best frozen foods ?

[Sebae again]

Ocean Fresh all the way.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Myka

People have been collecting and using/selling all sorts of saltwater plankton for like ever Doug. Hikari or HBH or Sanfran Plankton and mysis are all same price.

are you forgetting, Mindy, that I probably have a generation on you.......sally's and others started with plankton based foods in the nineties....... fairly recent in the grand scheme of things

[Madreefer]

Wow a simple question sure turned in to alot of bickering. I take it Red Coral does'nt sell PE Mysis? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but what does age really have to do with smarts?

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Wow a simple question sure turned in to alot of bickering. I take it Red Coral does'nt sell PE Mysis? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but what does age really have to do with smarts?

nope.....RC sells PE mysis too......and as I stated before......I never said PE mysis was bad.....I just dont like when people automatically dismiss something because they are used to and are trained to believe in something else......I just feel I, as a reefer am trying to replicate, to the best of my ability, my little salty friends environment......from what I feed, to the salt I use(H2Ocean(a naturally evaporated salt))....... and I mention the age thing because I have been keeping fish for close to 25 years...... well before specialty foods like plankton were available

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by fishytime

I have been keeping fish for close to 25 years

Wow Dougster you are old!



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TimT]

I have hesitated to say anything as my sponsorship of CanReef is not yet in place. However, since it will be shortly, I would like to clarify a few points and add a few observations.

Mysis shrimp are harvested from the Okanagan Lake in BC. The Mysis life cycle is that they rise to shallower waters at night and then are deeper in the lake near the bottom during the day. They are normally caught at night.(info from P.E. in a personal conversation back in 2000).

Cyclopeeze are from a freshwater lake in Canada.

Euphasia pacifica, which is the shrimp in Ocean Fresh Pacifica Plankton is harvested in the coastal waters of B.C. It is frozen immediately after capture and Ocean Fresh processes the shrimp in that frozen state. When you thaw out Ocean Fresh Pacifica Plankton it will be the first time it has ever been thawed since it was caught. There are many other producers of plankton but they are all thawing, rinsing the product, adding about 40% water and then refreezing. Some process it in the US and others process it in China. Ocean Fresh is more costly than the competitors as Pacifica Plankton is all plankton and NO water and processed in BC.

Euphasia pacifica is one of the primary ingredients in the pellet mix that some of the commercial food fish hatcheries use.

The reason that Sockeye Salmon and Coho Salmon have pinkish red flesh is due to feeding on Euphasia pacifica(Pacifica Plankton) in the wild. It is the high levels of Astaxanthin in the Euphasia pacifica(Pacifica Plankton) that causes this.

I have found that wild fish will immediately recognize this as a food source. Hatchery Bred Fish on the other hand will prefer flake or pellet as that is what they are used to. I have observed this in thousands of fish over ten+ years as a wholesaler. I have had fish that were obligate coral feeders eat the Pacfica Plankton. I have had two different species of fish lay egg masses in my fish holding systems. I attribute that to the regular diet of Pacfica Plankton that they received. The fish were Neopomacentrus azysron(bare tank) and Valenciennia longipinnus(bare tank with a sand bottom and pvc pipe).

Corals also have the same reaction to Pacfica Plankton as wild fish do. Everything from Acans to Dendro's to Fungia to Trachyphyllia will immediately extend their polyps in a feeding response.

There has been a lot of Internet discussions about feeding Goldfish to predatory marine fish... a freshwater food source to a marine fish. I have trained numerous Lionfish and Eels to eat Pacifica Plankton.

In my opinion adding Selcon type additives to Pacifica Plankton is not necessary as the nutritional profile is already complete. Selcon type additives are great for Brine Shrimp but not needed for the Pacifica. Save your money for corals :-).

Seahorses will eat the Pacifica Plankton before Mysis when both feeds are added to the tank at the same time.

I have used PE Mysis and Pacifica Plankton and they are both high quality feeds. Your fish will only do better by your feeding them these foods. I feel that the nutritional profile of Pacifica Plankton is superior to mysis as it is a marine source. As well it does not expend it's energy reserves swimming 500 feet from the bottom of the lake to near the surface to feed and get caught.

Cheers,
Tim

[Pirates_Gold]

Originally Posted by fishytime

so I guess tens of thousands of years of evolution and feeding on food originating from where the fish actually lives have produced obese, unfit and unhealthy fish?....fact is........saltwater fish live, grow, thrive because of their environment and what they eat out there in the wild......we bring them into our little boxes and feed them "suitable substitutes" (in our eyes), get five years out of them and think ......."well he lived five years.....thats pretty dang good"......when, if left in the wild eating OCEAN FRESH plankton (a fatty, low protein, high ash food) they probably would have lived 10, 15, 20 years......now I dont seriously believe that diet is the only factor shortening a captive fishes lifespan, but.........

The fact is that marine fish have a varied wild diet, but there are various comparable products on the market. Euphausia pacifica is certainly not the soul diet of the fish we keep and particularly those from warmer oceans. These fish certainly consume more than the product that you are marketing here on Canreef.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Pirates_Gold

The fact is that marine fish have a varied wild diet, but there are various comparable products on the market. Euphausia pacifica is certainly not the soul diet of the fish we keep and particularly those from warmer oceans. These fish certainly consume more than the product that you are marketing here on Canreef.

While this is true....... Euphausia Pacifica harvested from the ocean off the coast of BC (and elsewhere I'm assuming) is a much closer representation of what a saltwater fish may eat in the wild than a shrimp harvested from a lake in BC

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fishytime

are you forgetting, Mindy, that I probably have a generation on you.......sally's and others started with plankton based foods in the nineties....... fairly recent in the grand scheme of things

Originally Posted by fishytime

and I mention the age thing because I have been keeping fish for close to 25 years...... well before specialty foods like plankton were available

I'm not that far behind you Doug. I had my fish freshwater tank in 1988, and first saltwater tank in 1992 or 1993. It helps that I'm quite a bit older than I look, albeit you do have some years on me you old fart. I don't know what foods were available at that time because I only had one saltwater store to shop at (which was in the USA) and no internet to help figure things out. I know I had some sort of frozen food...can't remember what it was. Just in the last 10 years have people been looking towards diet as the cause of ailments such as HLLE and HITH, albeit now "they" think that carbon might play a bigger role than anything.

I imagine the food requirements of fish stuffed into a little box are probably less demanding than their wild counterparts. Take a look at the dog food world...there has been a trend to go to grain-free, high protein kibble to mimic a wild dog's diet. The trouble with that is there are a bunch of couch potatoes being fed the diet of a body builder.

I'm all for feeding "natural" diets to all my pets, but I don't see it as the be all end all, and definitely not a cure all. Just because something looks right, doesn't mean it is best.

I don't think you're wrong Doug, in fact I think you`re likely "onto something"...not necessarily a new something.

[Parker]

I like to feed frozen hotdogs...