sensitive Tropheus dietary requirements are, "is p

[Ducksta]

Josh I read it like that til this part:

Once again, the ingredients posted on the labels are nothing more than general guidelines. This applies to all fish foods, don't expect manufacturers to state *everything* on a food label, it's not going to happen.

[Josh]

Yeah OK I must have missed that bit. I thought food manufactures had to state every ingredient, but didnt have to give the percentages of each ingredient.

[RD.]

I think what RD is saying is that the ingredients are the same. They are listed in the order from greatest portion to smallest portion. All the foods have the same ingredients but the percentage of each ingredient is "tweaked" to make the different foods. Is that right RD?

Yes, that's correct. All NLS formulas are made from the same "basic recipe".

The laws for ornamental fish foods are very lax, and unfortunately many manufacturers take advantage of this fact. Trust me, you have no idea .....

Not only that, but some of these foods are made in countries such as Taiwan, that may have no restrictions whatsoever? I have no idea what their laws & regulations are? Short of taking the food and having it analyzed in a lab, who knows what's really in it? Even then, you might get a list of all the ingredients found in the food, but most likely will never be able to determine the exact percent for the various ingredients. No different than a bottle of Coca-Cola, they might list the various ingredients on the bottle, but they sure as heck aren't going to hand the competition their exact formula on a silver platter.

Craig -------- you could feed any one of the various NLS formulas to your fish. This is not a big issue, your fish will thrive on any of the formulas. If I ran out of the Cichlid formula, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to feed my fish the Community formula.

To clarify my previous comment posted above, when you see Shrimp listed as the main ingredient on a label, that could mean any number of things.

It could be whole shrimp caught caught in the wild (doubtful) or it could mean shrimp waste, such as heads & shells. (most likely) Many manufacturers play little word games on their ingredient labels, and rely on smoke & mirrors to sell their product.

Here's a good example.

A very well known company uses smoke & mirrors on their ingredients list, the whole thing is such a jumbled up mess that it's difficult to tell what ingredient is where on the list, and they bank on that fact! They clump several "fish" ingredients together to make a loooooooong list of their "fresh fish", then slip wheat flour in waaaaaaaaaaay down the list hoping by then most people have quit reading. Hey, it obviously works, right? In this companies case, they actually call it "wheat flower", as though it grows in your garden. LOL Unreal ...........

When wheat flour is used in a food (pellets or flakes) it's main purpose is that of a binder (it holds the food together). It will always be the second, third, or at best, fourth ingredient on a dry weight basis. If it wasn't, the food simply would not hold together.

This same company also has Shrimp listed as the main ingredient in their pellet food, yet fail to point out that the shrimp are raised on "shrimp farms" in Ecuador.

(they mention this little factoid on their home page)

These shrimp that they use are known as "white shrimp", and for the most part are raised on what's known as "intensive farms", where the conditions are extremely crowded, and many of these farms require the use of hormones & antibiotics to keep disease outbreaks from occurring. Also, take a guess as to the quality of feed used on these "intensive shrimp farms" based in Ecuador?

Sheesh, talk about something I do NOT want my fish eating, yet the average consumer sees Shrimp listed as the main ingredient, and they assume the food is premium stuff. Wrong! The fact that they do not list it as "whole shrimp", would also lead me to believe that it is in fact shrimp waste (heads/shells) not whole shrimp.

NLS uses Krill caught in the cold pristine waters of the South Antarctic as their main ingredient. It's expensive, but IMO it's well worth the extra cost.

http://www.aquafeed.com/article.php?id=439&sectionid=5

I used to promote a well know maker of flakes in the past and I honestly felt they provided a good quality fish flake. I was wrong, and I was duped.

This manufacturer makes a VERY big issue on their web site about how low in ash their food is, and how 'bad' excess ash is in a food. They're right about one not wanting excess ash in a food, but the part they forgot to mention is that one of their main flakes (the one I was using) must be high in ash. My feed trials with L. caeruleus proved this to me, as the growth on their flakes was approx 50% of what it was during the same period when feeding NLS. I began taking a closer look at their spirulina flakes, and what did I discover ....... it is the ONLY food that they do not state the Max. Ash content. Coinky-dink? I think not. No doubt that without me ever knowing it, these flakes added extra pollution to my tank water, and due to the high mineral content my fish grew at only half the rate as they did on NLS.

See how easy it is to manipulate an ingredients label on fish food?

If one of your products is high in ash, simply don't state the ash content in that food. Problem solved!

[CThompson]

I think what RD is saying is that the ingredients are the same. They are listed in the order from greatest portion to smallest portion. All the foods have the same ingredients but the percentage of each ingredient is "tweaked" to make the different foods. Is that right RD?

Little swimmer

You picked that up well, I missed it completely, thanks for pointing it out, and for clearing it up.

RD

Thanks for taking the time to educate me. I have learned from information you supplied.

Craig