Makers of Spirulina 20

[goldenpuon]

I heard that the makers of spirulina 20, from the specialty store I get it from that the company who makes it went out of business a few months ago. Hence, they were out of the flake kind and I had to get some of the last remaining pellets they sold of Spirulina.

But is this true that they have stopped production?

[Carl]

Yes.

Not to get too political, but new laws and taxes associated with these that were initiated last year made Aquatrol (the maker) decide it was not worth the trouble as the profit margin for the amount of hassles was not worth it.

Very sad as this was one of the best foods for the last 30 years

Unfortunately the business climate in this country is the worse it has ever been (my business paid much more $ in 2009 than 2008)

HBH has a similar food, although has a similar content of spirulina, it is primarily vegetarian in other ingredients making it more a supplemental food unless your fish being fed are pure vegetarians.
HBH 8 Veggie Flake

Carl

[kagome]

That's awful! My fish love that food and it has improved their color so much!

[corycatwoman]

i been using the Nutrafin MAX spirulina flakes. for all my fish. with a few supplements through out the week randomly and seldomly. but the majority of all my fish diets are with the same food. its a bit pricy but when feeding multiple hungry mouths its cheaper then getting food for all different species and hope the others dont gobble it up. i found its easier cheaper and healthier for all my fish. and it also enhances colors. ill find a link to show the actual product information.

www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3433771#prodTab1

This nutritious formula is rich in spirulina to support the overall well-being of fish and is also a source of natural pigments.

* Contains natural color enhancers
* Rich in spirulina plus contains garlic
* A nutritious food for fresh and saltwater tropical fish

Ingredients:
Dried spirulina algae, fish meal, oatmeal, krill, soybean flour, dried garlic, shrimp meal, dried kelp, squid liver meal, dried yeast, wheat germ meal, salmon oil (ethoxyquin used as preservative), flaxseed oil, vitamins (cholecalciferol, biotin, d-calcium pantothenate, folic acid, inositol, niacin supplement, riboflavin-5-phosphate, calcium l-ascorbyl-2-monophosphate, vitamin a acetate, thiamine hydrochloride, vitamin b12 supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, vitamin e supplement, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin k activity)), lecithin, sodium citrate, minerals (manganous oxide, ferrous carbonate, zinc oxide, copper oxide, calcium iodate, cobalt carbonate, calcium carbonate), yeast extract, fructoologosaccharide, beta-carotene.

Guaranteed Analysis:

* Crude Protein (min) 44%
* Crude Fat (min) 10.0%
* Omega-3 Fatty Acids (min) 1.25%
* Omega-6 Fatty Acids (min) 1.75%
* Crude Fiber (max) 1.5%
* Moisture (max) 7.0%
* Ash (max) 9.0%
* Calcium (min) 0.5%
* Phosphorus (min) 0.7%
* Magnesium (min) 0.15%
* Copper (min) 20 ppm
* Iron (min) 350 ppm
* Cobalt (min) 0.2 ppm
* Iodine (min) 1.2 ppm
* Manganese (min) 10 ppm
* Zinc (min) 25 ppmVitamin A (min) 10,000 IU/lb
* Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) (min) 500 mg/lb
* Vitamin E (min) 50 IU/lb
* Beta-Carotene (min) 2,000 IU/lb

Directions:
Feed as much as fish can eat in two minutes, two or three times daily.

[bikeguy33]

this looks like a great food for the carnivores and the omnivores. what about the vegetarians?

[Carl]

I am familiar with Nutrafin MAX spirulina flakes, this is one of Hagen's better products (I am not a fan of this company due to many poor products that they force upon retailers via their business practices of all or nothing)

Nutrafin MAX spirulina flakes is an excellent balanced diet for most fish, similar to Spirulina 20

Where is many of the other excellent Spirulina Foods such as HBH 8 Veggie Flake, which actually provide a more balanced vegetable diet that Nutrafin Spirulina flakes or Spirulina 20, are best combined with other quality foods (such as Aqueon Tropical Flake, Omega, HBH Tropical, etc.) or fed as the primarily diet for herbivores (such as tangs, & many Mbuna are primarily herbivores).

