Has anyone tried this product?

[corrosionjerry]

http://www.mreed.com/fryfoods.shtml

I wonder if it is any better then NLS crushed up and fed to fry...

[Vallisneria]

I wish they had the ingredients listed not just their general description of "Components".

Do you know where they list the ingredients?

[geleen]

May sound silly but I distrust anyone that has to shout or scream how good the product is they are selling. By shouting I mean the loud and aggressive colors of the web site, this is an immediate turnoff to me. (IT IS LIKE TYPING CAPITALS ONLY, IN A MESSAGE.)

J

Edited May 3, 2008 by geleen

[corrosionjerry]

Yes I agree... it would be nice if they listed off what the product was made from...

I found this on a Discus site where the person was saying that it was better then Brime shrimp etc for fry because he observed that his fish grew faster and healthier and poluted his tanks less with this product, as opposed to other fry foods.

I think that it must be simular to NLS because of the high protein statement.. and the new NLS that semi floats can be crushed up and serve the same purpose...

[RD.]

Similar to NLS ...... not likely. No offense to Mike Reed, but his food has been around for several years, and to be quite frank it has never taken off, and I doubt ever will. Anyone can say anything they want on a website, but a quick read of the ingredients found in his "top of the line" flakes pretty much says it all. "To help you judge quality, you can view the ingredients from our two staple flake foods. I urge you to compare these labels to those on the products you now use."

http://www.mreed.com/drylabels.shtml

While all flakes require a binding agent (such as wheat flour) there is only one reason why so much grain/carb content is found in the top 5-6 ingredients of a food. Such as soybean flour, wheat flour, oat flour, and gluten (of unknown origin?).

So much for comparing ingredients.......

As far as protein content, all protein is not equal. The protein percent on a label doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the protein, only the quantity of nitrogen. The value of protein is directly related to the amino acid content. It doesn't tell you how that protein was processed, or if it's even in a form that your fish can properly digest & utilize. As an example, feather meal is quite high in protein, but overall is generally poor in digestibility. A fish food label could state 45% protein, but if only 60% of that protein is in a form that's available to the fish, then suddenly that figure on the label becomes somewhat meaningless to the average consumer. (and their fish)

The only protein that truly counts, is the digestible protein, as in the amount of protein that can be fully assimilated by your fish. The rest is just smoke & mirrors, yet many hobbyists fall victim to these types of label games.

This is exactly why/how the recent tainted dog & cat food fiasco came about. The company in China that was supplying the gluten, added melamine to boost the overall nitrogen content of the ingredient, which in turn made the overall percentage of protein in their raw ingredient (gluten) seem impressive. I'm sure that the numbers looked very impressive on paper, but in reality those protein readings were nothing more than false numbers. Not to mention what these ingredients did to numerous pets across NA.

Also, BBS is really not a nutritionally complete food, so for any fry willing to eat a decent commercial food there should be an increase in growth seen. The reason that BBS works so well in the first few weeks of a fishes life is due to the fact that damn near all fry will eat it. With more finicky fry, if they don't eat on a regular daily basis they can & do suffer high mortality rates. BBS give good solid even growth in fry, but after a few weeks fry will do far better in both growth & overall health on a high quality pellet food, such as NLS. And while one can indeed crush up various 1mm pellet formulas for fry, the Grow formula provides far greater levels of both protein & crude fat which young fry require due to their higher metabolism.

If one performs side by side sibling tests, with all conditions being equal (including the total grams fed each day) I can assure you that the Grow formula will outperform the other formulas.

HTH

[corrosionjerry]

Similar to NLS ...... not likely. No offense to Mike Reed, but his food has been around for several years, and to be quite frank it has never taken off, and I doubt ever will. Anyone can say anything they want on a website, but a quick read of the ingredients found in his "top of the line" flakes pretty much says it all. "To help you judge quality, you can view the ingredients from our two staple flake foods. I urge you to compare these labels to those on the products you now use."

http://www.mreed.com/drylabels.shtml

While all flakes require a binding agent (such as wheat flour) there is only one reason why so much grain/carb content is found in the top 5-6 ingredients of a food. Such as soybean flour, wheat flour, oat flour, and gluten (of unknown origin?).

So much for comparing ingredients.......

As far as protein content, all protein is not equal. The protein percent on a label doesn't tell you anything about the quality of the protein, only the quantity of nitrogen. The value of protein is directly related to the amino acid content. It doesn't tell you how that protein was processed, or if it's even in a form that your fish can properly digest & utilize. As an example, feather meal is quite high in protein, but overall is generally poor in digestibility. A fish food label could state 45% protein, but if only 60% of that protein is in a form that's available to the fish, then suddenly that figure on the label becomes somewhat meaningless to the average consumer. (and their fish)

The only protein that truly counts, is the digestible protein, as in the amount of protein that can be fully assimilated by your fish. The rest is just smoke & mirrors, yet many hobbyists fall victim to these types of label games.

This is exactly why/how the recent tainted dog & cat food fiasco came about. The company in China that was supplying the gluten, added melamine to boost the overall nitrogen content of the ingredient, which in turn made the overall percentage of protein in their raw ingredient (gluten) seem impressive. I'm sure that the numbers looked very impressive on paper, but in reality those protein readings were nothing more than false numbers. Not to mention what these ingredients did to numerous pets across NA.

Also, BBS is really not a nutritionally complete food, so for any fry willing to eat a decent commercial food there should be an increase in growth seen. The reason that BBS works so well in the first few weeks of a fishes life is due to the fact that damn near all fry will eat it. With more finicky fry, if they don't eat on a regular daily basis they can & do suffer high mortality rates. BBS give good solid even growth in fry, but after a few weeks fry will do far better in both growth & overall health on a high quality pellet food, such as NLS. And while one can indeed crush up various 1mm pellet formulas for fry, the Grow formula provides far greater levels of both protein & crude fat which young fry require due to their higher metabolism.

If one performs side by side sibling tests, with all conditions being equal (including the total grams fed each day) I can assure you that the Grow formula will outperform the other formulas.

HTH

Thank you for the good post RD.... I sort of thought that the NLS would be more superior...

I am going to try the NLS grow formula you have... I mustnt be very observant as I was unware that NLS put out a growth version for fry....

[RD.]

You can find the specs for the growth formula on the following page.

http://www.cichlid-food-canada.com/info.html

Main protein sources are South Antarctic Krill, Herring, and Squid.