View Full Version : New Life Spectrum foods
jiggerpolebill
12-13-2002, 1:49 AM
this was mentioned in a previous post. what are everybody's opinions on it? it comes highly recommended by one of our local LFS. i plan on getting some next time i need food. i think their ads tout it as better than flake or frozen.
I got the cichlid variety. My large fish just ignore it when I try to give it to them. It's too small. So I just give it to my community tank. I'm thinking of ordering a larger pellet for the cichlids just to give it another shot.
Hatter
12-13-2002, 9:30 AM
My cichlids love it. I perfer the small pellets, I don't have to worry about them swelling up inside my fish...
Marcus
12-13-2002, 10:02 AM
I've been using this for two years and really like it. It's one of the few color enhancing foods that actually work.
Cichlid Guy
12-13-2002, 12:14 PM
Thanks
Hatter
12-13-2002, 12:21 PM
Dr. Foster and Smith has it and Big Al's probably does, but I am not sure on that one.
seangingras
12-13-2002, 2:50 PM
they say however that you cannot feed your fish anything else other than new life spectrum in order for it to really work.
Marcus
12-13-2002, 3:25 PM
I disagree with that statement. As mentioned above I have been using it for two years now with great success. The fish are fed twice a day and always one of these feedings is with the New Life food. All other feedings are frozen foods of some sort. Colors are noticeably better escpecially on fish that exhibit reds, oranges and/or yellows.
Tiger15
12-13-2002, 3:26 PM
My LFS saleperson who is a cichlid specialist strongly recommended it. They come with large and small size and I tried the small size. My fish accepted them, but not as greedily as their usual food which are Hikari and Tetra Bits pellets. The Spectrum pellets are different from most pellets in that they are half floating and half sinking so that both surface and bottom feeders can access them. They also don't seem to swell as much.
I wish they come with medium size pellets that will be best for my medium size fish. I also wish their pellets are more brightly colored like the Tetra Bits so that any sunken pellets are easily spot by me and the fish to prevent overfeeding. I am not certain if there is much difference in nutritional value from other brands because the ingredients listed all sound the same. What is more important to me is that the fish have to like them.
Verse914
12-14-2002, 11:43 PM
ive been using this for a long time now with great results. My cichlids love this stuff.
Tiger: I can understand why'd you want to see excess food. But I am not so sure that fish can actually see colors. I am going to be trying this stuff. (new life spectrum) I've been planning this for a while now.
Shipping to NJ from fishpost (in maryland) is $7.00. It is $36.00 for 5 pounds. Of course, after shipping, that would be $43. That comes out to be cheaper than hikari cichlid gold per ounce from lfs's, and most people consider new life spectrum to be higher in quality. How great of a deal is that!
I'm pretty sure there is a smaller pellet available. According to the NLS site, they sell a 1mm pellet
http://www.nlpublish.com/spectrumpgs/prodlist_sp.html
Also, heres fishpost's prices of NLS. http://www.fishpost.com/foodstock.html
Tiger15
12-15-2002, 9:04 AM
Fish can see color or else they won't be colored so brightly and covered the full range of the rainbow. Some may even see color human can't see. It's surprising that the highest form of animal, mammal, are mostly color blind except for primates. Majority of birds, fish, and even insect can see color.
Except for Tetra Bits, most pellet food have neutral color. So when they sing to the bottom, it's hard for me and possibly the fish to see. Brightly colored food has the advantage that I and the fish can spot them easily so I can avoid overfeeding.
i was under the understanding that smell had a lot to do with fish accepting and finding the foods in the tank.
Cypherman
12-15-2002, 4:05 PM
The newest (I think) TFH magazine has an article I skimmed through about New Life Spectrum fish food. Its also got pics of some Neolamprologous leipluli (sp?) that have been fed new life vs aother brand for 6 weeks...The results were impresive. They even got pics of Moorish Idols going nuts for it :eek: I plan on getting some myself; it sounds very promising. Hikari Cichlid Gold is another brand thats pretty good though, in case you cant find the NFS stuff (none of my LFS have it).