New Life Spectrum Food....is it crap?

I decided to give some New Life Spectrum 'Extra Large Fish' food a go (well...not for my dinner).

Wow....an impressive label, but what did the fish think?

Decided to give the big boys a new food for a change....Aussie Saratoga (Scleropages), Silver Arowana, Red Hook Pacu, lungfish, 2 species of Polypterus, and Geophagus brasiliensis (all of whom eat everything, including spirulina flakes....except the lungfish won't touch flakes).

These fish almost take my hand off when they know food is coming....so a good test.

The Red Hooks are loopers anyway and thought they were getting a small grape. So that was good....but the food is not suitable for long-term feeding to Red Hooks, so not much use to me if they take to it.

The G.brasiliensis are nosey and decided to have a go...but decided to spit it out.

BUT...what about the guys for whom the food was intended?

The lungfish simply ignored it (and he has been under a training experiment to come to, and beg for, food under my hand signals). But, I'll not cast judgement based on his attitude.

The Polypterus preferred JBL spirulina flake I'd just fed to the Uarus.

Now....enter greedy uns....the osteoglossums who can handle pretty large food, and will also take small food.

Silver arowana....simply ignored the food. The large lace gouramis were more interested!! (but their mouths are way too small).

Aussie saratoga....Scleropages jardini...is normally fed through a metal hole for his and my safety.
So in goes the food...he tentatively placed the food at the very tip of his mouth like a small kid being given a juke tasting medicine.
The it rolled the food towards the back of its mouth...turned away and spat it out.
Then did the same with all pellets.
So it looks like I'm back to feeding spirulina flake, JBLNovoTabs, JBL NovoStick, JBL Discus Bits (the big fish love em), adult locusts, and cockroaches (which could get expensive if I didn't breed them).

Now, what may save me having to throw a 375gram tub in the bin is that I have Pumpkinseed Bass waiting in the wings to grow a little before it is a fish-dustbin.

The nutritional info looks great, but the fish don't like them.

Who am I to say it is good, if the fish say NOT.

ian

This is the point....different fish, for some reason, find some foods tasty.

Funnily enough, I tried the 'pro' version of JBL NovoTab (silver top)....and found very few fish took to it (in fact, only 2 fish would touch it) even though all go mad for the cheaper version of JBL NovoTab (yellow top).
The same sort of thing was noticed with the JBL NovoBits (discus food) and the 'pro' JBL Discus food...the fish prefer the food in the yellow lid.

on the title...I asked 'is it crap?' rather than 'it is crap'..... I would await an opportunity to do an autopsy before stating something is crap.

ian

I've been using it for about 1 1/2 years on just one community tank. All the fish took to it pretty much straight away and have not had any unexplained losses in that tank either. The only real issue that I have with it is that the smallest 150g tub(1mm sinking pellets) lasts forever and am a little concerned that it will lose its nutrional value over time. So 8/10 for me.

Dave

Dave,i got some of them (along side odessa barbs, which are doing excellent may i add) from you a long time ago and i still haven't made a dent in the tub. my fish seem to love the wee 1mm

i started feeding my A. Heckeli and geo's on the new life spectrum food in their varied diet and they love the stuff, they never refuse it... i also grind it up for fry and its gone in no time
i think it is good stuff and they should take to it if you give it to them persistantly

dar wrote:

Dave,i got some of them (along side odessa barbs, which are doing excellent may i add) from you a long time ago and i still haven't made a dent in the tub. my fish seem to love the wee 1mm

Yeah Dar, that was way back in November if I remember correctly. I'm glad the NLS and fish are working out well for you. I couldn't make any inroads on my 150g tub so that's why the 300g tub was moved on.

Dave

I've been feeding New Life Spectrum for the last 4 yr's, my Tropheus love the stuff
i also give them Dainichi granuals which is similar.Don

My fish like the New Life Spectrum 1mm, which I was using for fry, but have now resorted to using it as part of the variation diet. ( It also helps helps make a dent in the amount of it )
Smell It and taste it yourself.
The fish can get used to certain foods, especially if they all have a common ingredient which the new one is lacking.
I remember testing dog biscuits before. Theres some range in them too. From the mouth full of grit to the quite tasty givemeanotherone type.
I'm sure fish food is similar

I used NLS over a year now and all my fishes; malawis and tangs love em; however few months ago i was introduced to new era and asked to use it for a month. The result was surprising; fishes looked healthier and more into it and very glaringly i found that overall tank was cleaner with lesser fish waste. Wonder if annyone else had the same experience.

