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Spirulina and Vegetable Matter:

In recent years Spirulina algae has been promoted to a point that almost every hobbyist and manufacturer alike have jumped aboard the Spirulina bandwagon. Many hobbyists seem to think that they need to add large amounts of Spirulina into their fish's diet, which is simply not the case. Although Spirulina algae is indeed a high quality raw ingredient, and it does have its place in most feed applications, it is very high in vitamin A and mineral content.

Since vitamin A is a fat-soluble vitamin, excessive amounts ultimately can lead to toxic levels in a fish. While an inclusion rate of 5% to 10% will increase growth rates, with the added bonus of enhancing the color blue, too much of this raw ingredient will simply impart an unnatural color to the fish, and/or cause long term health issues related to vitamin A toxicity. Most decent quality fish foods already contain sufficient spirulina, and feeding more than what is actually required by the fish is counter productive to say the least.

Fiber comes from plant materials, and it should always be kept at a reasonable percentage. Unless bacteria and enzyme actions take place inside the intestinal tract, fish cannot digest cellulose, because they do not secrete cellulose. In some ways you can view fiber as a laxative (especially fiberous Kelp—a primary food source for Abalone & Sea Urchin.); too much will cause diarrhea. This in turn causes nutrient retention time to be shortened and therefore insufficient time for the intestine to absorb needed nutrients. Sometimes too much of a good thing, can be a bad thing.

Live Foods, Frozen Foods, and Beef Heart:

With many species there is always a risk of fry mortality due to the fry not eating within the first few days. This is why many breeders use foods such as baby brine shrimp, micro-worms, etc., to get the fry to start eating. Fry fed with baby brine shrimp have a more uniform growth rate than those fed a commercial dry food, but once they passed a certain stage (2 weeks+), a high quality dry food will in many cases out-perform live food. Most live foods also can increase the risk of adding unwanted pathogens, disease, and pollutants to one's system, and in the case of Black worms, White worms and Tubifex worms, these foods contain excessive fat that can deposit in and around the vital organs, resulting in long term health issues in the fish.

Most commercially prepared frozen foods consist of approximately 80% water, and the very process of freezing causes animals (such as Brine Shrimp) to break the cell membranes due to expansion and contraction. When this food is then thawed, and rinsed, much of the nutrients will leach out from the animal and what is left is mostly shell with very little nutritional value. Having said that, both live and frozen food has its place in the world of fish keeping because the reality is that there are some fish that simply will not eat dry food. In cases such as this, hobbyists have no choice but to offer frozen or live food to entice the fish to eat as soon as possible, and hopefully convert the fish to eventually eat a much more nutritionally sound dry food to ensure the overall heath and longevity of the fish.

Beef heart is another popular food that most Discus breeders use with success in growing their fry out fairly rapidly, as well as to condition their breeders for egg production. While this food will work, it might also have accounted for such a short life expectancy of many Discus. Of all the food out there, this food has the most potential for water pollution. Many Discus breeders in Asia change their water 2 to 3 times a day, just to maintain the water quality in their grow out tanks! The reason that Discus can sometimes be much more difficult to accept pelletized food is because most breeders use beef heart to raise their fry, and fish are creatures of habit. With some effort on the part of the fish keeper, even these Discus can be trained to accept a cleaner and more nutritionally balanced dry food.

Do these foods work? Yes, and they have since mankind first started breeding fish, but many of the present day commercial foods were not available 30+ years ago.

Commercial foods have come a long way in recent years, and although supplementing a fish's diet with live or fresh food can add a bit of variety if one truly feels the need, using a high quality commercial food will come much closer to guaranteeing that everything your fish requires for optimum growth, health, and longevity will be available each and every day. While frozen and live foods may work on a short-term basis, for optimum long-term health one should always attempt to get their fish on a high quality commercial food as soon as possible. The greatest objection that I have with feeding frozen or live food in conjunction with dry food is that due to the palatability of these types of food, in most cases fish will always prefer live/frozen food over dry food, even though over the long haul fish will be much healthier with a complete and balanced dry food.

I always discourage this type of yo-yo feeding to ensure that a fish doesn't choose its taste buds and olfactory senses over what's more nutritionally sound. Most young children will certainly choose candy and cake over a well-balanced meal, due to nothing more than the sensation of their taste buds.