Just pellets..

[GARRIGA]

I'm hoping to just go off pellets as it's more convenient and can be automated. One of my favorites being Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet. TDO also but not sure if that can be placed in an auto feeder as I keep mine refrigerated and Hikari has different blends. Key I believe is to keep it suspended long enough for it to soften for those picky eaters but as with anything experimenting to see what works and has the proper nutritional profile helps although I still feed frozen occasionally.

 

[ReeferHi]

I feed mostly pellets and Nori for the tangs. Some times they gets some frozen or live treats. My fish are fat. I lose track of time, oldest fish might be like 5 years now maybe more

If I could get a picture of my blue tang, the tank garbage disposal. He/she is one wide fish

Looks very nice

It's a fun discussion I see, many people have different experiences.

Just keep in mind that flakes rarely dispense consistently in auto feeders due to the size and shape variations of the flakes. Worst case scenario is that a big flake will block the hole and not dispense anything at all.

I personally only use pellets in the auto feeder when I'm on vacation.

Thanks for the tip! I am glad that instead of every day I can have someone come by once a week when I am on holiday.

 

[Paul B]

But if you ignore research, you cannot move ahead or incorporate new or refined methods!

True, but I feel we have to define where that research came from and what the research was for. "Fisheries scientists" study food fish for the people who raise "food" fish for "human consumption". I doubt any fisheries scientists study ornamental fish we have in tanks and yes, there is a big difference just like farmers who raise cattle to feed people. They are not that interested in the welfare or longevity of the animal, they are interested in making cattle, or fish fat enough in the least amount of time as cheaply as possible so they can be harvested and eaten.

We hobbyists' usually do not eat our fish and mostly want them to stay healthy and live out their life's to the fullest of their ability. Cattle are slaughtered in about 18 months but can live well over 20 years.

Food fish that are farm grown live just long enough to make them profitable to eat for instance a catfish is grown for about a year before it is used for food but that fish could live well over 25 or 35 years if left in the lake. Scientists are employed to get those fish larger and stay healthy just long enough to make them profitable.

Farmed fish food is designed (by fisheries scientists) to be as cheap as it can be while still allowing the fish to reach marketable size as fast as possible. Most farmed fish are also inundated with antibiotics because the fish are not immune as they would be in their natural habitat. (or in my tank)

So scientists input have little information for the average hobbyist who wants the fish to live forever and not just 12 months.

Quote: From a fish farm harvesting article:

Feeding the Fish To achieve a favorable feed conversion ratio, you will need approximately 1.5 to 2 pounds of feed for each pound of fish produced. . End Quote

I looked up "Mazuri" fish food.= from Amazon. The first ingredient is corn flour. The third ingredient is wheat starch,
There is wheat gluten, artificial colors and two preservatives. It is probably a decent fish food but why wouldn't you feed fish something they are supposed to eat like fish or clams?

I have spent about 400 hours underwater and hardly ever saw a fish eating corn flour.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Would it be possible once you trained your fish to eat pellets, to switch to a pellet only diet?
It just seems to me that pellets are way more nutritious than frozen food.

While there are some good pellet based foods out there, pellets have been responsible for constipation as an exclusive diet item and should be mixed with frozen which have fats, vitamins, and aminos and providing palatability. It would be like us consuming a ham sandwich every day without change in diet- offer more such as LRS fish frenzy, brine shrimp and plankton

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

True, but I feel we have to define where that research came from and what the research was for. "Fisheries scientists" study food fish for the people who raise "food" fish for "human consumption". I doubt any fisheries scientists study ornamental fish we have in tanks and yes, there is a big difference just like farmers who raise cattle to feed people. They are not that interested in the welfare or longevity of the animal, they are interested in making cattle, or fish fat enough in the least amount of time as cheaply as possible so they can be harvested and eaten.

We hobbyists' usually do not eat our fish and mostly want them to stay healthy and live out their life's to the fullest of their ability. Cattle are slaughtered in about 18 months but can live well over 20 years.

Food fish that are farm grown live just long enough to make them profitable to eat for instance a catfish is grown for about a year before it is used for food but that fish could live well over 25 or 35 years if left in the lake. Scientists are employed to get those fish larger and stay healthy just long enough to make them profitable.

Farmed fish food is designed (by fisheries scientists) to be as cheap as it can be while still allowing the fish to reach marketable size as fast as possible. Most farmed fish are also inundated with antibiotics because the fish are not immune as they would be in their natural habitat. (or in my tank)

So scientists input have little information for the average hobbyist who wants the fish to live forever and not just 12 months.

Quote: From a fish farm harvesting article:

Feeding the Fish To achieve a favorable feed conversion ratio, you will need approximately 1.5 to 2 pounds of feed for each pound of fish produced. . End Quote

I looked up "Mazuri" fish food.= from Amazon. The first ingredient is corn flour. The third ingredient is wheat starch,
There is wheat gluten, artificial colors and two preservatives. It is probably a decent fish food but why wouldn't you feed fish something they are supposed to eat like fish or clams?

I have spent about 400 hours underwater and hardly ever saw a fish eating corn flour.

Remember, tubifex worms aren't a natural diet for marine fish either!

Here is a product sheet for the Mazuri Ominvore gel diet, it looks great to me:

Soft, moist texture of gel – More palatable to fish which are difficult to feed.
• Contains all vitamins and trace minerals known to be required for fish.
• Contains probiotics – To support gastrointestinal and skin health in fish.
• Low starch formula – More closely replicates wild-type diets.
• Multiple, sustainable fish meal sources used.

https://pims.purinamills.com/BusinessLink/media/Mazuri/ProductSheet/5B0B.pdf?ext=.pdf

 

[Paul B]

Jay, I agree tubifex worms are not something a salt water fish would ever find, But in that food you mentioned, of the 20 or so ingredients almost none of them are real fish food. Even though a dry food may have vitamins and minerals that should keep the fish alive, the most crucial missing ingredients are oil and living gut bacteria which you know I feel is even more important than nutritional content. Dry food has probiotics in it and that is good, I take it myself but for immunity the fish also needs what you would call bad bacteria and viruses which is why I am going for a flu shot today which is weakened viruses. (I hope)

Dry foods will do nothing for immunity and diseases are what drives these threads. If we kept our fish correctly and try to mimic their surroundings in the sea and feed them foods with bacteria in it, yes, even disease bacteria and parasites, there would hardly be any need for a disease thread.

This is the "main reason" I never had to quarantine or medicate anything in decades.
Can you name one tank that is "old", "immune", and the fish are spawning, besides clown fish and "only dying" of old age while eating "only" dry foods? For a tank to be considered old, IMO it has to be up long enough to see if the fish are dying of old age. 20 or 25 years seems old enough as I have fish 10 years older than that. How else can you tell if your tang is dying of old age?

Can you put an ich or velvet infected fish in that tank? If they are immune, you can. I can.

Of course you can keep fish on dry foods as millions do. But there are so many disease problems in this hobby and to me that is just silly when a Lug Nut like me can keep fish totally immune for my entire lifetime, and i'm old, (I remember Eisenhower as President and had fish then)

I personally don't use worms every day. Only once or twice a week for bacteria. The other feedings are totally natural salt water fish foods like clam, fish, squid etc. I use mostly a commercial frozen food with no preservatives, wheat, corn meal, starch, artificial colors, preservatives, or Hostess Twinkees.