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NLS Cichlid Pellets - Worth it or an expensive way to dirty your tank?

davidjp1982

Donating Member
Messages
244
Location
UK
Just wondered what peoples experience is with the NLS pellets? I've been trying to feed the 1mm sinking chiclhid pellets for a few months now and I can't be sure if my Apistos are actually eating the things or just blowing dust around the tank. They certainly rush to suck them into their mouths but then they just seem to roll it around and then spit it out whilst blowing particles out of their gills. They then usually suck the pellet back in and do the same over and over before what seems like getting bored and leaving it. Are they eating small amounts in this "chewing" process? I only ask as they refuse to eat flake and I don't want to overfeed frozen blood worm / daphnia / tubifex etc. Also these pellets seem extremely messy, throwing orangey brown particles all around the tank. Anyone else noticed this or is it possibly down to a bad batch (i got these on a cheap buy it now on ebay).

Thanks!
 

Reggie Leuty

Member
Messages
30
Location
Austin , Texas
In my experience, apisto's never ate NLS what so ever. Only medium and large cichlids would eat NLS. I feed my a hodgpodg of different flake brands including the new blue flakes ( I forget which company that one is ) and zoo meds brine shrimp , daphnia , earthworm and spirulina flakes ... all mixed into one container .... since my apisto's wouldn't eat NLS, I ended up using the whole can of NLS to feed my Dubia roaches!
 

davidjp1982

Donating Member
Messages
244
Location
UK
would be interested in your mix recipe. does it not just disintegrate in the water? i have frozen daphnia and bloodworms as well as freeze dried bloodworms and tubifex. getting hold of earth worms shouldn't be difficult. do you literally just mix it all together ?
 

Reggie Leuty

Member
Messages
30
Location
Austin , Texas
well the brine shrimp flakes , earthworm flakes , daphnia flakes and spirulina flakes are all from Zoomed company... you can google it and find it somewhere near you? Yes I mix about 4 different brands of flakes on top of these types of flakes in a container ... it lasts for many many months ... esp if you refridge the leftovers ....
 

davidjp1982

Donating Member
Messages
244
Location
UK
ah i see i didn't see they were flake form i thought you meant a gooey mix of all those critters. my apistos won't touch flake :(
 

Reggie Leuty

Member
Messages
30
Location
Austin , Texas
no they pretty much chow down on it all , any remaining and the royal and gold nugget plecos eat. The NLS , the apistos sucked it up and spit it out as if they were Brussels sprouts.
 

davidjp1982

Donating Member
Messages
244
Location
UK
so do you think a daily rotation of frozen bloodworms, freeze dried tubifex and frozen daphnia would be too much? or keep it to feeding every other day with daily flake for my neons and serpaes?
 

Reggie Leuty

Member
Messages
30
Location
Austin , Texas
well no matter what kindof animal you keep , variety is always best .... doing your three frozen items and flake food alternation is a good idea. I have heard though of a bad bug that comes with frozen bloodworms called "Super Ich" , its rare but it happens. You can google it to find out more but yes , those altnernations will make your fishies happy. Good luck
 

Mike Wise

Moderator
Staff member
5 Year Member
Messages
11,201
Location
Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
None of my apistos will eat any kind of dry food - flake or pellet - when it's first added to the tank. I've tried most brands and 'flavors'. They may mouth it, but just spit it out. My guess is that, being geophagines, they sift some of it out of the substrate later. The only flake my apistos would eat instantly was the original formula of Aquarian Tropical Flake that was changed in the late 1980s. After the change, none would eat it. The only pellet food (a granule, actually) was a product called "frog brittle" used by researchers keeping African Xenopus frogs for genetic research. I had a friend who was a post-doctorate researcher who supplied me with small quantities of the brittle. It only came in large quantities (50 pounds) and was very messy, quickly clouding the water if not eaten. My friend moved away 20 years ago and I haven't been able to find small quantities since. Now, my apistos get 90% live foods (mostly BBS) and mixed frozen foods.
 

regani

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
429
Location
Brisbane, Australia
My apistos get NLS Grow (micro pellets) and Ocean Nutrition Cichlid Omniflakes as their main food, they seem to love it. I occasionally mix in another micro pellet (Aquamagic and a local one) as well as the occasional feed of baby brine shrimp and black worm every now and then. I have never really worried about live food too much but I pick good quality dry food food, they all seem to thrive on it.
 

davidjp1982

Donating Member
Messages
244
Location
UK
I've started to hatch my own BBS and all my fish love them except my Agassizii male who I think can't see them or pays them no attention :)
 

mohakka

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
7
Location
NY
My A. Kelleries used to be happy with nls pellet when they were young. But as they grow they became more careful and pickier, and now, they are not interested in any kind of pellet. They are showing interest in flakes but it seems they eat them when they have any other things to do. On the contrary, my A. Eremnopyge pair eats anything I toss in, even though the female of the pair was from the wild. I think accepting pellet pretty much rely on one's appetite, so younger fishes have higher chance to accept pellet. But most of the case it ended up with only lives or frozens, not even freeze drieds.
 

Rod

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
196
Location
Brisbane,Australia
I feed all my fish exclusively NLS pellets for small fish.....and I'm very Happy with results
I don't like flakes because I believe most of the nutrients leach from the flake very quickly....so it needs to be eaten almost instantly

I find the NLS provides all a balanced diet....Cryptoheros,wild bettas,apistos,west africans,endlers,killies and shell dwellers all thrive on it
I do provide Blackworms/mossie larva to fish being conditioned to breed
+ microworms and BBS to young fry
the red waste is easily removed by filtration

I would like to try Rapashi foods but there is no local distributor and it's a major hassle to import privately
 

edwliang

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
152
Location
Guangdong China
i am feeding Tetra, and Aquarium Munster and O.S.I. now. they seem okay. no matter which brands of dry food, we have to train them, over and over again, until they accept it. it will take long...
 

jose_vogel

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
317
Location
Argentina
Almost 75% of my fishes are wildcaught and I am very lucky with Repashy (Meat pie "flavour").

A few weeks after they are in my tank, I give them NLS (small sinking 1 mm -I think-).

And 3 days a week they eat live Enchytraeus albidus (white worms) and 1 day a week, they eat bbs.
 

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