Swelling Food

[four_by_ken]

Just sharing something we found.  As we have had a few fish bloat, mainly Victorian Haps, I wanted to see how much the food swelled once in water.

The New Life Spectrum did not seem to swell at all.  If it did, it was VERY minimal.  This is the very small pellets, but not the tiny growth type.

The Omega One small pellets, same size as the NLS... swelled quite a bit.  I was not too happy about that.



Just something we found last night.

[TrailerParkFishTanks]

That's interesting. ive never even thought of that but even if they swell, dont they get a lot softer and break down easier? good observation. do you think it swelled enough to attribute to bloat?

[four_by_ken]

That's interesting. ive never even thought of that but even if they swell, dont they get a lot softer and break down easier? good observation. do you think it swelled enough to attribute to bloat?

After lots of reading... yes, I think it is.  I think they can swell and bloat enough to block them up and cause serious problems.

[Ron]

I had the cichlid size Omega One pellets until just a couple weeks ago. I was feeding them to my 4"-7" fronts and always soaked them ahead of time.

IMO if a pellet is a full mouthful for a fish, I soak it ahead of time or feed a smaller pellet. My Omega One purchase was just stop gap measure found at the LFS when I ran out of NLS. I keep a variety of NLS sizes on hand and always have something small enough that I don't soak any of it.

[LoveTheFishies]

I lost several fish from my office tank when I ran out of regular flake food for the automatic feeder and used some mini pellet Hikari.  Came in on monday and they looked sick then started dropping like flies.  Water quality was fine, and that was the only difference.  Won't put pellet type food in the automatic feeder again. 

[danielratti]

Ive used omega for years now and have not had issues with it. Frozen food yes but the pellets and flakes no issues. But I also use the vegie flakes and pellets as well.

[Ron]

Ive used omega for years now and have not had issues with it. Frozen food yes but the pellets and flakes no issues. But I also use the vegie flakes and pellets as well.

Have you tried soaking the pellets before? It seems to me that they'll double in size in about 15 minutes. A few times I forgot about them for at least an hour and they were probably 2.5 times as large, but also starting to deteriorate.

[danielratti]

Yeah I've seen it. I keep wanting to switch to something else but since we are a distributor of omega one at the store they always send me a ton of free food for home and the store since they are coming out with new stuff they want us to try it.

One thing I will recommend from Omega one is there Kelp and Veggie flakes I use this mixed with the kelp pellets and the fish get a lot of color really fast and bright.

[LoveTheFishies]

My plan is to only use pellet once in awhile.  Small type so each fish can only eat a couple max.  Also, mix up the food types for them.

[four_by_ken]

I think I will use up the Omega 1 pellets I have and soak them before feeding.  When I run out, dont think I will buy them again.  Stick to the NLS as it doesnt swell. 

Will continue to feed Omega 1 flakes, unless I find something I like better for flake food.