NLS

[BigA]

Hi everyone. I had a quick question I wanted to ask RD about the NLS H2O Stable wafers and flake. I feed my fish NLS community pellet and the H2O stable wafers. What do they mean by H2O stable? How is that any different from the standard fish formulas from NLS? From other brands spirunla wafers?

Edited November 13, 2007 by BigA

[jvision]

Check the NLS website (banner click-thru), and read what it says for the H2O Wafers... then ask RD for a more thurough explaination

[BigA]

I had already tried that before starting this thread. I didn't find anything on the site that answered this question. There was a list of ingredients and jar sizes and some info on the other products like the Thera-A, but none that I could find on the H2O Stable.

[RD.]

Unlike most wafers on the market, the NLS wafers will remain "stable" in your tank for 24 hrs or more, hence the name H2O Stable Wafers. Most of the wafers on the market swell up & turn to mush rather quickly due to the high amount of lower cost grain fillers. You'll see the exact same thing in the lower quality dog foods on the market, most of them are loaded with grain by-products, which neither dogs nor fish can properly digest. Not only does the NLS wafer contain a high inclusion rate of algae meal, which consists of Seaweed, Kelp, and Haematococcus pluvialis (a micro algae), it also contains Spirulina, as well as Alfalfa.

Now take take a close look at the following ingredient list on one of the more well known wafers on the market.

Spirulina, soy protein concentrate, wheat germ, dehydrated alfalfa, whole wheat, wheat gluten, oats, corn gluten meal, brewers dried yeast, rice flour, pea protein, wheat starch, zucchini, aniseed, soybean oil (stabilized with TBHQ), spinach, choline chloride, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, vitamin B12 supplement, riboflavin, niacin, calcium pantothenate, menadione sodium bisulfite (source of vitamin K), folic acid, pyridoxine HCI, thiamine mononitrate, biotin, ethoxyquin

Not only does this formula contain a multitude of grains & grain by-products, but if you could add up the "total" amount of wheat in this formula, I think that you'd find wheat is most likely closer to the main ingredient, not spirulina. Wheat is listed as the 3rd, 5th, 6th, & 12th ingredient in this food. (by dry weight)

Now add in the oats, corn gluten meal, rice flour, etc, and what you end up with is a food that has a VERY high carb content, which most fish would have difficulty in digesting, especially if eaten in any quantity. If you removed the soy protein concentrate from this food, you'd also find that the crude protein percent would probably be in the 20% range. (due the large amount of grains being used)

Below is another break down of a so called Premium Algae Disc.

Here's what's listed by weight (in descending order) on the ingredients list;

Spirulina Algae Meal, Corn Gluten Feed, Corn Meal, Corn Distilled Dried Grains, Wheat Flour, Wheat Germ, Wheat Gluten, Wheat Middlings, Linseed Meal, Canola Meal, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Soy Protein Concentrate, Pea Protein, Brewer's Dried Yeast, Corn Flour, Rice Flour, Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Soy Protein Isolate, Ground Barley, Calcium Carbonate, Soybean Meal, etc .........

Keeping my previous comment in mind, guess what the true main ingredient is in this food?

I suspect that if one was to clump together the various grains as a single listing, it would read more like this;

Corn, Wheat, Spirulina, Vegetable Oil ........ with this food containing FAR more grain & grain by-products (corn & wheat), than anything else.

But I guess that Premium Corn Discs might not have gone over very well with most consumers.

Part of the nutritional value of any feed is based on the amount of the nutrients or energy that a fish can absorb & utilize. The bio-availability of nutrients or energy is mainly defined in terms of digestibility, or with regards to energy, metabolizability.

Digestibility describes the portion of the nutrients or energy in the feed that is not excreted in the fishes feces. Metabolizability describes the portion of the digested energy that is not excreted in the fishes urine, or via their gills.

Just as in many brands of dog food, many fish foods are filled with an excessive amount of carbs, usually via grains & grain byproducts, but unlike dog foods, it's not always as easy to monitor all of the excessive waste excreted by a fish, or being stored as fat. There are fish foods on the market that read more like a pancake mix, than a food designed for fish, yet there are probably millions of fish keepers world-wide that will swear by those products, never being the wiser to exactly how much their fish are utilizing, and how much is simply adding unwanted pollution to their fishes environment. A lot of hobbyists tend to overfeed their fish, they simply can't see the waste with their own two eyes (the waste produced via the urine & gills) and if they have optimum filtration, they may not even be aware of the waste produced via their fishes feces.

NLS wafers are a very digestible food, which means for the hobbyist they can feed less, and in the end the cost per feeding is actually quite low compared to other wafers on the market.

HTH

[BigA]

So, in essence, even though NLS is the same price point (or even a little bit more) as the other premium wafers, the higher quality and more suitable ingredients produce are more efficiently digested and less waste is produced, therefore actually having to feed lower amounts to the fish to get the same amount of nutrients at less of an overall cost to the fishkeeper. Is that the gist of it? And they don't breakdown as fast once in the water, which reduces the amount of food that is left uneaten? Hence the name - H2O Stable.

That is great information to know. Thank you.

Edited November 13, 2007 by BigA

[RD.]

Yes, that's the gist of it. The true value of any pet food can not be determined by the sticker price alone.

[Vallisneria]

Are the pellets also "H2O stable"?

[RD.]

Not really, no pellet will hold together in a tank for 24 hrs.

The manner in which the H2O wafers are made to hold together for such a long period of time is a company secret.