This article was written a little whole ago, but I still use NLS and have even more great examples of how exceptional of a food it is. My goldfish are definitely an example of its potential.
I had seen New Life Spectrum (NLS) in shops but thought it was just another over-priced food. Then I started hearing about it on forums a lot. The fish wholesaler we get our fish from at work (an LFS) carried it so I decided to give it a try. When I looked at the labels I was mad I spent money on three foods that ended up being almost the same when you look at the ingredients and nutritional values. I tried them in my mixes (at the time a large assortment of high quality fish foods all mixed up in tupperware containers). I did not see any difference and dismissed NLS as just another food.
Then I came upon an ad in TFH showing Pablo Tepoot's (the owner and developer of NLS) 2,000 gallon saltwater tank that had only been fed NLS exclusively for seven years. So I started looking into it again, this time a lot more carefully. I read the articles on their old site and read the reviews people were giving it. So I gave it another shot, this time I fed it exclusively. That is when I got the results everyone is talking about.
Before long it was the only thing I fed any of my fish. I had discus that weren't quite settling in and were losing weight. So I gave them the Thera+A and before too long they were settled in and growing like the rest. They have been fed NLS exclusively for over a year and a half now and look amazing.
I fed it exclusively to my Lake Malawi peacocks, they are just 'assorted African cichlids', most of them, but are probably the best looking peacocks I have seen, except for maybe a couple pics of very high end ones online, and even then they are about on par. They are now my favorite freshwater fish.
I even feed NLS to my axolotls (salamanders that stay larval their whole life). They love it and are growing like crazy, doing great, and looking great. The goldfish in with the axolotls are also doing great on it.
I feed my 150 in a bowl. I use an UGF riser tube with a funnel taped to the top to put the sinking NLS right in the bowl. There is an 18" tiretrack eel in there that I got about six months ago when he was about 6". He loves the stuff. As soon as the tube is in the bowl he is over at it waiting for the food to sink. When it is in the bottom of the tube, before I lift the tube to let it out, he is pecking at the bottom of the tube, making it pop up a bit to let some of the food out. The bichirs are all over it, the plecos (4 bristlenoses and a gold nugget) are over at the bowl, getting in it to feed. The silver dollars dart down to grab a pellet to eat as they swim around. The Synodontis eupterus are growing like weeds and will make their way over to feed.
We switched many fish at my work over to NLS exclusively. We have all the cichlids on it at this point. The discus settle in immediately and love this stuff. They grow faster than they have before and color up very well, meaning they sell fast. Our losses in cichlids are dropping. It seems that the NLS helps them settle in faster and get off to a better start after their stressful journey all the way from the breeders, to the wholesaler, to our store. They also color up fast and start growing quickly, which again keeps them selling.
Even with many species that may usually require a slow progression from live, to frozen, to prepared foods, I simply offer NLS from the start. Not only do they take it but seem to settle in even faster when I do this as opposed to starting them on those live or frozen foods.
I had a black ghost knife take to this stuff very well, he grew faster than any BGK I have heard of.
I even had a fire eel (notoriously reluctant to switching to prepared) take NLS.
My orange pike cichlids took to this stuff immediately and are growing well and very colorful.
Even clown knives, african butterfly fish, assorted spiney eels, etc. all take this food at my work and do so much better on it.
I have started recommending NLS on forums that I go to, as well as to customers. Some are hesitant about the price, but I tell them it is worth it and show them the pictures I have on the wall at work of my peacocks and discus. The only ones that don't love the stuff are people whose fish didn't eat it immediately and don't want to let them get hungry enough to take a new food.
Color improvement is usually very noticeable and very fast. However I have found that some fish do take longer than the guaranteed ten days to begin noticeable color improvement, but before too long it kicks in.
The most color improvement I have seen is in African cichlids. NLS brings out colors in them I have never seen on any before. From a light purple iridescence over the whole body, bringing out colors on the gill plates, bringing out very detailed colorations in the fins, to just simply greatly enhancing the colors you normally see.
I think many people's apprehension about this food is that it should be fed exclusively. Most cannot go against what they have heard over and over again, that they need variety. Well, maybe that WAS true, but there has never been a food as complete as NLS before, so it may have been necessary to vary the diet to make sure no problems developed. But now we have NLS.
Even if you have apprehensions about this food, try it. It is our obligation to these animals to make sure we are doing the best we reasonably can for them. Even if your current diet has worked great for you for decades, you still need to make sure there is not something else out there even better. Just as filtration, lighting, and other aspects of the hobby have changed, so has the food. It won't hurt to try it, and it definitely could if you don't.
