Hikari sinking wafers quality?

[Jordanlp]

Never really paid too much attention to fish foods other then using the reputable brands, but recently I’ve been trying to feed my Kribs a more vegetable heavy diet (as studies show that in the wild they eat much more plant matter then the omnivore label they’re given in the aquarium trade) and have used some Hikari sinking mini wafers, which to be fair they love.

On further analysis of the ingredients I’ve noticed that to me (I’m no expert) that these things seem to be fish and filler heavy rather then vegetable/algae. I bought some NLS algae max pellets as to me these seem to contain much higher quality of ingredients for a herbivore, the problem is they seem to be very hit and miss with the Kribs and even my Bristlenose compared to the Hikari, any of the NLS not taken by my Congo’s before sinking appears to be wasted even if I leave it a while on the bottom, the mini wafers even my carnivorous fish go for aswell as the bottom dwellers.

So what’s the deal with these things am I missing something? The fish love them, they’re obviously popular and when you search foods for herbivores they often top polls, but to me the ingredients seem a bit shabby, are they really a good food for fish that need high plant/vegetable matter? Surely they’re so popular everyone can’t be wrong.

 

[ChrissFishes01]

A lot of people disagree with me on this, but here's my take.

If the fish eat it, keep feeding it. No fish food on the market in 2021 (at least of the common brands I know of) is so bad that it'll make your fish sick. Some people claim that some foods have made their fish sick (there was a thread a year or two ago on here about Omega One foods containing a certain chemical that was known to cause organ failure, for example), but at the end of the day, every single one of those claims are isolated incidents that never seem to be repeated. If I have a fish die of a tumor, my first thought isn't "Oh man, this food must have given my fish cancer!" It happens. If I have 30 fish die of tumors, then I get suspicious. But, again, I haven't found a single example of that happening.

The key is variety. Yes, in the wild, certain fish may mainly eat vegetable matter, or crustaceans, or other fish, etc... But in an aquarium, the best thing you can do is cast a wide net and see what they like. If they like the sinking wafers, feed those. But also feed something like a veggie pellet (Omega One makes a veggie kelp pellet that I like - it sinks, too), and maybe some frozen bloodworms would do well too. Try some frozen mysis/brine shrimp. Get into hatching baby brine shrimp, and while you're at it, see if you can't get some live blackworms.

I could list all the foods I know of, and I wouldn't get to a food that I would call "bad", at least of the ones that are still in production.

There'll always be a "better" diet out there, but realistically, I don't think you're going to get much closer than just feeding several different prepared/frozen foods and feeding live whenever you can.

 

[Jordanlp]

A lot of people disagree with me on this, but here's my take.

If the fish eat it, keep feeding it. No fish food on the market in 2021 (at least of the common brands I know of) is so bad that it'll make your fish sick. Some people claim that some foods have made their fish sick (there was a thread a year or two ago on here about Omega One foods containing a certain chemical that was known to cause organ failure, for example), but at the end of the day, every single one of those claims are isolated incidents that never seem to be repeated. If I have a fish die of a tumor, my first thought isn't "Oh man, this food must have given my fish cancer!" It happens. If I have 30 fish die of tumors, then I get suspicious. But, again, I haven't found a single example of that happening.

The key is variety. Yes, in the wild, certain fish may mainly eat vegetable matter, or crustaceans, or other fish, etc... But in an aquarium, the best thing you can do is cast a wide net and see what they like. If they like the sinking wafers, feed those. But also feed something like a veggie pellet (Omega One makes a veggie kelp pellet that I like - it sinks, too), and maybe some frozen bloodworms would do well too. Try some frozen mysis/brine shrimp. Get into hatching baby brine shrimp, and while you're at it, see if you can't get some live blackworms.

I could list all the foods I know of, and I wouldn't get to a food that I would call "bad", at least of the ones that are still in production.

There'll always be a "better" diet out there, but realistically, I don't think you're going to get much closer than just feeding several different prepared/frozen foods and feeding live whenever you can.

Agreed, they seem to prefer the wafers so I’ll keep feeding those, I just wanted to understand and get a few more viewpoints on the subject. I do feed a very varied diet and all the fish go wild for frozen/live bloodworm, even the supposed herbivores.

Its only very recently I’ve started looking deeper at ingredients/foods on forums. It does seem popular for people online to dismiss the really popular/readily available brands such as the tetra and Hikari and stuff like that as no good, but from my experience fish in the aquarium love these foods, and seem to grow and live very healthily, maybe the experts at these companies do know that they’re talking about.

 

[awilkinson871]

I think there will always be a brand that may be higher quality but if your fish wont eat it why worry. As long as you are feeding a diet as natural to the fish as possible and varying the offerings to reduce the chance of bloat, constipation, and obesity you are doing the best you can. If you come across something else to offer go ahead- they may or may not like it. They seem to be happy and healthy with what you are doing so keep it up. Worrying is all part of being a parent...lol.

 

[GlennO]

My Rainbowfish like Omega One Super Veggie Kelp pellets and flakes. The first 2 ingredients are kelp and spirulina.

However, consider making your own home made fish food. It makes up at least 50% of the diet of all of my fish and shrimp. You can vary the ingredients to make it more or less vegetarian to suit whatever fish you have. There are recipes on this forum.

 

[A201]

I totally agree with GlennO Omega Kelp pellets are very good. I would add Omega One super color sinking Cichlid pellets to the possibilities. My African Cichlids do quite well with both listed foods.