Interesting food question??

I think that their values are so low because there is a lot of water in the mix when they freeze it, to get it all to stick together rather than be a total flaky mess when you pop it out of the gum-drup container. The actual pieces of food, be it blood worms, brine shrimp, krill, etc. are quite nutritious, its just that they have to evaluate the mix as a whole rather than the most potent part of it. Flake foods and pellets are basically a homogeneous mixture, and don't have nearly the ammount of water in it, so upon examination of 1 gram of each, yes, you're more likely to find more protein in the 1g of flakes than the 1g of frozen food, since there is all of that extra water, but if you extracted just the food parts from the frozen food and took all of the water out, then it would be more potent than the flakes.

Great explanation!

i have said this many times before, but will repeat it for your benefit. it's not really a question of frozen food vs. flakes, which one should "win". But rather, when to feed BOTH.

fish, like us, need a varied diet to ensure proper nutrition. even if you're eating a high quality food, but it's the only thing you eat (imagine surviving on health shakes), you're still going to develop deficiencies and illnesses later on. thus, fish need to be fed a variety of foods. i feed mine frozen food, live food, flakes, pellets, some freeze-dried, sinking wafers, veggies (not necessarily in any order). i think frozen is my preferred food because, like you said, it is the closest to live food without the hassle, plus it's probably less likely to carry diseases or parasites.

i agree with gatotsu that the "low" nutritional breakdowns are due to the water they add to ensure proper freezing. i prefer the frozen omnivore diet which contains brine shrimp, mysis, plankton, spinach and a bunch of other stuff. again, for the variety it contains in one cube. i also add some chopped up frozen glassworms and sometimes frozen bloodworms to that for a "treat".

I use San Francisco Bay brand Emerald Entree omnivore frozen food, but Ocean Nutrition also makes Formula One and Two. Formula Two is more designed for herbivores but it also has "seafoods" in it like krill, squid, etc. I also feed Formula 2 flakes. Ocean Nut foods are designed for marine fish, but they don't contain salt in them so I don't think they will hurt a FW tank.

hope your fishies enjoy the added variety in their diet! I know mine relish it

i make my own food

Home-made fish food

Gather up about two cups of fresh veggies. Some good suggestions include carrots, zucchini, water cress, romaine lettuce, broccoli, tomato, green beans, peas, bean sprouts, etc. Any bright green, orange, or red veggie is great. Avoid things like potatoes and corn as these are nothing but starch and contain very little nutrients. Both of them are normally used as fillers in many pet foods.

Next get about 10 2-3in. raw shrimp with the peels still on. Wash all the veggies and the shrimp and put them in a non-stick skillet with about 1/4c. water. Cover the skillet with the lid and steam on medium heat for about 7-10 minutes or until the shrimp have just turned pink and the veggies are just tender.

Separate what is left of the cooking liquid and reserve. Put the veggies and shrimp in a blender or food processor. Add just enough water to blend the veggies into a thick smoothie consistency.

Add two packets of Knots unflavored gelatin to the hot cooking liquid. Stir until dissolved, adding more boiling water if necessary. Stir the gelatin mixture into the blended veggies with a spoon if you want a slowly sinking food. Use the blender or food processor to mix in the gelatin if you want a floating food.

Line a 13x9 inch pan with plastic wrap and pour the mixture into it. Place in the refrigerator until the gelatin sets up, then cut into small squares. Freeze for up to 4 months, refrigerate for 2 weeks.

Other things you can add:

Liquid baby vitamins
Powdered spiroulina
Ground-up fish food pellets
Various tropical fish meat

ooh, great recipe, RBC. I might have to try that sometime!

As far as varying the diet of our fish, I definitely agree, and I frequently provide multiple types of food at once. I almost always start out with some flakes, mostly because its fun watching my fish go for them, partially because I choose pretty good quality stuff with lots of protein, and then I'll give them either 2-3 different kinds of pellets, (mini hikari gold cichlid pellets, hbh super soft sinking krill pellets, and top fin shrimp pellets) add occasionally some algae wafers, (hey, my clown loaches love the things) and probably twice a week or so I'll give them either a mix of frozen blood worms and plankton, or I'll cut up a piece of cucumber for them to munch on. I do try to keep the diet a bit inconsistent because I know I personally hate the monotony of eating the same thing day in and day out. (beyond which, as plah831 mentioned, it is a lot healthier for them to have a varied diet, no matter how great any one food source seems)