New Life Spectrum: Month 1 of 4

[MCHRKiller]

I manage the fish section of a LFS...and the first few weeks I worked there all the fish were fed exclusively on NLS...including our display fish. Ive since switched them to more of what I feed my own fish and they look alot better than they did on the NLS alone, and they have greater intrest in the feeding and are more active than they were.

IMO, NLS does imply that their food is a miracle food. Its evident to me with the ads and claims as well as people who have bought into their product. Now Im not saying that NLS isnt a good dry food...because it is. But thats just it, its a good dry food.

So many nutrients are lost once that can is open, the last feeding will never be as nutritous as the first. I agree that one should use a high quality dry food as a staple to their fishes diet to get the essential trace elements and micronutrients but...I also advocate diversity of food and will continue to advocate that no fish food can provide 100% of what any animal requires. I have never stated that NLS isnt a good brand, it is a good brand of dry fish food.

To me my varied diet wouldnt work in one pellet. Because I feed most of my foods raw...to preserve them they would need to be cooked in one way or another, and cooking them looses alot of nutritional value. So yes I think it would be worse. I look at how each one of my fish feeds in the wild and base their diet on that.

My predatory fish get alot of fresh seafoods as well as dry foods geared toward them, as well as a the occasional bit of vegatation as they would be eating the gut matter of other fish when they ate them as well. My omnivores get about equal bits of fresh seafood, fresh veggies and a good staple. I do soak my fresh foods in Nourish by seachem for an added shot of vitamins and when I make my own frozen food I add a bunch of pre-natal vitamins as well as using good ingredients to start with.

[Fishguy2727]

So they were only on it a few weeks?

Have you improved water quality while you have been there?

Keep the can sealed when not getting food out, don't leave it in the light, don't leave it in the heat (on top of your light), and keep it dry, you will lose VERY little nutrition. Keep the extra in the fridge and you lose even less.

Their ads are nice and simple. A picture of fish fed it exclusively for years. Other brands get pictures of nice looking fish, may not have ever been fed that food. But we see it and think it will make our fish look like that. At least NLS puts pictures of fish that are actually fed that food. What ads are you talking about?

And you can definitely not blame the company or hold it against them because some people out there use their product and the results are so amazing they think it is a miracle food. If anything that says something for the company. Most companies make their product out to be miraculous yet the results fall short of this. The best products are sold and spread via word of mouth, and this company gets that word of mouth because the product proves its value.

If you have everything they need even though it is not raw, have you really lost anything? The results simply prove it has not destroyed too many nutrients.

You can advocate that variety is essential and that no food can do it alone, but that does not make it true. This food has proven over and over it can. The owner has a 2,000 gallon tank that has been fed it exclusively for ten years now. Many types of saltwater fish from all over the world and all sorts of natural diets THRIVING on NLS exclusively for years.

I ask two things: Do some more research on it (I am not sure what all you have done). I wrote an article on it in my blog, please give it a read. If you have not, check out their nutrition article, testimonials, and video. Some of the claims in the Nutrition article are unsupported and he does take some liberty with a few of his claims, but most of it is sound and true. More information won't hurt at all.

The second thing I ask is to run a good trial. Either at home or at work, take a tank and set it up with some of the same fish you have in a tank being fed your usual diet. Feed this new tank NLS exclusively for four months. I feel this is the actual needed time for a trial period to really see what NLS can do.

[Nick89]

Yea.... well im going to keep going with the NLS for my oscar. Hes been on it exclusively (other than trying to eat my plecos hikari wafers, he nips at it as it falls lol) for about a week now. Really enjoys it.

[ladyoutlaw50]

I think everybody has their favorites for whatever reason!! I am giving the NLS a good 2 month try -- so far my guys seem to enjoy it and I have noticed that my johanni is a much nicer more vibrant blue -- I can't say whether that is from the food or what -- but will give it another month -- I do give them peas once a week as well.

[Nick89]

Remember lady, good food and good water quality gives the best results for fish growth and coloration, but could i see a picture of your fish? Would be nice to see i bet.

[MCHRKiller]

The fish at my LFS were fed exclusively on it for probably a year or so. The display fish are a community of africans, an angel/discus community, 2 tanks of large fish and a grow out of oscars. They were healthy being fed the NLS...but since the change to a more varied diet they have improved in vigor and food response. The owner used to keep up his display tanks so they havent improved alot as far as water quality as theirs was always in good shape. The stock tanks however are another story, as the fish netters kept those up ;)

I will honestly always believe that your fish would benefit from being fed something else along with the NLS, I am confident it does meet your fish's requirements, but so do alot of other fish foods. I cannot say its the best food out there for them because I dont believe it is. To me, what Ive seen from NLS it has yielded no better results than Hikari for me.

[ladyoutlaw50]

Remember lady, good food and good water quality gives the best results for fish growth and coloration, but could i see a picture of your fish? Would be nice to see i bet.

here are a couple pics that were taken just a few days ago

[Fishguy2727]

I hope you understand that your experience does not match mine or many other NLS users'. I can deifnitely speak for Hikari since I used it SOO much before NLS.

Could you explain your diet in total, since you do seem to have something in the realm of the best diet possible at this time. So that the people who don't or cannot use NLS have a great (second) option.

[MCHRKiller]

Ive never intended to imply that what I use is going to be the best for everyone, mine comes from a past of breeding discus and steering away from dry foods as much more than a staple. Some peoples fish probably wont take to it and some may actually see better results with the NLS for whatever reason. I would glady use NLS as a base for my fish if they made something a bit larger, heck I think Hikari's Massivore is way to small for what its intended for.

Most of my fish's diet comes from my grocery store, I buy prawns, tilapia fillets and whitefish. These are either fed in chunks or ground to make my frozen food mix. I will take the previously mentioned seafoods and some fresh spinach also ground, add a can of tetra color flakes and some plain gelatin and mix it all together and put in a ziplock bag and let it freeze flat. To that I also add some pre-natal vitamins and sometimes I may add some beefheart, apple, carrot, or mussle. I dont measure my ingrediates so I cant give you alot as far as specifics. My large fish are fed 2X a week on a mix of Hikari large staple pellets, sinking gold, and massivore. They are fed once a week on fresh seafoods soaked in Nourish, and then they have a treat day of either the frozen food or some fresh veggies, or some frozen krill fish food. The diet for my smaller community tanks are very similar.

[Fishguy2727]

Honestly it does not sound much different than a well-formulated pellet (besides the actual texture).

I agree with the Massivore Delite, I couldn't believe how small they were when I first saw them. They need something at least as big as Algae Wafers, that is what so many bottom feeders eat because it fits right.

NLS needs more variety in sizes and floating versus sinking. They need larger pellets and every size should come in both sinking and floating. There are so many people I can't sell their great pellets to because, like almost everyone, they have gravel and the pellets are too small.

I told the owner of NLS this and he gave an answer that showed he had no intention of doing it. Honestly, if his food wasn't so freakin' amazing his attitude would have lost this customer.