My tank got a couple of Questions.

[RD.]

No disrespect to Mr. Fohrman, but keeping fish for 25 years, and publishing books, doesn't make one an expert on anything.

Even Pablo doesn't consider himself an expert, and he's been keeping fish a lot longer than 25 years. Pablo refers to experts as "someone who knows so much, they have no room left in their head to learn anythng new". I tend to agree.

And seeing as we're comparing credentials, here's a little background on the creator of NLS.

Pablo has been importing, breeding, and selling fish for over 30+ years. At one time (approx 1970) he was one of the largest saltwater importers in the USA. He also raised & bred Discus back in the late 60's, early 70's. In approx the mid 70's Pablo & his wife settled in Homestead Florida & began specializing in African cichlids. Pablo currently maintains ...... 120 ponds (approximately 30,000 gal. each), 1500 concrete vats (250gal.-500gal. each) and 1,000 40 gal. fry aquariums on 2 five acre farms. I seriously doubt that you'll find any other fish food manufacturer, or so called 'cichlid expert' that has the 'hands on' experience with raising & breeding fish as Pablo Tepoot.

Although Pablo breeds & sells live fish as a business (a very successful one at that), is the author of 4 aquarium/fish books, and approx 8 years ago branched out to a very successful line of fish food, IMO he is still a hobbyist at heart. Pablo lives & breathes fish 24/7.

Part of the problem I see with this hobby is the same info from 10-25 years ago keeps getting repeated over & over again until it almost becomes a fact. Things such as pellets need to be pre-soaked, or they will swell up inside your fish, causing bloat. Total nonsense if one uses a quality pellet food, yet that same myth is still repeated across numerous forums/books etc world-wide. Another favorite of mine is how one should not use foods high in protein, yet in the same breath these same people advise feeding herbivores a spirulina based food. (with spirulina averaging 55-65% protein)

From the same article that you quoted, Mr. Fohrman also states:

If we feed herbivores a very nutritious and easily digested food, even if it is from cold blooded animals, sooner or later it will upset their digestive system.

While I'm sure that there's a possibility of the above happening when feeding certain foods, it should never happen with any type of "very nutritious and easily digested" flake or pellet. Ad Konings mentions the same thing in the following article http://www.cichlidae.com/article.php?id=45 yet qualifies his comments by referring to "soft" foods.

Perhaps that's what Mr. Fohrman meant, I honestly have no idea?

Mr. Konings also states in the article above:

Pelleted food can be used too but here you may risk obstruction of the gut. Therefore, pellets should be softened (soaked in water) before they are given.

While that may be the case with a low quality food filled with hard to digest grain fillers, it should never happen with a highly digestible food that is made from high quality raw ingredients. I'm not sure what brand of pellets those gents were using 10+ years ago when they were writing these articles, but the fish food industry has come along ways in the past 10 years, and if one takes the time to choose their food wisely (and not just look at the various pretty green dyed formulas) this should never be an issue with any species of fish, including the ones classified as strict herbivores.

The gastric acids & enzymes found in the gut of a herbivorous African cichlid will certainly prevent any high quality pellet from swelling up within them.

Ad Konings will be the first one to tell you that herbivorous African cichlids do not get their protein from the low grade plant matter that they eat, the actual foods that make them grow are insect nymphs and larvae, crustaceans, snails, mites, micro-organisms, and zoo plankton, not vegetable matter. The truth is spirulina is very high in mineral content, and will stunt your fishes growth, and reduce its overall health, if one includes too much if it in their fishes diet. Even herbivores can only assimilate so much spirulina, and this is all well documented in various studies that have taken place in the aquaculture circles over the past 10-20 years. This is the exact reason why marine proteins (such as krill/fish) have been used as the main protein source in fish food for the past 50 years.

Here's another comment from one of Ad Konings books.

Males of many Utaka will not regain or acquire their breeding colours when fed exclusively on dry food.

I suspect that the people who own the fish on the following page, and who feed New Life Spectrum exclusively, would strongly disagree with Mr. Konings.

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

Again, the info above was written over 10 years ago, and simply no longer applies if one uses a high quality dry food.

