Fish Food Reviews

[CanadianJoeh]

I will be posting food reviews here, adding new ones as I go. The rating is simple - "Recommended", or "Avoid". (Important - These ratings are not simply based on my experience or opinion of this food. I have done sufficient research into what goes into fish food, what is to avoid, and what is optimal. Disagree as you wish).

Piscine Energetics
Recommended
Piscine Energetics is both high quality and great for the environment. The company operates in Vancouver, catching loads of the invasive Mysis Shrimp. They then produce frozen and pellet foods, which is becoming more and more popular. The pellets are around 67% pure mysis shrimp.


Hikari
Frozen: Recommended
Pellets and Flake: Avoid

Hikari is a bit of a double-edged sword. Their frozen foods are good, while their dry foods are very low quality and absolutely to avoid.

 

[scarface]

Hikari is good stuff, whether frozen or pellet.

 

[CanadianJoeh]

Hikari is good stuff, whether frozen or pellet.

When the first ingredient is fish meal, it isn't good stuff

Hikari is good stuff, whether frozen or pellet.

Lots of people use Hikari, and therefore lots of people will disagree with me.... and that is okay

Hikari is good stuff, whether frozen or pellet.

With no disrespect intended, I simply fail to see the "premium" qualities of Hikari, when it is filled with fillers that are going to make fish bloat and absorb less nutrients :

 

[scarface]

Lots of people use Hikari, and therefore lots of people will disagree with me.... and that is okay

And I'm sure many will disagree with me, and not just over Hikari. I also like Tetra and Sera for their flake foods.

 

[Tony_097]

Omega one has always been a favorite of my fw fish and my sw fish as well.

 

[CanadianJoeh]

Omega one has always been a favorite of my fw fish and my sw fish as well.

I'll be getting there soon

 

[Addie42]

And I'm sure many will disagree with me, and not just over Hikari. I also like Tetra and Sera for their flake foods.

out of curiousity I just skimmed over all of those brands (Tetra, sera, and Hikari- the brand in question here) and most of the flake food has the first ingredient "fish meal"
and it's just random manufacturing by-products.
Fish food (and cat and dog food and presumably all other animal foods) do not have very strong regulations even in Canada. Sorry @residents of the united states but the food and drug regulations here are much more defined than they are in the states

btw this brand Piscine Energetics .... the first product that I clicked on had mysis shrimp as the first ingredient, and fish protein concentrate as the second
what is fish protein concentrate? possibly the same exact thing as "fish meal"? but just worded differently?


looks like it to me!!! (if you look at the links it is just explaning various meat processing techniques and the by-product is what is being sold to these companies as a main/second ingredient to avoid food waste. They do this because 1. they can get money of their trash and 2. someone else will pick it up)

Does this mean if a synonym for fish meal is the second ingredient- it isn't good stuff?

 

[CanadianJoeh]

out of curiousity I just skimmed over all of those brands (Tetra, sera, and Hikari- the brand in question here) and most of the flake food has the first ingredient "fish meal"
and it's just random manufacturing by-products.
Fish food (and cat and dog food and presumably all other animal foods) do not have very strong regulations even in Canada. Sorry @residents of the united states but the food and drug regulations here are much more defined than they are in the states

btw this brand Piscine Energetics .... the first product that I clicked on had mysis shrimp as the first ingredient, and fish protein concentrate as the second
what is fish protein concentrate? possibly the same exact thing as "fish meal"? but just worded differently?


looks like it to me!!! (if you look at the links it is just explaning various meat processing techniques and the by-product is what is being sold to these companies as a main/second ingredient to avoid food waste. They do this because 1. they can get money of their trash and 2. someone else will pick it up)

Does this mean if a synonym for fish meal is the second ingredient- it isn't good stuff?

Like i said they are 67% mysis shrimp. Some fish protein concentrate isn't a big deal to me. It's when the first ingredient is fish meal is when there's a problem. Presumably roughly 50%+ of the food is made of fish biproducts? Suproduits in french. Could just be the bones, the tails, the scales. You have absolutely no idea what it is. OmegaOne is generally whole salmon or halibut. NLS is whole Antarctic krill. PE mysis shrimp. Tetra, Hikari, etc...... fish meal.

 

[Addie42]

Like i said they are 67% mysis shrimp. Some fish protein concentrate isn't a big deal to me. It's when the first ingredient is fish meal is when there's a problem. Presumably roughly 50%+ of the food is made of fish biproducts? Suproduits in french. Could just be the bones, the tails, the scales. You have absolutely no idea what it is. OmegaOne is generally whole salmon or halibut. NLS is whole Antarctic krill. PE mysis shrimp. Tetra, Hikari, etc...... fish meal.

where are you finding this claim?