That's what I wanted to hear.....some users giving their experiences of it. (and maybe, JohnH, that is why I did put a slightly argumentative addend to the admittedly harsh title).

As I said, the ingredients are impressive.....I'm especially keen as some of the NLS foods contain ingredients that I have pleaded us humans should eat more of.....very interesting to see the wise use of pepper components and other stomachial spices, and essential fruit.....
eg papaya especially and mango (which I feed to the arowana anyway via feeding the feeder insects).

I'd be guessing about whether or not the manufacturing process destroys the key beneficial parts of the papaya.....if not then ground up into a very powder, these would be excellent for young fish whos gut action have not quite formed properly (a bit like using cyclops for certain difficult to raise small fry that need the enzymes from the cyclops gut to digest food).

I have not tried the product on small fish (as the pellets are the size of my finger nail), but I'll grind some up and try them on baby siamese fighters, threadfin rainbows, pencilfish, and the small gourami species (chocs and croaking).

On a related product, when I first moved from using Tetra Prima (one of the first of the very high quality foods on the market in my opinion) to using JBL NovoBits, I did not like the JBL one bit as it produced an awful scum growth within filters when the fish didn't quite take to it at first.....but having got over that, the fish decided they like it (especially Discus) and so it is now their main diet.

More opinions and experiences on NLS please.....

ian

Use NLS and Kensfish Spirulina flake with garlic and paprika and have never had a problem

have been using this product both at home and in a retail situation since we were the first people to bring it in many years ago.Always noticed a lift in the fish that eat it(eventually).I will say that fish sometimes had a bit of a problem getting on to it..new things and all that..soaking it in tank water always helps..the pellet is one of the hardest I've come accross..so that's a bit of a fail..however once they get going on it many fish refuse anything else.as Ian says the list of ingredients is very impressive but possibly the palletability might be lacking in the the first couple of instances when feeding.my advice stick with it.the only other food that comes close is the new era stuff developed by the ex TMC guys.I had the good fortune to meet them last year and even they had to admit that the were "chasing" new life in terms of both nutrition and range.the new fry food is just genius.I've tried it with a few customers and they claim the health and growth rates are exceptional.In terms of pollution yes I've had lots of people say that the tank smells or is more "polluted" but generally they were feeding too much(the garlic in it is the smelly part).you need to set up a feeding station and really regulate how much food goes in..the pellets sink pretty fast if you don't and will muck up water quality.as we often tell people.."feed the fish..not the tank"!2 cents etc.

I'm feeding my fish on new life for a few years now and they all seem to love the stuff.

Out of the range of foods the two that didnt go down so well with fish are the finiky fish formula and (you guessed it) the extra large fish food.

How i got the fish to take the extra large food was to hydrate it first by sucking water through it in a syringe.
Then the fish took it, no problem.

As for the new era stuff, ive only tried about half the range and the fish also love the stuff. Thumbs up from the fish.

I feed me Africans and cherry shrimp on the stuff. They all love it. Would be interested to hear more about the new era food as well.

i find nls to be quite good food and most fish will eat it, although the algae tablets are not too popular with catfish. nls flake is also quite good and new era seems to be good as well. the favoured food for all catfish though, cory, plec or syno is undoubtedly tetra tabimin tablets.

