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If this post is inappropriate here I will delete it. I have 2 synodontis eupterus and would like to know what brand algae wafers people here are feeding? Everything else they eat is easy to get but it's been hard for me to find algae wafers that are made with actual algae and not wheat and other ingredients. TIA!

(I should clarify I am looking for algae wafers whose first ingredient is algae.)

Well I might as well add this. I just re-found this Oscar site that rates fish foods and they hadn't found a 6-star fish food until recently when they discovered a Canadian brand, Northfin.

http://www.oscarfish.com/6-star-foods/1 ... foods.html

The HQ ingredients for all of their foods are basically the same except the Veggie and Kelp foods both have kelp first instead of krill.

http://www.bigalspets.com/kelp-wafers-14-mm-100-g.html

These look like really HQ foods, but does anyone know if kelp is a good substitute for algae? I do feed ZooMed Spirulina flake, so they get algae there, but was looking for a good algae wafer. I have no idea if seaweed is an appropriate food for FW fish?

Guess I'll keep talking to myself until someone has something to add. I just read a lengthy article on New Life Spectrum's website about how fish are mostly opportunistic eaters (omnivores) and people have a tendency to think they need more algae and plants in their diets than they do (even the ones considered closer to herbivores). In any case I went with Northfin Cichlid Pellets since they are excellent nutrition-wise, then also got the kelp wafers from Northfin. Between those two, algae in the tank, and the occasional frozen blood worms and peas, they should be getting good nutrition. Northfin appears to be the top fish food brand available for sheer quality. (New Life Spectrum has ethoxyquin in their fish meal added by the fish meal supplier, but if you don't care about that then they would be up there with Northfin.)

Now if only BigAls had a transporter so shipping was free and instant.

I'm a fan of Extreme Catfish Scrapers and Repashy in all its flavors.

I often have green beans and/or zuchinni in the tanks for my Synodontis, most species will nibble on these foods(including eupterus)some actually take good size bites which I would think how S. eupterus would be.. It only takes a short while for them to discover it is food. There are studies that have shown that a portion of the diet of many mature synos in the wild consists of some vegetation. These veggies I feed are only supplemental though....I use NLS pellets along with frozen foods, mysis, bloodworm and uncooked shrimp from the grocery store, amounts depend on which species. I do not like to feed them veggie tabs because they will gobble down as much as they can of these too quickly in my opinion.

I currently have about 15 different syno species (most in groups)currently in my house.

Birger

Aquaticus wrote:I'm a fan of Extreme Catfish Scrapers and Repashy in all its flavors.

Thanks Aquaticus. Just in case you're interested, the best type of fish meal is "whole" as in whole herring meal or whole krill meal. Otherwise fish meal is basically scales, bones, skin, etc. -- the stuff left over after the good parts have been removed. Whole fish meal means the entire fish was processed, making it more nutritious and of a higher quality. The Repashy brand has whole meal ingredients which was very good. In fact it looked like an excellent food but it does have two ingredients considered controversial in the pet food industry. Synthetic Vitamin K (Menadione Sodium Bisulfate) and Carrageenan. But I can see why you chose that food. It looks to be several cuts above your average fish food!

Birger wrote:I often have green beans and/or zuchinni in the tanks for my Synodontis, most species will nibble on these foods(including eupterus)some actually take good size bites which I would think how S. eupterus would be.. It only takes a short while for them to discover it is food. There are studies that have shown that a portion of the diet of many mature synos in the wild consists of some vegetation. These veggies I feed are only supplemental though....I use NLS pellets along with frozen foods, mysis, bloodworm and uncooked shrimp from the grocery store, amounts depend on which species. I do not like to feed them veggie tabs because they will gobble down as much as they can of these too quickly in my opinion.

I currently have about 15 different syno species (most in groups)currently in my house.

Birger

When you say green beans I assume you're saying green peas? I give canned cooked peas (no salt or additives) and they love those. I never tried zucchini. How long do you let a slice sit in the tank before you remove it? I too believe they do need some plant matter, but I might of been guilty of focusing too much on algae and not enough on the meat portion of their diets. I hope this new Northfin Cichlid food will fix that. Thanks for the tips about frozen mysis and uncooked shrimp! I was just wondering last night if buying fresh fish from the grocer would be a good idea.

Pretty much anything you would serve as your vegetable side dish at dinner will work. My wife always cook an extra veg portion for the fish. Broccoli, baby carrots, peas, squash, zucchini green beans etc. Just tear green beans down the middle lengthwise to expose the "meat" and seeds, which are both eaten.
-Shane

Shane wrote:Pretty much anything you would serve as your vegetable side dish at dinner will work. My wife always cook an extra veg portion for the fish. Broccoli, baby carrots, peas, squash, zucchini green beans etc. Just tear green beans down the middle lengthwise to expose the "meat" and seeds, which are both eaten.
-Shane

Great to know! Does she steam those?

Steam or boil.
-Shane

When you say green beans I assume you're saying green peas?

To clarify for you I meant green beans... also known as string bean, snap bean in the northeastern and western United States

Birger

Thanks, I only realized later what you meant. I'm obviously not fluent in vegetables.

Just throwing it out there--I've had good luck with Sera catfish chips in the past (although they're definitely not something every store is stocking). They actually have some willow bark in them, which is good for Loricariids, but my Corydoras spp. really liked them, too.

fishdoc wrote:Just throwing it out there--I've had good luck with Sera catfish chips in the past (although they're definitely not something every store is stocking). They actually have some willow bark in them, which is good for Loricariids, but my Corydoras spp. really liked them, too.

Also I guess they have specialty food for a variety of different species.....

https://www.sera.de/en/products/categor ... .html#jc_7

Anyone here had some experience with these products?

I'm with Shane as most of the veggie matter I feed comes direct from the garden or kitchen table. I do feed a majority raw but cleaned thoroughly. I also feed several canned veggies such as peas and green beans. Another thing I feed that few consider feeding is fruits such as peaches pears and apples, and I have found many fish will actively eat finely shredded sweet potato.

Avacado, mushroom, sweet peppers, palm hearts, plums, grapes, Kale, spinach....the list goes on.

You could also try bio-yoghurt
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... rt#p156649

My synos seem to like frozen peas (I let them thaw, pop them out of the tough outer shell and mush them a bit and toss them in). I'm assuming they munch on zucchini (I've seen everything from corys to angels to bettas munching on zucchini...mind you I cannot get my children or my husband to eat them...) however I've never seen them touch sweet potato. My daughter has seen my Featherfin Leo munching on algae sheets that I had put in for my plecos.

In my experience, they don't particularly care for algae pellets or discs unless they are quite hungry, they'll eat anything meat based with relish (our LFS sells their own brand of brine shrimp pellets, my hybrid no. 5, Bullitt, LOVES those, often to the exclusion of anything else). That's why I try to introduce fresh fruit and veggies to tempt them a bit (the cantalope seems to disappear rather quickly, but I can't say for sure it's not my Ancistrus). I do try to let them go hungry every few days or so and then toss in something vegetable based in order to give them their "veggies". I try very hard to give my critters well balanced diets.

They are all quite "well-rounded" so it isn't like they are starving !