Flake Food - What To Try Next?

I've mentioned before that my gang have become fussy, ignoring or spitting out the palest colour and now even the red-coloured JBL NovoBel flakes. I'm just trying to figure out what brand to try next - back to TetraMin or API, or possibly something else. Has anyone tried Fish Science, Dennerle Complete, Vitalis (New Era), Nature's Grub, King British or any other brands? If so, what are your / your fishes' views?

[Edited to add, as an exchange of information: In terms of pellets, I'm finding that, once the initial / first month's excitement of a new food has worn off, popularity as assessed by swimming speed is in the following order - Dr Bassleer's Biofish food (herbal), Hikari Micro Pellets, Fish Science micro granules, Fluval Bug Bites for small fish.]

Forgot to mention that I've also tried Fluval tropical flakes, which were greeted with the same enthusiasm as all other foods. 

I know this is an old article but it is quite interesting on the subject of fish food ingredients. The link will take a while to load as the site has closed and the link is via Wayback Machine https://web.archive.org/web/20180818083717/http://www.oscarfish.com/fish-food-ingredients.html

Hi Sue,

That is an excellent link - thank you. As you say, it's an old article but most of what is said should still apply. Regarding the list of foods and their star rating, I note that Ocean Nutrition Spirulina Flakes only gets three stars. I compared the quoted ingredients from the website with those on this current product and they are quite different. For example, the first ingredient on the linked website is 'Plant meals' but now the first ingredient is 'Fish fillets'.

Another excellent resource is http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Quality_Fish_Food.html.

JPC

There are a few products that have changed names. New Era is now Vitalis, and Atisons betta pellets have been taken over by Ocean Nutrition.

Hi Sue,

Regarding the list of foods and their star rating, I note that Ocean Nutrition Spirulina Flakes only gets three stars. I compared the quoted ingredients from the website with those on this current product and they are quite different. For example, the first ingredient on the linked website is 'Plant meals' but now the first ingredient is 'Fish fillets'.

JPC

Hi Folks,

Now I see that Ocean Nutrition appear to be reducing their manufacturing costs. On the latest Spirulina Flakes product shown on their website, the first item on the ingredients list is no longer fish fillets but fish meal. I've only had my tub of this product for a few months and it's already changed!

JPC

Thanks for resurrecting this thread and for the helpful additions.

As an update since this thread:
In terms of flakes, I've since tried Sera Vipan - red-coloured flakes eaten with gusto but brown/yellow-coloured flakes get ignored or spat out.    I've bought Seachem Chlorella flakes but haven't opened the tub yet.
In terms of pellets, I bought the Tetra micro granules recently as my juvenile-ish cardinal tetras won't eat the aforementioned other brands' pellets as they seem too big - thankfully, these are much smaller and seem to be acceptable. [Glad the New Life Spectrum is working for you, TF - I forgot my fish had tried it several years ago - but were fussy. ]
I read a similar set of posts elsewhere recently and would concur with 1-2 posters who mentioned Tetra being the brand of fish food most readily accepted by fish, so possibly a go-to brand if struggling to get fish to eat.

Hi Folks,

I've always been concerned how well processed fish foods retain their nutrients - particularly vitamins. I would have thought that flake foods were the most vulnerable in this respect due to their surface area to volume ratio. This must surely increase their likelihood of oxidation. Some pellets (Hikari?) are coated to reduce loss of nutrients. Regarding vitamins, I recently stumbled across JBL Atvitol, which is a liquid multivitamin supplement. A few drops on the fish food is all that's required.

I'm also using Repashy Soilent Green:

https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fish-food-and-feeding/repashy-foods/

Because this food is encased in a gel after preparation, it keeps for many weeks in the fridge. It's well-accepted by my fish. The Repashy range covers pretty much all fish species.

As for making dried foods more appealing to fish, I see that Seachem makes a product called GarlicGuard™. But, I've never tried it with my fish.

JPC

Hey, @Matt , the answer is to have enough fish not to worry about best before dates on the food.
I don't think I've ever had that problem. 

I think that’s an excellent idea!!

I have used Tetra Prima granules(dust like) which are smaller than micro granules and take awhile to sink so all fish have chance to feed. Good for tetras and smaller fish.

Fish Science foods are insect based but they do worm granules(44% protein) which are 40% worm based. I feed my Corydoras catfish this as they are Carnivorous.