In my opinion New Life Spectrum is really good. I have been feeding my fish it for around a year with no problems all fish seem to love it when compared to the flake they were originally eating. My goldfish had problems with swimbladder due to floating flake food causing it, since started feeding NLS have had zero problems no signs of buoyancy issues at all.

once recommended it by gavin i have always used it, i feed the 1mm all the mid and bottom feeders go for it. archer fish take to the flakes with gusto too and it was a nightmare to wean them off live food to even cichlid pellets (also the flakes in the NLS tub are mahoosive which is great for big surface feeders and for training fish to hand feed)
its a shame i cant find a 5mm floating pellet by them for the archers as the 1mm is too small and sinks past them too fast. all fish bright healthy happy and active and i thank gavin for recommending new life spectrum to me a few years ago

I've been feeding NLS to a community tank of barbs rainbows gourami and they love it my other tank of smaller tetras etc just won't take to it.I've been using the flakes but half way through the tub it does get very powdery. I also use the very tiny pellets which I think suits my bottom feeder, sterbai / botia

Still, the only fish that will take the large pellets are the red hook pacus (but they are a bit like a dustbin anyway).
The saratoga just about takes one into its mouth (and the food tub even has a picture of the sarotago on it !!! ...but not a happy camper. Usually it would happily munch its way through JBL NovoSticks and cockroaches all day. The JBL feeding is getting quite expensive (hence why I had a try of NLS as it is cheaper).
The stage has gotten to it getting into a temper (head shaking at me) if I start feeding the NLS.
The south american arowana will also not even take them into its mouth.
Lungfish....not a chance, but would still eagerly go for NovoTab.

That is the preference of my fish.

So, basically, if I put the polystyrene seal back on, I could re-sell the large tub as unused.

Has anyone tried the large NLS pellets with large predatory fish?

ian

I feed most of my fish on the 2mm NLS pellets. Tried the big fish formula on my Asian arowana and Fahaka puffer and neither were fans though they would not be fans of any pelleted food.

(Unfortunately the Asian arowana preferred jumping out of the tank and dying but that's another story)

The larger African cichlids will take the large pellets with gusto and the large CA cichlids I kept for a while liked them but I prefer to feed them on the smaller pellets. Wouldn't buy the large pellets again but I think its great food in general.

Sorry to hear about your arowana taking a dive Patrick, I remember how excited you were to be getting hold of him.

Jay

That is very bad news. Sorry to hear it.
The speed and power of an arowana is quite surprising.....even a quick eye glance when changing water can be enough time for one to be out of the tank and lodged behind a 1000 litre tank.

ian

Cheers Ian/Jay.
It was a few months ago now but a total disaster indeed.. Still one of my fav fish & I will get another but it'll be a few years before I'm willing to go there again.

On a less depressing subject, yes NLS pellets are great

Ah ha sorted, had been recommended this by a breeder and this has answered all of my questions, I will be feeding guppys so colour is important however growth is a major point I want, not only for fry but growing on adults as well

Was curious whether the grow pellets they do would be too high in protein for adult fish? not sure if its even possible but a varied diet if obviously best so would it be better to feed adults one of the other types of pellet?

Having reared around 10 arowanas (Silvers, black, Yellow tail , Green, Super Red and RTGs) in my hobby one things for sure any kind of carnivorous high protein food will not be excepted except when I trained to eat it at fry age. This only happened for by Ost.ferreir (Black) - It ate any kind of arowana pellets when I trained it at 2in. Its still eating up to when it grew 23in - 80% pellet diet. The rest just couldnt be bothered.

Yeah i have to stuff the pellets into prawns for my silver to take them

I had some Hikari and I had to stuff them too to chicken and beefheart to get them in my Asian aros.

Fish can be as fussy as us.

Sat here.....I see some really super healthy food for me to eat: it is "good" because the label says "nutritionally good".
I also have a packet of donuts......the label gives no hint that is a "good healthy diet".

But, I know which one I want to eat right now.

I have a lungfish that turns its nose up at anything "fresh" or defrosted. What is likes is simple.....JBL NovaTab. It has been eating them for for years.

There is, however, some interesting psychology going on with the lungfish.
As opposed to many fish, the lungfish have multiple modes of feeding. (probably one of the most advanced animals in my opinion even though they are living fossils and are poised to adaptation).
The fresh food tends to afford only one mode of eating, whereas the JBL MovaTab offers a complete array of feeding ranging from predatory attacks to simple sucking in mid-water to simple grazing off the bottom and through to the re-regurgitation grazing seen in birds and cows (like eating the Cud).

ian