GO-PET fish flakes better than HBH etc?

[Paul]

i guys, I was desperate for some food last week for my african cichlids. They are all haps, peacocks, fronts and comps etc. I popped into woolies to get some cheap flake food. I normally buy HBH and the other brand with the purple branding forget the name). I checked the ingredients on the back of the go-pet tropical fish food and it said:

fish Meat, fish eggs, daphnia, fish meal, brine shrimp, dried mosquito larvae, plankton and chlorella.

now when you compare this to a specialised cichlid flake, the notable thing that is absent is any wheat based ingredients. surely this is a good thing. Wheat products are usually in the top 2 ingredients of most of the expensive brands. I don't know any fish that eats wheat in the wild. Also this stuff is missing all the myriad of vitamans etc of the expensive stuff.

This cheap stuff really smells fishy compared to the expensive cichlid food, which often doesn't smell at all.

I wonder if this stuff contains wheat flour but they have just decided to leave that out of the ingredients list?

considering this stuff is a third/quarter the price of the specialist stuff, it certainly raises a few questions.

I also feed my african cichlids feeder fish and feeder shrimp, lettuce, spinach, all sorts of aquatic plants (I don't *feed* it to them, they just help themselves) and zuccini. You'd think they'd be getting all the nutrients they need without adding synthetic sources to their food.

thought this might be a good topic for discussion, what do you feed your africans and why?

[dammwoman]

Feed all our fish mainly homemade frozen food mainly to cost but noticed that the fish are far healthier when fed my own mix. Did feed HBH flake once a day but only because we didn't want to sell fish that didn't know what flake was and not eat after sale.
Don't personally like HBH but as Bob worked at Bay our hands were tied and couldn't use another food.
Have noticed receintly that with nearly all our fish gone north and the mincer to make food has gone with them that now I'm using nearly all flake food as diet they are not as good in condition as they were.
Cheers Linda

[here fishie fishie]

Just make sure the fish still get vit C. A varied diet is the key, just look at us & other animals (IMO) Those that eat a proper diet & not so much of the processed products are healthier. My dogs get dog biscuits, but that is just as a filler & to add any minerals/ vitamins that could be missing in their diet.
(touch wood)  Dogs have been to vets only to get the chop, odd tick removed and get required shots. 8O

Frenchy :D

[Reillin]

I feed my fish the following regardless of brand name

flakes
live daphnia
live mozzie wrigglers
vegie and prawn mix with multi vitamins and minerals


Gday Linda,

Will you share your recipe?

Cheers,
Vien.

[cosmotiger1]

............................................. ........................................................... ............................................... .......................................................... ..........................  its not just the ingredients in the food that makes it a good food. you have to think of how well the food is prepared and stored. Homebrand Flakes always feel like they are stale. and like justin said fish need vitamins aswell.
and as for not eating wheat products in the wild, does that mean it is not good for them???  :roll:   :roll:   :roll:
I dont think there are many Zuchini's with rocks sitting on them in rivers for bristlenose and plecos to eat

really i just reckon feeding any shit food likle that to your fish is just being cheap and lazy.  :evil:

I really dont think that most of the major brands break the ingedients right down, as that would defent there research and allow others to copy.

But no i wouldnt be feeding my fish a supermarket no name brand, fine for gold fish or the emergency when you dont have any. But would you yourself eat nothing but no name brands??

[Paul]

Cosmotiger1, your post is not very constructive. How do you come to the conclusion that Go-Pet Tropical Fish Food Flakes are "shit food"? This thread is a discussion on the possible merits of the food as apposed to other foods. You haven't really qualified your statement.

Why do you think it is "shit food"?

Why do you think the GO-PET brand should be lumped in the same category as home brand food? These flakes smell wonderfully fresh.

Do you think there is a definate corrolation between price and quality?

Also, why do you think feeding them the cheaper flake food is "just being cheap and lazy", when I feed my fish (as previously stated) feeder fish and feeder shrimp, lettuce, spinach, all sorts of aquatic plants and zuccini?

As you say, fish require vitamins, but what I was asking is are the synthetic, added vitamins really required when the fish are getting a varied diet of live and dried foods? If you look on any human vitamin package, they will all state somewhere that "vitamins can only be of benefit where there is a dietry deficiancy.

And zuccini is very close in composition to the cichlid's natural food source compared to processed wheat products.

I'm not offended by your post, I'd just love to hear the reasons for your opinions that's all.







[quote:d2e3adb251]I also feed my african cichlids feeder fish and feeder shrimp, lettuce, spinach, all sorts of aquatic plants (I don't *feed* it to them, they just help themselves) and zuccini.[/quote:d2e3adb251]

I really wouldnt feed my fish the cheaper brands, in fact i have moved to New Life Spectrum, (EVEN MY TROPHEUS) , and have never seen better colour and more life out of them.

