I personally think that the variety issue is based on the lack of quality available in foods over the years. None were good enough to be fed alone, especially if you feed a lot of frozen foods that do not have the supplements needed. Just because the fishkeeping used to require a variety of foods to allow fish to thrive doesn't mean it still does.
I don't think there is any LESS nutrition in frozen brine shrimp than in any other frozen food. Maybe one has a little more protein or a little less fat, but they all have something.
I am not simply drinking the kool-aid. I have tried almost every method of feeding fish over the years. I actually fought against NLS the hardest when I first heard about it. It made no sense that one food, especially alone, could be the best for all types of fish. I was even more against them when I finally bought a few foods to try out and looked at them and sure enough the cichlid, goldfish, and one other food were all identical. However, since then I have seen what it can do, and it can do what no other food can do. I have worked in a number of different shops over the years, and the one I ran allowed me to feed NLS exclusively. This made a MASSIVE difference. We had the lowest death rate by far, many days we did not have a single dead fish (most shops are pulling out a dozen or more every day, depending on how many tanks they have, a lot more after getting shipments in). Our fish started eating sooner and colored up faster. We also had more breeding then I have ever seen in a shop. In our sales tanks we had the following fish breed: all the usual cichlids and livebearers, goldfish, gold barbs, galaxy rasboras, shrimp, crayfish, discus, and others. In addition we had stingrays start taking it within a week of arrival, and even wild caught mandarins take to it.
If you watch the video and read the article on their site you will see even more examples of what it can do. Moorish idols leaving for years is almost impossible to pull off with any food, but for one prepared food to do it, and keep them fat and happy for years, is something else.
Although other foods, mainly live, can condition and trigger breeding, one prepared food being able to do this is above and beyond.
Since switching over to NLS exclusively my tanks are cleaner, and so are my clients' tanks. Fish are healthier, they grow better, and color up better. Even breeding is improved. Yes, if you research and set up an area for it, you could breed your own foods to supplement prepared foods, but if one food, fed exclusively, can go above and beyond what other foods can do why waste money on other foods?
Almost everyone who tries feeding NLS exclusively for at least a few months sees a difference. They see what it can do and stick with it. All I suggest is that people consider the possibility that a variety of foods is not required and give NLS a try. If for some reason you are not in the group that sees that improvement, let us know what you were feeding that gave you the same results so we know.
