One of the question I get most of the time; "Is pellet good for my fish?" well it depends on what fish we're talking here and what type of pellet we're discussing. I'm a predator fish keeper and predator fish like Arowanas, Snake Heads, Datnoids, big Cats, Peacock Bass and most fishes with sharp teeth are carnivorous fish.
Carnivorous fish have a short intestinal tract, and a large stomach to hold their prey. Their digestive system has no ability to digest vegetable matter, so even though they might eat plants, they cannot extract nutrients from them. They are design to consume animal protein. They required a diet of at least 45 - 70% protein. Protein should be the main component in the diet of carnivorous species of fish.
Carbohydrates like starch, gluten, sugar and cellulose also provide energy. Typically, carbohydrates enter the body via plant matter so most carnivorous species of fish do not get, nor do they require, a high level of carbohydrate in their diets. In fact, the bodies of carnivorous fish are not equipped to handle large quantities of carbohydrate.
Now lets take a look at one of the best carnivorous pellet, Hikari Massivore.
INGREDIENTS
Fish meal, krill meal, brewers dried yeast, cassava starch, soybean meal, wheat starch, fish oil, wheat flour, dried seaweed meal, spirulina, DL-methionine, potato starch, astaxanthin, L-lysine, canthaxanthin, garlic, choline chloride, vitamin E supplement, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (stabilized vitamin C), inositol, d-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin, vitamin A supplement, thiamine mononitrate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, niacin, folic acid, vitamin D3 supplement, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement, ferrous sulfate, magnesium sulfate, zinc sulfate, manganese sulfate, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, red 3 (artificial color).
Main component is Fish meal, Krill meal and soybean meal.
Fish meal and krill meal is fine providing animal protein but soybean meal are just cheap protein source to raise protein percentage. Further more plant protein are not balance protein and commercial cheap soybean protein may contain pesticide.
Secondary component is cassava starch, wheat starch and wheat flour.
The problem begins here. These are the binding agents, throw in perks of cheap B Vitamins such as Folate and Vitamin B6, iron, manganese, potassium and calcium. Any commercial plant product raises the red flag of pesticide and Nitrate signals. These are product that your fish are not designed to digest. Even though they are in the component but the intestinal track of the carnivorous fish are way too short to be able to extract out all these micro and macro nutrient. The main reason they are there in the pellet is to act as a binding agent to hold everything together.
Why carbohydrates are never shown in the label even thought they are abundantly in there?
The labels do not show you the carbohydrates percentage because with the 3 secondary ingredients shown in their labels you have to assume there are a whole lots of carbohydrates in there. It is unhealthy for Carnivorous animals to consume carbohydrate and especially an unusually large amount of it. To gain fats they need animal oil and not carbohydrate. To get energy they get it from animal oil and not so much on carbohydrates.
Dried Seaweed meal
Seaweed is a very high nutrient plant - a 100g of kelp provides; vitamin K (66 mcg), vitamin A (116 IU), vitamin C (3 mg), folate (180 mcg), choline (13 mg), vitamin E (1 mg), and small amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid.
Minerals in kelp include calcium (168 mg), magnesium (121 mg), iron (2.8 mg), sodium (233 mg), phosphorus (42 mg), and small amounts of zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium.
Now google search "Seaweed meal" and the first thing you see is soil fertilizer, that is the main usage of seaweed meal and also they are great additional feeds given to cows, horses, goats and sheeps. Dairy animals are great in digesting these plant product and if your Arowana are able to digest them they would be eating water plants by now. Because nature never designed your arowanas to eat plants so there is no way your Arowana can extract all these mention macro and micro nutrients from the seaweed meal. They are cheap source of micro and macro nutrient to be added to show all the goodies in the labels that unfortunately your fish has no access to.
So carnivorous pellet is just a fantasy, the best carnivorous pellet is only the best omnivorous pellet for your goldfish and carp. At best pellet is just an emergency food source for my Snake heads when I have no time to get live food or frozen fish or prawns. Long term feeding of pellet to carnivorous fish is a bad choice.
Feed MEAT source to your predator fish, feed feeder fish, insects, worms, frozen fish or prawns. In nature no matter how hungry your predator fish is, they will not eat your aquarium plants because they know that they are not suppose to. They will choose death over plants.
My choice of dry food product that provides all the healthy nutrient and protein for my channa marulioides, peacock bass and bichir is RIO Dry Fish. It contain natural Guanine, natural Thiamine. So far I think that is the only Holistic dry fish food available in the market. Complete fish, all natural, no preservatives, no starch, no binders and fillers. check it out.
signing out
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