best SINGLE food for reef aquarium

[Gary Majchrzak]

a rotation of good foods is best (of course!) for any aquarium but if I had to sing the praises of any ONE SINGLE FOOD in particular I'd like to state that (IMO by a country mile) far and away the best single food you can feed is New Life Spectrum pellets.
It's not just food for your fishes- it's food for your inverts as well. Low polluting, too.

Now.... we need to get LFS's in upstate NY to carry these pellets. All sizes of them. MO has the small ones. We need the larger sizes, too.

 

[GMaquarium]

[violation]

 

[Paradiddle7]

Are you talking about the regular marine formula version? I have used these and they are really good to feed shrimp, gobies or other bottom dwellers who can't compete as easily as freely swimming fish because they do sink rapidly. It's easy to just place them where you want them to fall. I typically setup an auto-feeder with these pellets when I go away on vacation.

Personally, for me, I've been using Rods with extra herbivore for about 6 months. I think it's a more complete food and it's great for corals as well. I can get polyp extension by just placing a very small piece in my tank for a few seconds so that very little melts off. Then I can come back and feed my corals 10 minutes later. I think Rods is a great value too. The large 6pz pack lasts me about 3 months with a 90g but I have about 7 small fish. It could be more expensive on large tanks heavily stocked but if you were to go through the hassle of making your own food out of everything they put into Rods, it would cost you hundreds and take a couple hours to mix and freeze.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

*EDIT*QUOTE]
thanks, G.
Looks like I'll need to stop by ABC.

this is the good stuff.

Not taking anything away from Rod's but there's no comparison between Rod's and Spectrum pellet IME/IMO (which is much).

 

[GMaquarium]

I will be on your side of town in a few days. In case you can't get out, I might be able to drop some off for you

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

thanks for the offer. I'll let you know know.

 

[roc4558]

G beat me to it . I just called ABC pets and they have it in stock . I got them from him last time my dog loved them . He eat both containers. Looks like im going to have to try and make it to Fairport

 

[Capt_Cully]

i have never been able to get my fishes to eat pellet foods. are they spoiled on the frozen delights they've been getting??? Is there a secret to getting them to eat pellets?

 

[roc4558]

Have you tried the spectrum pellets? My fish would allso only eat froozen but my fish love spectrum pellets . My emperoor goes crazy over them .

 

[Capt_Cully]

That's the one I tried

 

[dv3]

what makes this better than other food that is "food for your inverts as well. Low polluting, too"?

 

[Neoz]

I'm with you cully. I have tried everything to get my fish to eat some New Life pellets. Nothing nada.. Even with held food (except the pellets) for 3 days. They just look at them all sink to the bottom. Tried 3 different sizes as well. They are not the least bit interested. The fish I have are, True Percs, Blue Chromis, Anthias. Only my Goby eats it.

 

[nwrogers]

My fish don't like the pellets either, I tried New Life Spectrum pellets and several others. I would say if I had to pick the best food to feed it would be frozen mysis shrimp. Everything in my tank loves those things.

 

[dbartkow]

Interesting... I am going to have to pick some of these up. It should be a quick and easy meal when I am feeling lazy too.

Dave

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

train your fishes...

train your fishes...

don't let them train you!
What they like and what's good for them is a horse of a different color.
I don't think my Emperor Angelfish would have made it completely through metamorphosis on Rod's food or Mysis shrimp.

Mysis and other frozen foods are much higher polluting than pellets.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Interesting... I am going to have to pick some of these up. It should be a quick and easy meal when I am feeling lazy too.

Dave

set up an auto feeder. It couldn't be easier.

 

[Paradiddle7]

Yup. The best thing about the pellets is they work perfectly in an auto-feeder. Not all my fish eat them but when I go on vacation, I fatten up the fish a week or two before I leave and I only have someone come to the house once every 3 days to feed the fish that don't eat the pellets but most of my fish do eat them. Like I said too, my bottom dwellers LOVE them, especially my YW goby. It's fun to sink them in front of his face and watch him come out of the rocks to catch them before they hit bottom.

 

[tmz]

I may try them. Sounds convenient. I have fed my fish a variety of foods for years and manage the nutrients. I feed nori, spirulina, Prime Reef flakes and a slurry of mysis, bloodworm ,cyclopeeze and brine and a little krill in the am. and just the slurry in the pm. I also feed Coral frenzy 1x per week.

 

[Johnny C]

I personally like mysis more than the pellets (my corals agree), but I agree that New Life Spectrum is a great dry food.

 

[Capt_Cully]

I'm currently trialing Rod's food. I've also notices a concominant resurgence of cyano. Coinikidink? I'm not so sure. Previously I'd fed nothing but mysis and brine, though I'd dropped the brine a few months back. When the current pack of Rod's is done, I'm going back to mysis. As for pellets, I can't get my fish to eat em. Don't know what the deal is. I've tried soaking it, to soften it. I've tried not feeding for a few days like Dave/Neoz said above. At best I've seen the clowns mouth then spit it out. At least they tried it, kinda like me with Brussel Sprouts. YECH!