Best Dry Food?

[hardimanm]

Ive been feeding reef flakes for a while now but i was wondering what everyone thinks is the best food.
Also..anyone suggest a pellet or granular food. My reef flakes are getting sucked up by the overflow before they sink. Some fish are eating off the top of the water but the fish that eat off the bottom and lower water levels are not getting enough food.

[Palting]

Pinch the flakes and hold them underwater for a sec or 2, lift, then dunk again before slowly releasing. If you do this, especially if you do it in front of a return, the flakes will dissipate into the deep portons of the tank. Repeat. Give just enough each pinch for the fish to eat up so nothing gets sucked down the drain. The fish will often come up and eat from your fingers. Kinda cool!

I don't feed pellets or granular food, since they often just sit on the substrate. Frozen food I use often. Also, one current favorite of mine is the IO gel food.

[Arizonah13]

Originally Posted by Palting

Pinch the flakes and hold them underwater

+1

Also, my clown (even my extremely picky - spits out frozen mysis and brine clown) looooves some Spectrum/Formula one pellets.... eats those things aggressively! Highly recommend those - just make sure to get the smallest sized pellets available.

[hardimanm]

Thanks...great replies so far.
I also use frozen 2 times a week and feed my grazers IO gel algae and algae sheets.

[Damasta5]

Flake is the worst food to feed fish. It has no nutritional value what so ever. Its as if you are feeding your fish candy. I would suggest pellets for the dry food and Roggers food for the frozen food. I was the manager of a fish store and work at a wholesaler currently every fish loves Roggers food and I have yet to see a fish get ich when eating it. I have been using it for over a year now and use it at home in my 70 reef, 150g aggressive fish only and 178g reef.

[steelhead77]

I use a "flake" called Aquadine. The fish love it and it's not like the typical Tetra type of flake food.

[BrianOKC]

Originally Posted by Damasta5

Flake is the worst food to feed fish. It has no nutritional value what so ever. Its as if you are feeding your fish candy. I would suggest pellets for the dry food and Roggers food for the frozen food. I was the manager of a fish store and work at a wholesaler currently every fish loves Roggers food and I have yet to see a fish get ich when eating it. I have been using it for over a year now and use it at home in my 70 reef, 150g aggressive fish only and 178g reef.

I'd seriously like to know how you come up with these statements? Because the protein content on a lot of flake food is just as high if not higher than most pellets that I've seen. About the Ich part at best this is speculation that anything your feeding is affecting the way the fish gets Ich.

[Frick-n-Frags]

Omega-1. awesome ingredients..basically kept my royal gramma happy for 14+ years

also, i use the old golden pearls trick for my flake soaking:

put a little fresh water and the flakes in a little cup and pour it back and forth into a second cup a few times. this waterlogs the flakes with juicy freshwater

[Damasta5]

because I have talked to many manufacters of foods and everyone says flake is like feeding candy to your fish. Like I said I use to work at a fish store and work at a wholesaler and have notice much better color with pellets, Roggers food, and PE Mysis. Its not speculation if your doing it everyday for 2 years at 3 different places.

[Chris27]

To solve your food into the overflow problems, consider using a feeding ring. Basically it's just a ring that sits on top of the water, you put floating food in it and it stays there until it's all consumed, or you remove it with a net.

Personally, I don't ever feed dry food, it's messy and can really lead to water issues, especially if you have kids that like to feed Daddy's fish. There is something to be said about the convenience of it though....but just like us....we can survive on Cocoa Puffs and Fruity Pebbles, it's just not ideal. A nice plate of sashimi would most likely be welcomed by your finned pals though!

[BrianOKC]

Originally Posted by Damasta5

because I have talked to many manufacters of foods and everyone says flake is like feeding candy to your fish. Like I said I use to work at a fish store and work at a wholesaler and have notice much better color with pellets, Roggers food, and PE Mysis. Its not speculation if your doing it everyday for 2 years at 3 different places.

Okay so the guaranteed analysis that most reputable pet foods use must be wrong on the protein content and they just put candy in the flake food? Please come armed with some facts before you make such absurd statements regarding such a broad range of different foods. This misinformation is not what are hobby needs.

Just because you work in a pet store , that doesn't make you an expert IMO.

[Damasta5]

First off theres no need for you to be rude and second of all there not absurd statements after talking with poeple who work for Hikari and Spectra. I never said I was an expert either. I go by an analysis of over a few year of using different foods and seeing the results. There is no need for your garbage when I am trying to help someone else out on information I have gotten from my reps at these places and from personal expierence. And by the way pet supplies are not always what they say they are. Espically bright well products! So yes they can lie!

[Cozmo4]

Originally Posted by Damasta5

First off theres no need for you to be rude and second of all there not absurd statements after talking with poeple who work for Hikari and Spectra. I never said I was an expert either. I go by an analysis of over a few year of using different foods and seeing the results. There is no need for your garbage when I am trying to help someone else out on information I have gotten from my reps at these places and from personal expierence. And by the way pet supplies are not always what they say they are. Espically bright well products! So yes they can lie!

Some flake food is junk, other flake food is not. I certainly can't agree with any broad statement that implies all is bad. There's really good frozen food and some that's junk as well. IMO, there's good and bad types of all types of fish food.

Did you just nullify your own argument with this last post? Your opinion is based off of speaking to manufacturers, but then you say that the manufacturers lie. Hmmm...

[NirvanaFan]

Like was said, some flake food isn't great, but other is pretty good.

[muttley000]

Hate to interrupt the flame war, but check out new life spectrum pellets. Bob Fenner has written that they are the perfect food. He has gone so far to say that varety in feeding is not necessary with this as a staple. I wouldn't want to eat cheerios every day, and I wouldn't do that to livestock, but he obviously puts a lot of faith in this product.

[thegrun]

okay....back to the fight!

[TripleT]

+1 on New Life Spectrum. My fish love their pellets. The small pellets sink slowly, especially if there is good flow in the tank.

Flake is fine, but stay away from the cheap brands. I would also make flake the minority of what I feed.

My fish seem to love Omega 1 flake for herbivores:



Mix it up with more frozen foods, and supplements.

Best feeder ring:



http://www.marinedepot.com/fish_food...feeder-ap.html

[Damasta5]

I wasn't saying to stay away from flake all the time but to use it as a treat pretty much not as the everyday food. Yes there are a few good ones but there are things way better than flake.

[sedor]

I feed a dry food maybe once per week, and I tend to stick with Formula 1 and 2 flakes. Personally I can't stand the pellets because in my tank they just sink to the bottom and sit there. I guess my fish just aren't quick enough and don't like eating off the bottom of the tank.

As far as the quality of flake food goes, i'm going to have to agree with Cosmo. There are certainly bad brands of dry food just the same as there are horrible brands of frozen food. Its all about picking your foods wisely. Unfortunately just like it is with humans, the better the food is for the fish, generally the more it costs and the masses will always gravitate towards to lower price tag. I find that a lot of local fish stores don't even carry what I consider quality brands probably because they don't sell well sitting next to the cheap stuff.