share your favorite dry food find !

[spypet]

this week I'll be placing my dry goods order with thatpetplace.com and would like to include a new dry food. thatpetplace is one of the best vendors to try new foods as they stock all container sizes of food especially the small sample sizes, while other major online sellers will only stock the medium size containers so I'm looking for your new ideas to try.

I currently have a collection of 15 very different dry foods that serve my fish needs with varying degrees of success. I will share with you my top commercially availably dry fish food that my fish go absolutely crazy over eating. some may surprise you!


Argent Cyclop-eeze, whole freeze dried Zooplankton.
put a pinch of this stuff on your water surface, and every fish will come out of hiding to the surface and water flow to gobble up as many bits as they can find. this stuff is more powerful than garlic if you need to get newly acclimated fish to eat. i use this as an occasional snack between meals, or when i want to show off my fish activity to friends without risk of over feeding them.


Pacifica Plankton, AquaSelect, whole freeze dried Plankton.
i can drop 4 different floating foods in at the same time, and my fish will always find and gobble these up first long before they ever hit the bottom. for smaller fish I cut them in half before sprinkling them in the tank, as you may find them too fibrous to easily crush and sprinkle the dust.

other fish favorites include Tubifex Worm cubes, and freeze-dried Bloodworms.

Please share with us your very best dry food success with as much information as you can provide to help us find it, so we can try it

[essabee]

When you buy dry foods, you appear to be using all your containers at the same time. What is the time period taken by you finish all the food? Do you keep all your containers on your shelves or in the frize?

[spypet]

BUMP I'm still hoping some people will chime in with great dry fish food products i have yet to try.

as for dry food shelf life; makers say up to 2 years, but i have food nearly 6 years old that my fish are still happy to eat.
i suspect that foods with a lot of fish "omega" oil in them will spoil a lot sooner than totally freeze dried stuff.
i keep all my dry food containers in a small Sterilite tub with an easy on and off lid that i believe helps preserve them,
as well as keeping their odor from possibly offending me. IMHO Sterilite is WAY better than Tupperware or Rubbermaid.
I use these same containers to help preserve other dry goods such as drug tablets and capsules, as well as food spices.
I do not keep any of my fish food in the refrigerator. If I lived in a humid climate with poor A/C then I probably would.

notice these containers come in 3 different sizes. PM me for a $5 off coupon code

[JenThePlantGeek]

I have a few of those ^ and unfortunately they are not air-tight. Air leaks through where the gray clip is, around the hinges.

And my favorite dry food is rain-'s shrimpy biscuits:


rainforest - rain-'s shrimpy biscuits

[cbennett]

i have a lot of small fishes and baby fishes, so I really like Mike Reed's No BS Food (No Brine Shrimp Food) available at Tropical Fish Food--Mike Reed's Tropical Fish Food and More . It is pellets that come in two sizes, 200-300 micron and 500-600 micron. I use the small size for my baby apistos and the larger size to feed my adult apistos and tetras. The big size is too small for bigger fish or even the larger types of apistos. The small size though is enjoyed even by the teeny type adults. I really like it because it is neutrally buoyant so it stays wherever I put it and just flows with the current (i.e. it doesn't fall to the bottom or float), even wild fish I've gotten will immediately eat it and thus make it easy to train them to eat flake, and it seems to keep them really really healthy. I rarely lose any new fish anymore, even ones that come in from the importer pretty ragged and gaunt. Usually they will start putting on breeding colors and start breeding in my tanks. The food's very dense so a pinhead worth of food will feed an entire tank.

[spypet]

thanks Jen & Ben for your non-commercial product suggestions.
I don't need enough food to justify paying those providers, I just
wanted something cheap to add to my dry goods order on Monday.

Rather than finding a new type of food, I found some intersting food formats;

instead of food flakes or pellets, food "crisps"
sound interesting as they may float longer;
1.06oz $2.99

oh, anyone who wants to try that Cyclop-eeze
without spending $10 should check these out;
1.41oz $3.39

[LS6 Tommy]

I have been having great luck with the Hikari Bio- Pure FD brine shrimp and blood worms. My Discus love it (saves on frozen foods). Even my wild caught Pseudambassis ranga (Indian glass fish) eagerly eat it. If you've ever tried to keep them you know how hard it is just to get them to eat at all.

