Best Fish Food to Feed Your Tropical Fish
By Glenn Laborda
There are a lot of dry foods in the aquarium hobby. Some are good, some are not so good. We have tried about every brand over the past 30 years in business. There had come a time where we were not happy with the current available feeds. We wanted to design our own formulas with ingredients and a process we believed in.
First, let us discuss the “problem” with the entire dry food making process. The conventional flaking process operates at about a 300-degree temperature. This high temperature negates most ingredients and vitamins as useless. Thus, rendering them to the equivalent of cardboard. Some of these foods you can actually see through. In the long research of finding a company to help us design our foods, we had learned about the “Cool Cooking Methodology”. This process operates at a low 135-degree process. Yes, it takes much longer, but the result is all vitamins, ingredients, and pre/pro-biotics remain intact and highly palatable. This higher standard of feeds results in a full-bodied, water stable diet that is packed with usable ingredients. So, let’s get in to our top 5 sellers.
#1 -The first in our opinion is Absolutely Fish Naturals Chromo Flake. It is our #1 food by a large margin. Once you use it you will see why. This deep red flake is infused with beneficial bacteria to help facilitate digestion, and our 400ppm of Astaxanthin to bring out intense coloration. There is also a 2% inclusion of Spirulina to add Carotenoids to an already stellar food.
Proximate Analysis: Protein, 53.1%; Fat, 12.1%; Ash, 5.7%; Moisture, 11.6; Astaxanthin (calc. value) 400 ppm. (Midwest Laboratories. Feb 1, 2023)
#2-The next food in our lineup is very similar as the name will suggest: Absolutely Fish Naturals Chromo Pellets. We took what we loved about the flake and had a pellet designed to match it. As this article goes forward you will notice an ingredient that keeps popping up. Astaxanthin is an ingredient we try to get in all our foods. Its color enhancing capabilities are second to none. Our pellets come in 2 sizes, 1.7mm and 2.3mm. This is perfect for small to medium fish, fresh or marine. Does extremely well when soaked with your choice of additives like Garlic, Vitamin C, or HUFA’s. Highly recommended supplements to add onto our pellets.
Analysis: Crude Protein (min) 50%, Crude Fat (min) 10%, Crude Fiber (max) 3%, Moisture (max) 6.5%, Crude Ash (max) 17%
#3-The next food is something hard to find in our industry, but highly requested by hobbyists. This is one of the most highly talked about and reviewed feeds we sell. Absolutely Fish Naturals X.L. Flake. To be blunt, the flakes are huge. It is loved by cichlid keepers, and hobbyists with large fish. This food is absolutely devoured by tank mates. X.L. flakes contain highly digestible fish protein combined with Carotenoid rich Zoo-Plankton. If that was not enough, we added Pacific Krill (E. pacifica) and Arctic Pods (Calannus sp.), Spirulina and tons of Brine.
Proximate Analysis: Protein, 48%; Fat, 11%; Ash, 6%; Moisture, 8%; 250 ppm astaxanthin.
#4-Our next food is one that the fish industry is flooded with. Every type is “the best” none of are all that great. We decided to tackle this one as well and give it our own spin. Absolutely Fish Naturals Betta Pellets is what we came up with. We found others to sink to fast or have inferior ingredients. Plainly, the fish did not really “go for it”. We found a company to help us design the best Betta pellet possible. This highly palatable floating pellet is packed with pure Brine shrimp embryos. What that means is newly hatched Brine still has all the nutrition and energy from the egg; this directly gets digested by the fish. A superior, super palatable, and highly nutritious pellet is what we created.
Analysis: Crude Protein (min) 38%, Crude Fat (min) 7.5%, Crude Fiber (max) 2.1%, Moisture (max) 9.0%, Ash (max) 6.5%
#5-The last one is an absolute staple in this hobby. Now we did not “create” this one, but we sourced and A grade of this feed. There are other brands out there with lower grades and sizing which is inferior. Ours is uniformly whole large Euphasia superba, not the smaller cousin E. pacifica. These 1”-1.5” whole Krill are loaded with natural flavorants, lipids, and proteins. If you have used Krill before you know you can sometimes get half way through and have legs, eyeballs, and other random parts. We strive to retain whole body Krill. If you have large fresh or marine fish you should absolutely be feeding Krill. By the way, we have the same sourced krill in IQF (frozen food).
Analysis: Protein 60%, Fat 8%, Carbohydrates 11%, Ash 10%, Moisture 5% Astaxanthin 250ppm.
In conclusion, Absolutely Fish Naturals dry foods need to be in your feeding regimen. Feel free to contact us for a sample. We have many more foods available and be sure to check us out in the future.