TetraPro Colour Crisp: A fish biologists reviews aquarium fish food.

[@tjautocross]

Another interesting fish food overview. Thanks Rebecca!!

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Thank you :)

[@paulveenvliet9130]

It is a struggle to obtain very small boxes of dry food that haven't been on shelves for months - the keep good date is often way over a year, and this is just not realistic with regards to vitamins. Then I open the box, letting oxygen in, and the breakdown of vitamins accelerates. Because I have only one aquarium, with few fish, even the smallest boxes of food are way too big. It means that when I am halfway through it, the vitamins are largely gone. I believe this is one of the main reasons why adding live food is so very beneficial. I also tried adding small bits of hardboiled egg yolk, which many fish eat very eagerly, but especially adult barbs got much to fat from this, even leading to mortality. Fish breeders tend to give the very same flaked food as we small hobbyists buy. Only the breeders get a big - and very fresh! - bag directly from the factory and this makes a day-and-night difference. Note that different brands of dried food commonly come from the same factory and have the same contents, only the package and the price differs!

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Very true and some products sell slower then others. Generally most aquatic stores it seems are well behind sell by date. Definitely buying smaller amounts makes sense for most people, I think we are in a society that does focus on volume that we do buy too much. It's not just fish food but other pets and probably other foods. Fresh food how much goes out of date and never used. Yolk is really interesting, I've wanted to experiment with it a little. The same factory I can definitely say exists, there are white label brands but I've also heard (I never remember the name) of brands who do many of these fish foods so effectively people are paying for packaging.

[@jeffkane4391]

Thanks, Rebecca. I really appreciate the fish food series's you're doing 😊

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Thank you :)

[@audrameyer9558]

Thank you for this detailed info!

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Thank you :)

[@Ninanousje]

The fish food review series videos are definitely up my alley. Keep it up!!!

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Thank you :)

[@treysimmons2179]

This is super interesting. Thank you for putting this together!

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Thank you :)

[@robdavinroy1761]

About two years ago I started feeding all my fish nothing but frozen uncooked salmon, tilapia, flounder, and shrimp. I’ve never had more healthier and more colorful fish before and found this raw food way cheaper than buying the packaged oven cooked dry foods. They spend more on creating the graphics on the plastic container than they do on the food in the container. I get that they are convenient but to each his own. Thanks for your videos.

[@Twist_av_Lemon]

How do you know "healthier and more colorful fish before" what did your control group look like in comparison? You know they have probably done a lot of research before and kept to that one recipe and can now do other work on pacakaging etc. But hey don't need to think outside the box

[@robdavinroy1761]

You make a good point and I was probably being a bit harsh. I don’t know the ends and outs of Tetra maybe someone will do a behind the scenes video of the manufacturing and “research” process. No control groups for me just 40 years in the hobby. 😊

[@mangala666]

Yes. I do get pretty picky when trying to choose an appropriate diet for my fishes. The closest I can replicate to a wild diet, the better!

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Same! Most of those which aren’t great I only have because I’ve been given, usually I use those to feed to the snails.

[@williamjansson]

Their new cans does not say pre-biotic. But something like strenghten health. I use the that one, the crisps. I also mix it with krill flakes to give extra protein for the breeding process. If i feel generous, i use tropical Malawimix flakes too. To give extra "greens" :)

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

It might depend which you have, the UK one is different from the US. I only have the UK one as haven't bought the US packaging in quite a while. I find the issue with their "greener" ones it's more vegetables and cereals which are less uses to most fishes.

