Larval diets

[broncofish]

When I ordered some brine eggs I also got some GP diet (100-200 micron) I was curious as to whether anyone has tried this and what their results are compared with something like oto? It has astaxanthin at 500 ppm already added. Thanks.

 

[David M]

This comes up all the time, the general consensus is that it's not something you are likely to buy again. Look at it this way, nobody around here is using it as a standard diet to culture fish. Oto and Ziegler seem to be the prefered products with probably Formula One comming in third.

 

[broncofish]

Is nobody using it because its inferior; or just not as popular?

 

[David M]

Good question, I look at it like Marc Weiss products, does anyone take those seriously? Oto and Zeigler were developed for aquaculture and have a good and longstanding reputation in the industry. GP came about as a "reef supplement" and I know of no studies or support to indicate it has any value whatsoever for aquaculture. Who knows, maybe it's a great product. It's just that if it were you'd think someone would be promoting it by now.

 

[phender]

I am doing a little experiment with GP as we speak. Starting on day 8, I have been using GP in the 50-100 micron size and the 300 - 500 micron size instead of BBS. I am now on day 12 and as far as I can tell, I have only lost 1 baby.
I have use GP before as a supplement with BBS, crushed Formula 1 flake and later Cyclop-eeze. I think it helped color up the fish. It will also stain your water red.
GP may be more expensive that the other feeds. That means a lot when your margin of profit is low in the first place.

 

[EMBRYOGUY]

phender, im going to exp. with gp also in future batches. please keep us updated of your results. thanks

 

[phender]

The main reason for my experiment was to see if I could bypass the BBS step altogether. There was someone on the clownfish forum that went straight to prepared foods and his babies looked beautiful. I think it was someone with a percula x snowflake pair.

FWIW: I am still providing live rotifers at this point.

 

[broncofish]

I have been using the GP since october and have had fairly good results... I dont have much to compare to, but the color has been good and the pellets dont sink very fast. My main reason was price. I'm doing all my breeding for our marine bio class and my after school reef club.

 

[Dman]

FWIW, I've never used BBS and my losses due to feed are very low.
Rotifers to Oto A, then B2, then my own prepared foods.
I've been tempted to try GP, but I'm having great sucess now, why mess with it.
Anyone still using CE?