Does grain free fish food exist??

[fishnchip]

Hey guys!

I recently read the ingredients of my fish favorite flake food, and I was surprised by what they had listed. There was a lot of wheat products and I'm pretty sure wheat is not food these guys would find in the big blue I'd like to keep my fish on a diet that is closest to what they would find in the wild.

Does anyone know of any dry food that has good whole ingredients? And doesn't have any grains?

I do feed my fish frozen regularly but I'd like a dry food to supplement with as well.

Thanks #reefsquad

 

[Amoo]

Been feeding NLS pellets for years. Third ingredient is whole wheat flour. Every other thing on the label is ocean stuff.

 

[Greybeard]

I feed a mix of LRS, Rod's, Hikari Mysis, Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 and Formula 2... all frozen.

The only 'dry' foods I use are Nori sheets. Uncooked, sun dried, no additives... It's intended for human consumption, I get the stuff off of Amazon. Way cheaper than the sheet stuff packaged for fish food.

I'd like to keep my fish on a diet that is closest to what they would find in the wild

I agree... but if that's the case, why would you want to use a dry fish flake?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

I got some dehydrated mysis in my last My Aquarium Box, that might be an option if you can't or don't want to feed frozen. I know there are dehydrated mysis, blood worms, and such.

 

[rushbattle]

Not to be argumentative, but what's the reasoning behind such a desire? One of the best performing feeds on the market is Otohime, and it has some potato and wheat in the formulation.

In fact, I published the first article in the literature describing a fish meal and fish oil free diet that equaled or bettered diets containing both. No worries about feeding non-marine sourced ingredients. In fact, its healthier for the ecological systems of the ocean to leave the menhaden, squid, herring, etc. in the water, if you care about those kinds of things.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848609008916

 

[fishnchip]

Been feeding NLS pellets for years. Third ingredient is whole wheat flour. Every other thing on the label is ocean stuff.

Yeah I have them too! Healthiest option I could find so far. Only thing is is that my fish don’t seem to love them

 

[rushbattle]

Oh, I forgot to mention another part of this: it's hard to extrude pellets that don't have any starches in them, like wheat flour. It's going to be very hard to find a pelleted feed that doesn't disintegrate when it hits the water without something starchy in the formulation.

 

[fishnchip]

Not to be argumentative, but what's the reasoning behind such a desire? One of the best performing feeds on the market is Otohime, and it has some potato and wheat in the formulation.

In fact, I published the first article in the literature describing a fish meal and fish oil free diet that equaled or bettered diets containing both. No worries about feeding non-marine sourced ingredients. In fact, its healthier for the ecological systems of the ocean to leave the menhaden, squid, herring, etc. in the water, if you care about those kinds of things.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848609008916

The main reason is that I know for other fish species such as goldfish, grains can cause digestive problems. I understand that goldfish have very different body types than most marine fish so that they are more prone to digestive issues but being that our marine fish are from the ocean and have lived off of seafoods and algae for the history of their existence, I could only imagine how whole diets would be more beneficial. This is just my opinion on the matter and I’m sure with all the research and experimenting that has been done on fish foods that these other options aren’t necessarily bad. I personally just like to go the more natural route when feeding my fish

 

[fishnchip]

I feed a mix of LRS, Rod's, Hikari Mysis, Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 and Formula 2... all frozen.

The only 'dry' foods I use are Nori sheets. Uncooked, sun dried, no additives... It's intended for human consumption, I get the stuff off of Amazon. Way cheaper than the sheet stuff packaged for fish food.



I agree... but if that's the case, why would you want to use a dry fish flake?

I do feed frozen a lot if the time but dry foods are just easier in my opinion. It’s cheaper most of the time and has a longer shelf life. I was just asking to see if other options were available that I wasn’t aware of

 

[rushbattle]

I feed a mix of LRS, Rod's, Hikari Mysis, Ocean Nutrition Formula 1 and Formula 2... all frozen.

The only 'dry' foods I use are Nori sheets. Uncooked, sun dried, no additives... It's intended for human consumption, I get the stuff off of Amazon. Way cheaper than the sheet stuff packaged for fish food.



I agree... but if that's the case, why would you want to use a dry fish flake?

I dig your style! I try to feed as much freshly frozen, responsibly sourced, marine components as I can. It's not clear from the data, but my conjecture is that the bacteria that come along with those protein sources act like probiotics. Another factor is the way larger still-hydrated particles versus dehydrated ground feed ingredients get digested.

 

[fishnchip]

I got some dehydrated mysis in my last My Aquarium Box, that might be an option if you can't or don't want to feed frozen. I know there are dehydrated mysis, blood worms, and such.

That is a good option. I normally do feed frozen but was looking for an all natural flake or pellet food. Will look into it though

 

[fishnchip]

Oh, I forgot to mention another part of this: it's hard to extrude pellets that don't have any starches in them, like wheat flour. It's going to be very hard to find a pelleted feed that doesn't disintegrate when it hits the water without something starchy in the formulation.

Yeah that’s true. Thank you!!

 

[rushbattle]

Yeah I have them too! Healthiest option I could find so far. Only thing is is that my fish don’t seem to love them

Otohime has enough squid meal that I think anything that comes from the ocean would be super interested in eating the pellets, as long as it got introduced to them gradually.

 

[1WildBill]

Check out https://www.brineshrimpdirect.com/flake-diets-flake-food/mysis-and-garlic-flake/?filter=1:1.

 

[BedrockIOMC]

I'd like to keep my fish on a diet that is closest to what they would find in the wild.

you really should go frozen then. That really is the only thing that is just like they would get in the ocean.

 

[BedrockIOMC]

dry foods are just easier in my opinion.

All you have to do is take a frozen square and through it in the tank and they will eat it as it thaws. pretty easy unless you get the bags of frozen. I use them both myself.
You can get the bags of frozen and cut it in preserving sizes that you will use and put them in a zip lock and then just through them in each time you feed and that will be a lot easier day to day. but to me you cant get better then the frozen.