While I agree that it never hurts to gradually switch your fishes diet, one cannot compare switching from a commercial flake food such as in Rick's case, to what Mr. Fohrman was referring to, which was going from a flake food, to Mysis. There's a huge difference between the two examples. To lessen any potential gastrointestinal issues I did advise Rick to feed very lightly for the first few days, and that he could also continue to use his HBH flakes.

Fish thrive and explode in colour with this food. But you can also find pictures of stunning fish that have never been fed NLS but a variety of other foods.

No argument there, if you've been following my comments across the forums, you'll also note that I have posted the following several times.

"For the most part freshwater fish are very easy to keep alive, and even on only so-so foods will show decent color (sometimes), breed, and live for several years. I suspect that most could be kept alive on nothing more than crumbled up supermarket dog chow."

For further explanation as to what sets NLS apart from the various other dry foods on the market, you can read the rest of the story here:

http://forums.spectrumfishfood.com/viewtopic.php?t=66

I'm not twisting anyones arm into using NLS, or stating that anyones fish is going to shrivel up & die if it doesn't eat NLS 24/7, I'm simply stating that there is no other dry formula on the market that compares with it. None.

I don't think that we need to attack people who have kept cichlids successfully for many years and continue to be leaders in this area.

I don't consider my comments (here or anywhere else) as an attack on anyone, I'm simply trying to clear up some of the more common myths & misconceptions that continue to circulate from one forum to the next, from one decade to the next.

I'm certainly no expert, and IMO the greatest part of this hobby is the never ending learning process.

To close our eyes & ears, simply because someone who once wrote a book, or has kept fish for 25 years, says that we should, is a step backwards in the big learning curve of fishkeeping.

[midgetwaiter]

A quote from Ad Konings' "Enjoying Cichlids" 2nd Edition. Kjell Fohrman writes, "Another factor that may lead to upset intestines in your cichlids is a sudden change in the type of food. If you have fed your fishes for a long period with quickly digestible food, such as flake food for instance, and then in the space of a day switch to e.g. Mysis (a highly recommended fish food), the fishes may have initial problems and be particularly vulnerable to diseases. Even when new food is much better and closer to the natural food of the cichlids you must change their diet gradually."

Just a quick explination for why this happens. If you have a steady diet of one thing in any higher animal and then change it abruptly you will have issues. Humman, pigs, birds, fish, whatever. The reason for this is the bacterial colonies that live in the intestines. Those bacteria do a lot of the work in digestive systems and once they are adapted to something changing quickly it can cause problems.

When switching from one prepared food to another it doesn't have to take long, maybe a few days. What the poster probably had problems with was a combination of feeding to much and this bacterial adjustment period. I'm thinking the poor fish were just a little gassy. Not feeding for a few day and then feeding lightly should sort everything out. The case Konings is talking about is a much more severe change.

NLS pelets are dense. A little goes a long way but you get a feel for it enventually.

Part of the problem I see with this hobby is the same info from 10-25 years ago keeps getting repeated over & over again until it almost becomes a fact. Things such as pellets need to be pre-soaked, or they will swell up inside your fish, causing bloat. Total nonsense if one uses a quality pellet food, yet that same myth is still repeated across numerous forums/books etc world-wide.

This is mostly true but in the case of heavy bodied goldfish varieties like pearlscales, orandas and ryukins it is still a good idea to pre soak the food. These fish have their organs all in the wrong places and not only is the intestine very looped around and easy to block it pushes right up against the swim bladder so when it does get blocked it interferes with the fish's ability to swim. Better safe than sorry in this particular case, this problem can develop quite easily.

[RickJordan]

Well I took the plunge and switched to NLS all at once on monday. They seem to like it. Maybe a little too much. My Yellow Lab is sure greedy he seems to try to hog all the pellets to himself and eats so many that he can't even close his mouth. As he swims around I can see the food in his open mouth just sitting there. Has anyone else experienced this and is it healthy? His belly is also extended and large noticebly but goes away after a few hours.

Well anyone got any comments on that?

I only feed once per day and sometimes once every 2 days.

[RD.]

Rick - ease up on the food, your lab is getting far too much by what you described.