not long after he read it, he started selling and using NLS in his shop. To this date he highly recommends to his customers to use NLS.

I feed all my fish NLS exclusively, from Tropheus to Malawi. Soon I will be getting a colony of WC Tropheus. (I placed the order today, Yeah!) And guess what? They too will be eating NLS exclusively.

Waruna wink2.gif

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I have to ask, what WCs are you getting?

Jamie.

Hi Jamie,

I have ordered 25 T. Chaitika. What's your thought on this? Chaitika looks very similar to lufubu. Less red. I was speaking to Dave not long ago and he said you had them before? May be I got the names mixed up.

Any way, these are the ones available, which one would you go for and why?

Chimba, Chipimbi, Ilangi, Kachese, Kapampa, Sumbu , Nangu, Chatika, Mpulungu, Mbita, Kalambo, Ndole, Chisanse.

Does any one have Pictures of Chaitika?

Waruna

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Waruna,

Jim is the one who had the chaitikas. Jamie has wild and F1 Mpulungu. He already has helped me to decide which WC variant i should get. I know Jim has a pic of his wc chaitika. i will need to do a search to try to locate this pic for u.

I know there has been some bad press about chaitika in the past few months but i think if u want to keep tropheus for the amazing colours your keeping the wrong type of fish. U never know, if u start feeding them NLS they will be spectacular!

Dave

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I have seen a few “new-butte” products come and go since I have been keeping fish. So don’t let just the hype of NLS sway you.

What I have not seen is the sustained continued positive hype for a new product and continue for so long, and come from such a variety of different directions. Not only from the manufactures themselves, but from individuals expressing their independent opinions. These individuals are hobbyists like you and me, to seasoned veterans to full on professions with a life-time of experience. I have seen people with such personal convictions such as Waruna and Neil (RD) who were hobbyist first like you and me, for them to put their money where their mouth is, and to be previously virgins in the world of commercial aquarium hobby, to staking tens of thousands of their own dollars on their convictions, and take on the role of wholesaler.

I think it is good to have a sceptical point of view, but when you air these sceptical points, AND you have responses refuting these concerns, you should be mature enough, have a mind still open enough for these responses to penetrate. Otherwise you just look dumb.

The claims that NLS can improve a fish’s colour, I’m sure are correct. Myself, I cannot vouch for this, and I don’t understand how people with fish like mbunas and Tropheus whose colours are so mood dependant can also. Unless you have been really badly catering for your fish’s nutrition, that NLS was like spotlight in the dark, and the fish could not help but improve their colour, I can’t see how one could recognise a colour improvement on fish that can drop or display their colours at the flick of a switch.

My fish have always been well fed (live and home-made to supplement commercial dry foods), but equally I believe there is no equal on the market for commercially prepared dry foods such as NLS.

NLS sells itself to me for not only the product, but for the man behind the product. What other product in the aquarium market has been backed and sold on such a personal level has there been? Has their been others? Perhaps the way persons such as Rd and Waruna get down to a one on one reply on web pages, and the fact that Pablo Tepoot has his own web-page and responds personally to ALL emails, is just a marketing angle, much as Tupperware is sold via “parties” and is not available from retail outlets. But this doesn’t change the quality of the product, and the fact that there is such personal positive opinions based off experience lends a huge amount of weight to the NLS quality.

It is very hard to compare apples with apples when reading the labels on the back of aquarium fish dry foods. You have to be an expert in fish nutrition to understand what you read, and then I understand that there are no laws to enforce the honesty of the stated information. How do you know what is true? I think the overwhelming positive responses that NLS receive goes a long way to allowing us mere humans to make an opinion independent on what is displayed on the back of labels. Having said that though, two well used and known vegetable flakes on the market, Sera Flora and OSI Spiralina, on their contents list, their first ingredient is “Fish and fish derivates” or words to that effect. Now this is a food sold as suitable for vegetarians, and the first ingredient is fish….Derrr, you don’t need to be an expert in fish nutrition to add 2+2 together here. Interestingly I have noticed that Sera Flora no longer has fish and fish derivatives as their first ingredient. They have changed it, but I bet they have not altered their recipe not one bit. NLS also has protein in its recipe, but it is the quality of what is included I have had explained makes the difference, and it states that NLS is a food equally good for vegetarians and carnivores alike.

I understand that most retail aquarium fish foods have been put together from information learned from the commercial raising of fish for human consumption. Here the goal is to get the fish as big and as fat and as fast as possible. No concern has been paid to the long term health and longevity of the fish. This is the OPPOSITE of what we are trying to achieve in our aquarium captive fish. I believe that NLS is not like this. I believe that it has been created by an intelligent individual, with something that can’t be taught – ethics. Pablo Tepoot for those of you who have not read above links in this thread already, has many many years of hands on experience, and he has created a food for fish in fish tanks.

I have feed my fish for many years on the usual aquarium dry foods that we all have because we didn’t have a choice, but I have always had concerns about what I was using, but what could I do? All the available foods were of the same quality. But now we all do have a choice, and the choice is NLS.

I would predict that due to NLS, all other commercial prepared foods will need to go back and revisit what goes into their food, and how it is prepared, as in the long run they will just lose more and more market share to NLS. In the long run other commercial fish food manufactures will have to lift their game, and I would hazard a guess also and say that Pablo would have no issues with the increased quality in the competition as our fish will be the benefactors.

