August – Fish Marketplace Pellets vs. Flakes

Lost at Sea

Some consumers may feel like they are swimming in a sea of fish food choices when they are standing at the display in their local pet store because there are such a great multitude of products available.

It is important for retailers to keep their supply in a logical, systematic order to ensure top sales. "You can't just have a wall of fish food with no rhyme or reason or a customer won't be able to figure out what to get," Groff says. "Display generally has to be simple, instead of having 60 feet of food in front of them, it will narrow down their focus."

Groff recommends categorizing foods and supplements by brand name or variety.

"The display is only as good as the retailer using it," Cantrell says. "The display needs to be put in a drive aisle or an end cap – the name of the game is impulse."

Education can be a major component to increasing sales. "We make the retailer's job easier by providing both the retailer and the consumer with helpful point of sale materials to make informed decisions about fish nutrition," Cantrell says. "Our website is also a great asset to the consumer and retailer when it comes to food and equipment selection."

Special promotions may attract existing customers to new products or encourage them to switch over to a different brand. Some manufacturers let stores test their products in house at no charge. "The more they use the more they will be able to sell it because they will be able to see the results first hand," Groff says.

-S.S & A.S.

(Published July 2004)

August – Fish Marketplace
Pellets vs. Flakes
Feeding fish a balanced and healthy diet
By Scott and Ann Springer

Eating is not just necessary for survival, but it is also the main source of interaction for fish enthusiasts and their aquatic pets. They love to watch them swim frantically around the tank as their owner opens the lid for a feeding. Owners love meal time so much they always looking for ways to improve the diet of their fish.

But what is best for the fish? There are so many brands and varieties of fish food that is can be overwhelming for customers to know what is best for their particular aquarium.

The most common forms of staple foods come in two forms: pellets and flakes. There is no exact science to knowing what works best because aquariums are as unique as individual. However, there are some basic rules that apply to feeding.

Everything in moderation
"The best way to give them a balanced diet is to feed them a variety of foods," Arnold says. "Just like you wouldn't go eat a 99 cent cheeseburger from McDonalds day after day, you need variety, and so do they."

Flake food has been around for decades and improvements are making flakes more nutritious and cause fewer water quality problems. Tetra, a pioneer in fish food products, has developed a new flake that produces less waste.

"The manufacturing method used, helps the food from eroding in the can, thus giving the consumer better value, or more useable food, and less waste in the aquarium which means less cleaning," Cantrell says.

Both flakes and pellets are manufactured to enhance color and immune systems. "Our patented formula has megadoses of select vitamins to help control disease and stress which are common in ornamental fish," Cantrell says.

Enhancements and innovation in flakes have helped fish to be healthier. "The old flakes used to get all moldy and the fish wouldn't eat it," Arnold says, who remembers a time when only a handful of choices were on the market. "It is much easier to give a variety of foods in one flake now. It has really gotten better and better over time."

These improvements in this category have also helped in breeding and color enhancements. "They have better color, are living better, and are breeding more types of fish that were difficult to breed in the past," Arnold says. "Angels used to be incredibly hard to breed."

Arnold cites the expansion of the food market to smaller sizes of food making it more possible for newly hatched fish to be able to thrive into adulthood in a tank. "Some of the micro-worms are as small as your eyelash."

Pelleted food has also had a makeover or two in recent years. Kent Marine produces a line of products that are designed to attract different types of fish based on what they eat in the wild. "Our herbivore line, for reef fish, is mostly plant and algae based, while the carnivore line for marine fish is very meaty," Groff says.

Groff recommends owners feed their fish a staple food, like a pellet, but that they add vitamin supplements for optimum health. "You can put a pellet in a glass and then add a vitamin supplement then they swell and become soft," Groff says. "They are easier for the fish to ingest and then they get their vitamins."

Frozen foods may also make great supplements, but frozen foods can be hazardous too. "No matter how much your fishes like a particular frozen or live food, they need a variety of foods," Arnold says. "Flake foods help provide the variety they need. No single frozen food can provide all their nutritional needs."

In fact, frozen foods can have more nutritional value and are safer than live foods. "Frozen foods are captured and frozen as rapidly as possible to preserve all the nutrition contained in the wild-caught living critters," Arnold says. The freezing may also kill some harmful bacteria that may be present in live foods.

Not Created Equal
While both flakes and pellets are created to be staple meals for all fish, not all fish can eat or like both varieties of food.

"Certain fishes such as elephant noses and betta really don't like to eat most flake foods," Arnold says. "For example, young fishes such as Oscars, two inches and under, don't well on flake foods and survive better on flake foods plus brine shrimp and worms."

The size of the fish is also a factor in choosing whether a customer should feed with pellets or flakes. "If the fish is larger we recommend giving them pellets because they have more sustenance," Arnold says. "The flakes are great for little fish."

Some fish just won't eat what is offered and a customer will have to have a special diet for their fish. "If they buy a Siamese Biting Fish they are going to need special food," Arnold says. "They just aren't going to eat flake food."

Water quality concerns
The most common reason for cloudy water is overfeeding. Overfeeding is also the root of most health problems in fish. "Hungry fish are healthy fish," Arnold says.

So, how much is too much? "It is best to feed multiple times a day in smaller amounts," Groff says. "They should be able to eat all of it in about 5 minutes." Groff then recommends you take that amount of food consumed in 5 minutes and feed the fish at regular intervals throughout the day. "If you feed them over the period of the day, they won't gorge themselves."

Small feeding help prevent the amount of pollutants that are released into the water from undigested food. "Some food can get lost behind the rocks and other things in a tank," Poole says. "It is a bad cycle because people love to over feed their fish, the water quality goes down and then rocks and other things begin to decay."

If an owner does overfeed and the fish experience an overdose on food they should try to remove extra food as quickly as possible with a gravel vacuum. Turning the filter off during feedings can also help prevent excess food from becoming clogged in the filter, Poole says.

Kent Marine manufactures pellets that are 100% marine-based and contain no land based materials. "They are cooked at low heat so they don't lose as many of the vitamins," Poole says. "Fish food manufacturers are improving the quality of food by trying to add amino acids, protein, and fiber and by limiting the pollutants into the tank."

Bacteria thrives on fish food leftovers. "As a general rule, if food hits the bottom, you have exceeded the stomach capacity of your fishes—but not the capacity of the bacteria in your aquarium just waiting for a chance to go forth and prosper," Arnold says.

Snails can be an excellent way to combat unwanted bacteria. "Add some snails to clean up any extra rations," Arnold says. "Snails appreciate the extra food and will help you control your overfeeding habits."

Not all consumers are home often enough to feed their fish multiple times a day so they can rely on battery-operated fish feeders or mini-vacation blocks. "Most of us, however, prefer to watch our fishes turn into creatures from Jaws III when we sprinkle in a few flakes," Arnold says.