Cichlid Food Canada - Testimonials

Cichlid Food Canada

Wildlife World Zoo Testimonial

My fishkeeping foray began when I worked in the fish department of a major pet store chain. Unfortunately, the store I worked at was much more concerned with making a profit than with the animals, and I moved on from that line of work.

My big break into fishkeeping, outside my personal tanks, happened in May 2004, when I was offered the aquarist position at the Wildlife World Zoo, in Litchfield Park, AZ. I had been a regular volunteer there, but to be offered a keeper position was something I had not expected.

The zoo had a variety of pellets, flakes, and frozen food for the animals, which ranged from African cichlids to Discus to Lungfish. I was left a list of the foods that could be fed to each tank: most marine tanks were fed cubes of frozen brine and mysis shrimp, the reef tank Tetra marine flakes, and most freshwater tanks were fed with Tetra flakes, or frozen bloodworms. For a good few months, I kept to the feeding schedule, and was pleased overall to see growth, though the increase of algae did not please me or my boss!

I had essentially inherited the aquarium, which has 30 tanks total, from a previous keeper who did not do water changes save once a month on rather stocked tanks, overfed some tanks while he fed the others once a week, and generally did not keep the best husbandry techniques. Once I got the water change schedule down, I felt it in my and the fishes' best interests to get them healthy and happy. I did more water changes, fed more, and noticed that while the fish were more active, the colors were faded and dull. I took this down to a lack of variety in the diet; the pet store I had worked at prior was a by-the-book business which pushed the sales of many foods to a single fishkeeper. So I diversified: bought new frozen foods, tried freeze dried, brought in some Hikari and Bio-Blend pellets, and of course, more water changes. But no matter how many water changes, how many different lights we used, the fish never quite looked as good as I had seen in books.

Around this time I was feeling more comfortable in the mealings and dealings of the various species of fish, and my research online began anew for new foods I could order, new color-enhancing flakes and pellets.

One day on the Cichlid Forum website, posting a question about my own shelldweller cichlids, I noticed a rather large and multi-paged topic about some pelleted food called New Life Spectrum. Once I saw the first few pictures of fish that had been fed this diet, I was hooked; if I could get even half our fish to look half as good, my boss would be most pleased. I ordered three different kinds of freshwater New Life Spectrum later that week.

I tried the food out on my own fish at home first, and within two weeks, my Golden Wonder Killifish were truly golden, my Bronze Cories gleamed, and for the first time in a year, spawned; my Corydoras fry grew by leaps and bounds. My Golden Wonders spawned as well.

I brought the New Life Spectrum Community pellet to the zoo, and offered it tentatively to our Lake Tanganyika tank, our Discus tank, the Blind Cave Tetra tank, and the Congo Tetra tank. The pellets were devoured with relish, and the obsession was born.

Now, five months later, the fish are transformed animals. Our Frontosa have spawned on this diet, as have our pair of Discus. The Blind Cave Tetras, usually an off-white, have a glimmering sheen to their sides, and their fins radiate red and orange from the natural color enhancers found in New Life Spectrum. Our Lake Malawi peacock males have colored up and are already strutting their breeding dances. And our Arrowana, who was once fed only frozen krill or live fish, now steals every floating New Life Spectrum pellet he can grab, leaving me to dump more food in for his tank mates!

The true test, of course, came with the Marine fish, most of which are wild caught. The first test was in the reef tank, which houses a bevy of small soft and mushroom corals, some Percula Clownfish, a few Damsels, and a Strawberry Hawkfish. It has been two weeks now, and the Clownfish glow; the Black Damsels' tail filaments are a brilliant yellow, and the green dots on the Hawkfish's face shimmer. The second test came with the wild-caught Queen Angel and the Pink-Tailed Trigger, both of whom would take frozen food, but refused all else. The large sinking New Life Spectrum pellet convinced them otherwise. And the final test came to pass with our Blue-Throat Trigger and Unicorn Tang, both of which were used to a diet of frozen squid, brine shrimp, and krill chunks. They took the pellets without a problem, and to this day, will refuse a chunk of squid held at one end of their 300 gallon tank, if New Life Spectrum is dropped at the other.

Other freshwater fish that now eat NLS for us exclusively include the African Lungfish, the Mudskippers, Archerfish, Bichirs, and just recently our Fly Riverturtle had begun to munch down on New Life Spectrum. After reading the main ingredients on the turtles other pelleted diet (hydrolyzed chicken feathers was a top ingredient), I feel much safer with his new self-appointed diet.

As for some other oddities regarding the food, New Life Spectrum is the only food I have ever seen that gets a Banjo Catfish, and a Spotted Raphael Catfish, out of the sand during daylight hours and scouring for pellets, when even live bloodworms would elicit no such response. My wild-caught multi cichlids have accepted New Life Spectrum from the very start, and even some Aphyosemion Gardneri Killifish fry, which are usually fed live foods by breeders, have grown, and grown fast on this diet. I expect eggs from them any day now.

Since I have started feeding New Life Spectrum to my fish exclusively, I have not only seen healthier, brighter fish, but fish that are spawning, which to me is a sign of contentness, if not happiness in my pets. The fish I keep at my work are also brighter in coloration, more active, and several species have begun spawning since the diet change. Penny for penny, New Life Spectrum is worth the price; the maker himself offers a money back guarantee that his food will show positive results in your fish.

My latest test has been to pass out samples to other fishkeepers, with the instructions to feed their fish the pellets solely for two weeks, and see the differences, if any. I don't tell them precisely why there would be differences; I will let the food speak for itself. It already has to me, and my fish have never looked better.

Tara Launders

Wildlife World Zoo Aquarist