Keeping fish is an information hobby, and for possibly the first time there is an available retail food that once you do your research, will allow you to come to conclusions that will separate it from the rest. If you are not capable of doing the research on what is a confusing matter, listen to what the overwhelming positive response NLS receives, and make the switch. At worst, you will see no change in feeding NLS to your fish, at best you will. Either way your fish will come out the winners. You will definitely have no downside to using NLS, so do your fish and yourself a favour, and use it.

Craig

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Craig, good to have you back here mate. I was worried that I wasn’t going to see you here. Thank you very much for your honest opinion. You don’t leave much room for confusion, wish I could write the way you do. wink2.gif

Dave, sorry about the confusion. I knew Jamie had Mpulungu. That’ll be great if you could dig it up. Think we are going off topic mate. Sorry.

“I think if u want to keep tropheus for the amazing colours your keeping the wrong type of fish” Spot on mate, my 7cm Moliro has hardly any colour,(comparing to some of the adults i've seen) but I still love them. smile.gif

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Hey Craig, for myself, it really has become a case of putting my money where my mouth is. If someone had told me a few years ago that I'd be importing & selling fish food, I would have laughed in their face. How quickly things change ...

The claims that NLS can improve a fish’s colour, I’m sure are correct. Myself, I cannot vouch for this, and I don’t understand how people with fish like mbunas and Tropheus whose colours are so mood dependant can also. Unless you have been really badly catering for your fish’s nutrition, that NLS was like spotlight in the dark, and the fish could not help but improve their colour, I can’t see how one could recognise a colour improvement on fish that can drop or display their colours at the flick of a switch.

While it's true that most species of fish have mood dependant coloration, there are certainly many so called 'color' enhancement foods on the market that fall far short of their claim.

In the Jan 2003 edition of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine there's an article on NLS by the TFH editor, David Boruchowitz. The test subjects used in that article were photographed & the feed trial was performed by Dr. Harry J. Grier, an ichthyologist with the Florida Marine Research Institute. Dr. Harry J. Grier supplied the photos, and the results, which were then supplied to TFH.

BTW - previous to this article, there has never been a fish food featured in TFH, nor has there been one featured since. Interesting considering the mega thousands of $$ some of that publications sponsors spend each year on advertising.

The only thing that the manufacturer of NLS did for that study was supply the food. The fish used in this study were all siblings from the same spawn (N. leleupi), and the difference in color between the groups fed NLS, vs a popular color enhancing flake, were like night & day.

If you would like to question the integrity of the editor at TFH, or Dr. Harry Grier, then that's your call.

Here's a thread that you may find interesting Craig, http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=102196

The breeder of those fish has become a good friend of mine (I didn't know him when I first bought the F1 yellow labs)

and I actually sent him some NLS to try out way back before I was selling it, just to convince him that his fishes current diet was seriously lacking.

He was blown away at the results that NLS produced in all of his F1 fry, and he's been feeding it exclusively ever since.

I think that the pics in that thread clearly demonstrate that color can be greatly influenced via the diet.

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I was also impressed by all the positive feedback about NLS, and therefore I bought a 2.27kg cichlid formula bucket about 4 months ago. Sorry but I would have to say, I am not really impressed. I feel that my fish are not really keen on the NLS. everytime I put them in the tank, they are not as excited compare to other fish food such as colorbits or bloodworms. They will eat them when they have no other choice. I can not say their growth rate and color has improved in the past 4 months. Also some of my bigger american has ignored them too...

I am still feeding my fish different varifity of food.

Correct me if i am wrong, according to the books and other soures, isn't the live food best for the fish??

Thanks for sharing.

Felix

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it would be great if we could get a daily supply of live foods for our fish but it is not practical to do that. Also live foods can carry diseases if they are not sterilised properly.

sounds like u are feeding them all different foods. U can't blame them for prefering a live wriggling bloodworm to sinking pellets.

i challenge u to feed them exclusively NLS and if they still don't like it or don't improve in colour and vitality then u can claim that it hasn't made a difference.

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I can not say their growth rate and color has improved in the past 4 months.

There are too many factors (ie feeding other fish food) involved to conclude that NLS hasn't achieved anything. When you only feed them a partial diet of a particular food, then the results you see are hardly an indication of the effects of that food.

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Sorry but I would have to say, I am not really impressed. I feel that my fish are not really keen on the NLS. everytime I put them in the tank, they are not as excited compare to other fish food such as colorbits or bloodworms.

My fish were like that initially too, feed it exclusively (not any live food either) and then judge it a few months later.

I'm almost out of NLS atm & used some of my buddy's AOA bits (Colourbits copy, their previous staple from over 6 months ago) for a couple of days & my fish shy away from that too!

Anything they aren't used to is avoided & if you give in & give them what they're used to they'll train you into thinking they don't like the new stuff, when what they really don't like is change!

Same thing getting rid of the last of my Hikari Cichlid Gold in my big bruiser tank, previously the blackbelt, texas & severum all ate NLS exclusively - only the blackbelt is attacking the HCG, the others will prefer NLS if I drop it in & ignore the HCG but that's probably just because it's what they're used to & the blackbelt is a fat guts who'll eat anything including tankmates tails! laugh.gif

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