To see my fish please visit my PhotoBucket page. The more recent pictures are all of fish fed New Life Spectrum exclusively.
I had seen New Life Spectrum (NLS) in shops but thought it was just another over-priced food. Then I started hearing about it on forums a lot. The fish wholesaler we get our fish from at work (an LFS) carried it so I decided to give it a try. When I looked at the labels I was mad I spent money on three foods that ended up being almost the same when you look at the ingredients and nutritional values. I tried them in my mixes (at the time a large assortment of high quality fish foods all mixed up in tupperware containers). I did not see any difference and dismissed NLS as just another food.
Then I came upon an ad in TFH showing Pablo Tepoot's (the owner and developer of NLS) 2,000 gallon saltwater tank that had only been fed NLS exclusively for seven years. So I started looking into it again, this time a lot more carefully. I read the articles on their old site and read the reviews people were giving it. So I gave it another shot, this time I fed it exclusively. That is when I got the results everyone is talking about.
Before long it was the only thing I fed any of my fish. I had discus that weren't quite settling in and were losing weight. So I gave them the Thera+A and before too long they were settled in and growing like the rest. They have been fed NLS exclusively for over a year and a half now and look amazing.
I fed it exclusively to my Lake Malawi peacocks, they are just 'assorted African cichlids', most of them, but are probably the best looking peacocks I have seen, except for maybe a couple pics of very high end ones online, and even then they are about on par. They are now my favorite freshwater fish.
I even feed NLS to my axolotls (salamanders that stay larval their whole life). They love it and are growing like crazy, doing great, and looking great. The goldfish in with the axolotls are also doing great on it.
I feed my 150 in a bowl. I use an UGF riser tube with a funnel taped to the top to put the sinking NLS right in the bowl. There is an 18" tiretrack eel in there that I got about six months ago when he was about 6". He loves the stuff. As soon as the tube is in the bowl he is over at it waiting for the food to sink. When it is in the bottom of the tube, before I lift the tube to let it out, he is pecking at the bottom of the tube, making it pop up a bit to let some of the food out. The bichirs are all over it, the plecos (4 bristlenoses and a gold nugget) are over at the bowl, getting in it to feed. The silver dollars dart down to grab a pellet to eat as they swim around. The Synodontis eupterus are growing like weeds and will make their way over to feed.
We switched many fish at my work over to NLS exclusively. We have all the cichlids on it at this point. The discus settle in immediately and love this stuff. They grow faster than they have before and color up very well, meaning they sell fast. Our losses in cichlids are dropping. It seems that the NLS helps them settle in faster and get off to a better start after their stressful journey all the way from the breeders, to the wholesaler, to our store. They also color up fast and start growing quickly, which again keeps them selling.
Even with many species that may usually require a slow progression from live, to frozen, to prepared foods, I simply offer NLS from the start. Not only do they take it but seem to settle in even faster when I do this as opposed to starting them on those live or frozen foods.
I had a black ghost knife take to this stuff very well, he grew faster than any BGK I have heard of.
I even had a fire eel (notoriously reluctant to switching to prepared) take NLS.
My orange pike cichlids took to this stuff immediately and are growing well and very colorful.
Even clown knives, african butterfly fish, assorted spiney eels, etc. all take this food at my work and do so much better on it.
I have started recommending NLS on forums that I go to, as well as to customers. Some are hesitant about the price, but I tell them it is worth it and show them the pictures I have on the wall at work of my peacocks and discus. The only ones that don't love the stuff are people whose fish didn't eat it immediately and don't want to let them get hungry enough to take a new food.
Color improvement is usually very noticeable and very fast. However I have found that some fish do take longer than the guaranteed ten days to begin noticeable color improvement, but before too long it kicks in.
The most color improvement I have seen is in African cichlids. NLS brings out colors in them I have never seen on any before. From a light purple iridescence over the whole body, bringing out colors on the gill plates, bringing out very detailed colorations in the fins, to just simply greatly enhancing the colors you normally see.
I think many people's apprehension about this food is that it should be fed exclusively. Most cannot go against what they have heard over and over again, that they need variety. Well, maybe that WAS true, but there has never been a food as complete as NLS before, so it may have been necessary to vary the diet to make sure no problems developed. But now we have NLS.
Even if you have apprehensions about this food, try it. It is our obligation to these animals to make sure we are doing the best we reasonably can for them. Even if your current diet has worked great for you for decades, you still need to make sure there is not something else out there even better. Just as filtration, lighting, and other aspects of the hobby have changed, so has the food. It won't hurt to try it, and it definitely could if you don't.
To see my fish please visit my PhotoBucket page. The more recent pictures are all of fish fed New Life Spectrum exclusively.