[@williamjansson]

Tetras 3 different cans, Red, green, yellow. (Red: Colour-enhancement - Green: more herbavore diet - yellow: high fat/energy boost in bringing up det)

[@williamjansson]

​@@FreshwaterIchthyologyI can have a look tomorrow which one we have here :)

[@williamjansson]

I do enjoy your breakdowns. Very interesting and packed with information:)

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

@@williamjansson Ahhh here we only really get the two, green and yellow. The packaging sold elsewhere wouldn't sell here so only Maidenhead Aquatics sells it. It's still the ingredients really don't differ enough which is a real shame but Tetra is well beyond Vitalis, Dr Bassler, xtreme, Hikari and Northfin. Although Hikari isn't always bad, there are some actually reasonable ones. I think the big brands get a lot more hate sometimes then they deserve but they invest a little more into change, Repashy is still top :)

[@Rob-Brook]

I use both of these foods. There some of my favourite to give, and the tetra colour really packs the weight on fish I'm finding

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

Definitely, it is a great food for bulking. Fish Science is releasing a diet for discus though that I find is even better but it's taking time, nearly been a year since I trialed it.

[@MorningDriftwood]

Will there be a live vs frozen vs freeze-dried video?

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

I could do? It’s quite difficult with the diversity of freeze dried and frozen products. But it’s much more difficult to get that range of nutrition with them as they aren’t really designed as complete diets. I’m also not convinced by the additives e.g Spirulina (in frozen foods) or vitamins which seem to disperse into the water right away unless you can inject directly into the frozen food.

[@wabalaka1565]

I can't really understand why expensive and big brand fish food still use trash for ingredients. I feed only freeze dry, frozen and store-made pellet to my fish. And the store i bought my pellet from use real food (frog, cricket, whole fish, egg ...) it 5$ per 100g but it is real food. I can't keep it for more than a months without getting mold because he owner told me he only grind up the ingredients with binder then sun dry to preserved, no preservation at all.

[@Sec_coach]

The secret of food is having a good mix of different types dried some shrimp some mysis artemia and so on There’s no one size fits all fish need diversity of food

[@TheGreatOceanDisasterAquariums]

I wonder if the vegetable protein also includes carrot as part of the "colour concentrate"?

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

It could do, I guess I could email them but I understand why they are vague. I assume it's a root or peas as they tend to be cheaper.

[@TheGreatOceanDisasterAquariums]

@@FreshwaterIchthyology I agree about the peas, but thought perhaps carrots for orange color due to carotenes and yellow due to anthocyanins since colour enhancing food is almost always about 'reds'. Just a thought really.

[@HUKIT.]

The labels on that side of the pond are so much different. Tetra is just loaded with starches and fillers. The US version shows the breakdown substantially better.

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

It's just with Tetra as I believe it was a marketing thing with some companies. But there could be other hidden differences depending on legislation. It does have a lot of ingredients that are less then ideal but it's tricky to find a dry diet without them. Cereals and vegetables in my mind given what most our fishes eat are fillers in the idea that very little is being digested.

[@GregorMima]

Vit D isnt a hormon. It will be changed into one in your body (yes in all of us) by your liver. Thats why it takes 1-2 weeks after taking VitD it takes effect. Basicly the most important vitamine out there ... Cheers.

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

I’ve double checked and vitamin d3 is a hormone from when skin is exposed to UVB but can be obtained nutritionally through certain products like fish, meat or supplements. Vitamins have to be taken through the diet yet hormones can be synthesised by the body. You can take supplements of any hormone e.g oestrogen and progesterone.

[@MrG.Ivan76]

Im not keen on the shaker type containers I've definitely overfed with them prefer pinching or I use a small measuring spoon 🙏🌈💚🦐🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

They are generally designed to do that, generally to make you use more and over feed so you need to buy more. I prefer wider tubs as a result. A small spoon is a good idea :)

[@bwood4505]

Why do all the plants in the tank behind you look to be dead ?

[@FreshwaterIchthyology]

I only have some older Anubias in there as an aquatic plant. The Monstera adansonii laniata is just a wet stick I’ve left in there. It would have been used for cuttings but I don’t need anymore M. adansonii laniata, I’ve already got one that will go round the room multiple times if I stretch it out. They aren’t dead, the Monstera is just growing a few leaves after not having any due to it’s original dark location.

[@no-knickers-emma1112]

My fish mainly get live foods. I do have Sera ImmunPro. It's very easy to crush up for my celestial pearl danios. Fluval bug bites are a bit big and hard to crush. Anyway I collect my live foods weekly. You just can't beat it,