Cichlid Food Canada - Testimonials

Cichlid Food Canada

NLS – A User’s Testimonial

I’ve been keeping fish for over 15 years now, and breeding African cichlids specifically for the last 13. I also had the opportunity to ‘take my hobby to the next level’, and spent almost 5 months on the shores of Lake Malawi working for the largest exporter on the lake, Stuart M. Grant Ltd, diving, collecting, and exporting the cichlids found there. Like most people, I’ve always wanted my fish to look their absolute best, and be as ‘comfortable’ as possible. I’ve always gone by the thinking that a breeding fish is a happy fish!

In my years as a hobbyist, I’ve tried just about everything there is in the way of food to get my fish healthy and looking great. From collecting my own live food (earthworms, gammarus, daphnia), and other ‘natural’ foods (various vegetables, shrimp, fish pieces, even rice {I was young and heard that you could feed it to your fish, not thinking/knowing anything of the nutritional side}), to just about every commercially available fish food on the market, I’ve tried it all. And yet, I was never happy with the colour of my own fish. I once purchased a young breeding group of F1 Aulonocara. stuartgranti ‘Maulana Bi-color 500’s’ after seeing how gorgeous the wild parents were. Everyone who saw my fish loved them, but I could just never get the picture out of my head of how much more beautiful the parents were than my group ever turned out. My male never had the solid blue body that the wild male and had, and for a time I was under the impression that captive fish could never reach the colour potential of their wild relatives. It was these fish that probably had the biggest impact in my quest to find ‘the best’ food I could find for the colour of my cichlids.

Whenever I met a new hobbyist, “What do you feed your fish?” was undoubtedly one of the first questions that seems to arise. I met a couple who swore by Marine fish food. Even though it was more expensive, their reasoning was that Marine keepers were much more willing to spend the money to keep their more expensive (and often more vibrantly coloured) marine fish in tip-top shape, both colour and health. So I tried marine fish flakes, and never really noticed a huge colour difference in my fish, though I did notice the difference in my pocketbook! Selling my fry I was just able to keep the hobby a ‘break-even’ prospect.

When Omega One first entered the market, the LFS that I deal with seemed to be pretty pumped about it, showing me the ‘whole, cold water fish’ as the first ingredient on the label. “Wow”, I thought, this stuff must be great! As soon as I found a source for this food in bulk quantities at a reasonable price, I used it just about exclusively for over a year (cichlid, veggie, colour, and first flake formulas). The colour was never as mind-blowing as I had hoped for, but I got it for cheap (and had a lot of it!).

Upon returning from Malawi, I had brought back a number of wild caught fish. One of these is the much sought-after Labidochromis caeruleus from Lion’s Cove. Due to their rarity as wild fish in the hobby, I was able to ask, and get, a premium for their fry (relative to other F1/G1 Malawian cichlids). I raised this first group of fry on all the Omega One formulas I had, as well as other ‘colour enhancing’ flakes such as HBH Rainbow Color. I raised these fry until they were close to 1”, upon which time they were shipped to my first customer, Neil (aka RD). His first question was just about “Are you sure these are from your wild fish?”. They were just about white, still (I was always hoping that they would get better, quicker). No more colour than the day they were born. Neil and I figured that it must’ve been because they are from wild fish, and if they got the bright and vibrant yellow quickly they would stick out and be a target for other fish. He immediately switched them over to a diet of New Life Spectrum, and after seeing the pictures of the same fish 5 weeks later, I was shocked at how much better they had gotten. Again we thought that it was just the wild genes coming into play and the fish getting better colour as they got larger.

With the wild fish I brought back, I also had at least 80 F1 Tropheops ‘yellow/yellow’ sent over as just-stripped fry. Same diet as the yellow labs, Omega and other ‘colour enhancing’ flakes. At two inches, these fish would be better described as ‘bland/bland’ rather than ‘yellow/yellow’. I was very disappointed in these fish, as the wild, vibrant yellow adults were one of my favourites while in Malawi (as vibrant yellow as the labs, with a blue ‘hue’ to the dorsal and anal fins). A friend had taken a couple off me, and he tried some Hai-Feng ‘Super bits Discus Food’, said to really bring out colours in the red spectrum. And it worked, it turned his fish orange! Definitely too much of the ‘colour enhancing’ that we were looking for. I was now ready to try just about anything to get my fish looking better.

About this time, Neil sent me some New Life Spectrum Cichlid Formula to try, out of his own pocket (this was long before he considered becoming a retailer of this food), to see what I thought. I immediately switched a group of 18 of the Tropheops onto New Life Spectrum, and after only 6 weeks the colour change was amazing. When I posted pictures of these fish for sale, they all sold within 48 hours (I couldn’t give them away before, and sold them for twice what I was originally asking!). Neil was shocked, and phoned me immediately to make sure that these were the exact same fish I had posted for sale six weeks earlier. At this point, I was hooked!

At the same time, I was also raising my newest group of F1 yellow labs, this time using New Life Spectrum (crushed cichlid formula before I had the .35mm Growth formula), and cyclop-eeze. The colour difference between these and the originals that I sold Neil was night and day. At ½” these fish were just about glowing yellow, and just beginning to get black in their dorsals. Needless to say, they all sold as soon as they were seen, and that was before any of them were over one inch!

I’m now using New Life Spectrum exclusively for all my fish, from my Wild Caught and Tank Raised Malawians and Tangs, to my Synodontis catfish and F1 fry (new born fry still receive cyclop-eeze to start). Everything from ‘strict herbivores’ (the Tropheops), to omnivores and carnivores, and I have yet to run into any troubles with any of my fish. I’ve never before been happier with my fish’s colour, and have never recommended any food to anyone until now. Everyone who sees my F1 fry, from the Melanochromis cyaneorhabos, to the Mel. joanjohnsonae, is amazed at the colour they all have at such a small size (both are just about mirrors at 1” of the adult females!).

My group of 11 Synodontis petricola are on NLS (Cichlid formula and H2O Stable Wafers), and they've bred again on using just NLS, and nothing else. They were more active than normal, and suddenly there was a puff of eggs and everything was scattering to get at them. All my females are looking rather large and full of eggs, so I'm expecting more and more breeding from them in the upcoming days. So to everyone who thinks that catfish (at least Syno's) need to be conditioned on live food (I've always heard black worms for Synos'), mine are doing excellent on New Life Spectrum, and NLS alone!

As far as feeding goes, I don’t pre-soak anything. If your fish were on flakes, they get used to chewing the pellets, it just takes them some time. My fry are often able to take the Grow pellet at about 2 weeks of age (mouthbrooder fry), and I couldn’t think of a better way to ensure that they all get enough to eat and develop to their full potential.

If you try New Life Spectrum, I can assure you, you won’t be disappointed. I wasn’t!

Kyle Rollefstad