Maybe you need to look into the actual value of this food, I know that frozen vegies have proven to have more vitamins that fresh food off the shelf.

An african kid can live on a $1 a day worth of flour and water and mix protein, Is he really getting nutrition??

Not saying its not as nutritionish(spelling) as the expensive brands, but i think you would need to look at it scientifically before changing the diet.

And feeding it once a week is not the same as once a day, so i think trying to convert people who only ever feed the same food could be a mistake.

[Reillin]

Wheat = Starch?  Does anyone out there know which class of stomach enzymes do Malawi and Tangs have?  It would be interesting to know if fish can break down starch as easily as we humans can.

I would not think that fish can break down starch as easily as we can, this is due to the fact that over thousands of years, they have evolved to digest their native food as efficient as possible.  Changing this diet can have a detrimental effect on their organs.  This is shown to be true when fish are fed on a high-protein diet to which they are unaccustomed to.  It does lead to more growth and sometimes even better colours, however the fish were shown to have poor organ development and a shortened lifespan.  I'll chase up the link for the experiment when I can.

One more thing, not all labelling would be correct.  Just because we have a body that regulates ingredient listing with products made here, it does not mean such rules apply overseas.  I think in the end, it is up to your fish to decide if a food is good or not.  Feed it and make observations.

Cheers,
Vien.

[cosmotiger1]

ok well i coudnt really be bothered going into detail, but people generaly take advise from people who are in the know.
keeping this in mind, who has more knoweledge in this field then people who deal with fish for a living ( ie LFS owners).
with most lfs they sell the few brands they consider to be the best for fish. Well when  i ran a shop thats how i did it. i tried different foods and only sold the best of these.
ive been into nearly every lfs on the coast and i havent seen this brand you are talking of.  
but i tried asking the guy in woolies whether that food was good for my cichlid and he said i would probably be better off going to the doctor and getting some cream for it lol  (just joking)  :D

[fishtraderlau]

Foods....Well, it certainly is a good question that you ask as yes....with such a huge variance in prices from supermarket foods to the very premium lines...what is really the difference?

I personally only use the very best stuff that i can buy to feed my breeding fish, and then depending on the fish type and location i mix it up a lot with other products as well for feeding adult fish or low value fish.

I've done a few interesting trials if anyone is interested..this one of direct comparisons of flakes that i use.

#1 vs #2 vs #3.(I'm not sure how safe it is to mention product names here...all flake foods that i use for variety of fish- i do use 7 varieties of flake mind you)
Fish all in a sumped tank, shallow 4ft tank with dividers so making up 3 'tanks'.
same batch of malawans (from the same mouthful).

in 2 months...
Tank 1. 3.2mm average
Tank 2. 2.8mm average
Tank 3. 1.9mm average

let's just say that was proof enough for me as to what was the best food for me to use, but surprisingly, #2 food was a good 20% cheaper than food #3. It wasn't just growth rates either, Tank 1 fish were generally better looking, brighter looking and generally better colour coming through.

Price of foods can be tricky hey as different places vary the margins on food so much between themselves but basically- feed your fish the best you can within your budget, and that may not be relative to $'s.

Varying the diet is the big thing..each of my fish gets at least 3 different products in their diet.

But....you've got me interested in another comparison so if anyone would like to suggest to me 3 different types of flake, i will do the same test again for the forum here on the three types of flake, on say, the next batch of blue dolphins and the next batck of electric yellows...i'll put identical fish numbers and electronically weigh out food quantities.

So...what flakes would people like compared, this is going to be very interesting?

I'll also do it on other comparible food types if people are interested, comparing growing out of other fish on pellets or wafers.

Cheers,

Andrew.

[cosmotiger1]

id like to see
HBH Cichlid flake frenzy  (1 of my fav's) in the test

cheers mate.

well when i said lfs owners are generaly more knowledgeable i forgot agout you andrew lol.

[Paul]

Andrew,
              your test would indeed be interesting. it would be great if you could use go-pet tropical flake as part of the experiment. I would be willing to contribut financially to the cause seeing as you would be going to so much trouble.

On the issue of local fish shop owners, I agree that many of them are very knowledgable, but from a clinical/scientific perspective they are, generally, probably not the best source of data as they will, generally, be influenced by some sort of commercial imperitive. Hypothetically  if the best fish food by far was some cheap taiwanese import that gave a profit margin of 2c for every 5kg they sold, they probably wouldn't be selling and recommending it.

I don't mean this as a slur on local fish shop owners as I find them to be generally fantastic people that do great things for our hobby.

glad I've got everyone thinking!!

Yea i would be interested to see the outcome of this test, New Life Spectrum would be a great one to add in there aswell.

[Paul]

how about white crane to make it really controversial?

or perhaps a 4th sample with a mix of the other 3 foods?