Tommy

[spypet]

Originally Posted by LS6 Tommy

Hikari Bio- Pure FD brine shrimp and blood worms.

hmmm, I'm not surprised the blood worms were effective,
as blood worms and Tubifex worm cubes are wonderful,
but I am surprised you had good results with brine shrimp.
I have brine shrimp cubes from AquaSelect, which I consider
to be a purer and better brand than Hikari, and those cubes
turn into awful brown sludge that none of my fish will eat.
I suspect Hikari adds fillers and binders that make it more
practical and palitable for your fish. Maybe I will give
Hikari's version a try. Thanx for the suggestion, Tommy.

[CardBoardBoxProcessor]

I feed this mainly to my tetras.. keeps their colors nice and bright! plus it is the only fish food my work has (it is a human food store..) so yeah..

[notropis]

I like the crisps over flakes. I think my fish do to. They do float, but they do sink faster than flakes which I prefer because than my bottom dwellers and other shy fish that don't like to go to the surface get a chance at them.

[jaidexl]

I haven't tried everything there is to offer, but from what I have, I like New Life Spectrum pellets the best. Mainly because they float if I want them to, sink if I throw them in, and they tend to fall in places that my fish can't find them right away (I have some slow goers that get the shaft when the crazed ones gobble everything up in a minute). sometimes they land on leaves, which for some reason excites me, they rest on my rocks perfectly camouflaged, or fall into crevices and hiding spots. I like the idea of the fish hunting the food down rather than scarfing it down like they do frozen food or flakes. I still haven't tried live food other than the odd bug that lands between my fingers.

[spypet]

I haven't tried everything there is to offer, but from what I have, I like New Life Spectrum pellets the best.

jaidexl; I've tried other's pellet food, but can you be more specific
regarding exactly which New Life Spectrum did you try/like best?

New Life Spectrum Premium Fish Foods:
All Purpose Formula 1.0mm
Freshwater Community Formula 1.0mm
Jumbo Fish Formula 4.5mm
New Life Spectrum Extra Large Fish 7.5mm
Large Fish Formula 3.0mm
Small Fish Formula 0.5mm
Growth Formula 0.5mm
Thera-A Anti-Parasitic Formula
New Life Spectrum Premium Cichlid
New Life Spectrum Premium Goldfish Pellets
New Life Spectrum Discus Formula
New Life Spectrum Koi Formula
New Life Spectrum H20 Stable Wafers
New Life Spectrum Cichlasoma Formula
- or another type?

notropis; thanks for chiming in about those crisps I bought.
faster sinking (after longer floating) has an added bonus!
less likely to get sucked into your filter

CardBoard; I have those flakes too. I'm glad your fish like them.

[Burks]

My only food I use other than flake is:

Nutrafin basix - Tubifex Worms
A flea market dealer had a case of them, each bottle was $1 so I decided to give them a try. My Gold Pristela Tetras go nuts over them. Normally they'll just peck at flakes but these things they charge at.

My stand by food is Wardley Tropical Flakes. Fish like them and I like the price. Also toss in some Wardley Spirulina flakes too (Target discount special, $1). Just started using the Tetra Color flakes. We'll see how that goes.


I'm going to check for those Tetra Micro Crabs tomorrow. May give those a shot for some added variety.

[spypet]

Originally Posted by Burks

I'm going to check for those Tetra Micro Crabs tomorrow.

a member named toofazt claims his fish&shrimp are spoiled by Micro Crabs.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/324732-post11.html

[jhoetzl]

Those microcrabs are attacked by most everything I keep.

As for some other foods that my tank goes nuts for...check out Kens Fish Home of Quality Fish Food, And Supplies At Excellent Prices.. For the quantity and quality, I don't think the price can be better!

I use the earthworm flakes and a few other products of his.