 

[CanadianJoeh]

where are you finding this claim?

Which claim

 

[Addie42]

Which claim

that the product contains 67% mysis shrimp? I can't find it anywhere on the website for the pellets

this is literally just me copying and pasting goldfish flake ingredeints from PE
Mysis Diluviana, Fish Meal, Wheat Flour, Soy Flour, Soy Protein Concentrate, Grain Distillers Dried Yeast, Spirulina, Manganese Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Iodate, Iron Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Carbonate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Supplement), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin-5-Phosphate, Niacin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K Activity), Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Ethoxyquin (Preservative), Sodium Alginate, Soy Lecithin, Choline Chloride, Sorbitan Mono-Stearate, Sorbitol, Red 7 Lake, Yellow 5 Lake, Yeast Extract, Anise Oil, TBHQ (Preservative).

You said you didnt want fillers but obviously this company isn't any better than hikari and likely prides themselves on somehow having mysis shrimp as the first ingredient on all their products. This is just the way they are marketing it as "healthier" than brands ppl like and trust more

 

[Tony_097]

The best food in the hobby is as debatable as it gets if you guys had to name the best of the best you wouldn't be able to IMO.

 

[Addie42]

The best food in the hobby is as debatable as it gets if you guys had to name the best of the best you wouldn't be able to IMO.

yeah I just think it's unfair to say one brand is bad and another is high quality when they are pretty much the same thing

not saying anything is good or bad at all, just pointing out the ingredients. He's doing a food review so I feel it is fair for me to analyze the ingredients of his recommended product as he did to hikari

 

[Nikki2577]

The best food is whatever my fish likes best. Lol

 

[FrostedFlakes]

I wouldn't exactly say that hikari and that other brand are basically the same because, as I see it, having mysis shrimp as the most abundant element as opposed to fish meal is better in my book. I personally use Omega One, but I prefer not to use foods with an ingredient list like hikari. If you like it, that's great I am not here to dispute that, but the hikari list is almost all meals, with seemingly no whole ingredients.

 

[Tony_097]

I think of flakes and pellets to be more of a side dish for fish not a good staple food but they can live off of it. Some people also look for ingredients the fish would eat in the wild like feeding frozen or live rotifers and copepods to fish or other tankmates as they would in the wild. Some others can also think of fish meal and whole salmon as luxuries to our fish.

 

[Addie42]

just because something is first on the ingredient list doesn't mean that is half of the product, it just means it is the most abdundant ingredient and possibly just marginally

 

[FrostedFlakes]

I understand that, but to me it's better even if just marginally, ya feel?

 

[DarkOne]

I started using Hikari in the mid 80's and always had great results.

PE has been around for 18 yrs and they harvest mysis shrimp from fresh water lakes so wild caught with no disease/parasite control (that I could find). Their claim is that their foods are freshwater harvested so they won't infect saltwater fish. Great, what about freshwater fish?

They can claim mysis shrimp as the first ingredient because it's by weight before it dries out. Once processed, it would push it down the ingredients list and push up FISH MEAL to the main ingredient. D'oh!

I've been trying out a bunch of foods and TetraColor Tropical Granules (thanks LRB) have been very good for my fish. I've had more spawning action from many of my fish that should't be spawning in my hard tap water. They also get frozen foods but I've not seen spawning behavior before adding TCTG to their diets.

I haven't been impressed with Omega One flakes, freeze-dried or frozen foods.

 

[Addie42]

I started using Hikari in the mid 80's and always had great results.

PE has been around for 18 yrs and they harvest mysis shrimp from fresh water lakes so wild caught with no disease/parasite control (that I could find). Their claim is that their foods are freshwater harvested so they won't infect saltwater fish. Great, what about freshwater fish?

They can claim mysis shrimp as the first ingredient because it's by weight before it dries out. Once processed, it would push it down the ingredients list and push up FISH MEAL to the main ingredient. D'oh!

I've been trying out a bunch of foods and TetraColor Tropical Granules (thanks LRB) have been very good for my fish. I've had more spawning action from many of my fish that should't be spawning in my hard tap water. They also get frozen foods but I've not seen spawning behavior before adding TCTG to their diets.

I haven't been impressed with Omega One flakes, freeze-dried or frozen foods.

this is the kind of food review that I find interesting lol
I really do appreciate hearing reviews that are decades in the process. Food and regulation over pet food is terrible so I honestly don't believe many brand claims at all.

"FDA Regulation of Pet Food
There is no requirement that pet food products have pre-market approval by the FDA. However, FDA ensures that the ingredients used in pet food are safe and have an appropriate function in the pet food." this is literally from US food and drug website

The only pet foods I've had decades of experience with are cat foods, and some of those are sketchy