The bottom line is there are other replacements, such as Nutrafin Spirulina flakes (which has excellent ingredients besides the Spirulina, although it is lower in spirulina content than Spirulina 20 or HBH 8 Veggie).
If your fish are true herbivores, foods such as HBH 8 Veggie would actually be better as the primary diet (such as with Mbuna), where as with community fish (such as your Rainbows Kagome or your goldfish Renee), more mixed diets would be best such as combinations of the before mentioned foods (or in the case of goldfish, the use of a good goldfish diet such as Hikari, Aqueon Goldfish Granules, Sanyu along with a high Spirulina diet such as HBH 8 Veggie). Other additions to diet can include the Spirulina enhanced Brine Shrimp that Hikari produces.

Carl

[corycatwoman]

Mar 4, 2010 0:28:07 GMT -5 bikeguy33 said:

this looks like a great food for the carnivores and the omnivores. what about the vegetarians?

i supplement with unfrozen unshelled peas. and some older flakes that i still have from when i had vegetarians i forgot the name and do not have the bottle anymore but i do know it had almost no fish in it. it was the equivilant of a soy burger for humans.

[goldenpuon]

Thanks for the replies everyone. It is a shame that Aquatrol isn't making Spirulina 20 anymore. Are they going out of business as well or just not making Spirulina 20 anymore?

Furthermore, I know that you may have sources for Spirulina 20 I am not aware of. I honestly have no idea but will you still be selling it Carl?

I bought a box of Spirulina 20 pellets at the store since they were out of flakes and I didn't know that HBH 8 Veggie Flake was a good subsituate fish food. Too bad I didn't know, it was a lot cheaper.

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions. But can HBH 8 Veggie Flake be fed to carnivorous/onivormous fish in moderation? Say I feed my fish twice a day and I'd give them the HBH 8 Veggie Flake every other day. And their normal food would be fed to them the rest of the time.

Would that be ok for them diet wise?

I'm feeding my black phantom tetras Spirulina and they love it. (I feed them other foods too of course) I'd hate to not feed them foods with it just because it is too vegetarian based.

[corycatwoman]

well i can only answer the last few parts of your post. if your fish is carniverous i would suggest not using a full blown vegetarian food. but for an omnivour it is more ideal then most would think. for omnivours eat vegies and meat in equal proportions. so if you did what you said every other day and substitute with its regular omnivour food your fish will most likely be the healthiest fed out of a similar aquarist feeding only omnivour food.

you can also feed vegetarians omnivour food aswell as vegy food in the same manar as the above stated.

as far as carnivorous fish they too get vegies in there diet but do not require it for survival the way thay get it as in the piscavors is by eating vegitarian fish. so supplementing a vegetary food to a carnivour is safe aswell but i would only do it to the minimal amount.

with everything being said vegetarian food is safe for all fish. but the amount to each type depends on what kind of fish you have.

[bikeguy33]

that is a great answer corycat!! in my experience a slight veggie diet is easier on a carnivor /herbivor than a slight meat diet is on a herbivor. look no further than the mile long poop out of your pleco....lol.

[Carl]

I will add to the excellent answers given;
Aquatrol has completely thrown in the towel according to industry reps I spoke with in December, I am about out of stock of what I purchased in December.

Omnivorous fish can have a primarily herbivorous food such as 8 Veggie Flake. As I noted earlier that this is best in supplement to other fish foods such as Aquaeon, Omega, HBH Tropical, etc.

As also earlier noted foods enhanced with Spirilina such as Hikari Enhanced Brine Shrimp or Ocean Nutritions similar product is a good way to add spirulina to an Omnivore or Carnivores diet

I also strongly recommend "gut loading" with Vegetable/Spirulina based foods for carnivores as well (I fed Cricket Spirulina Flakes prior to feeding to many clients fish such as Arowanas)

Also see this article which covers some of this information (plus more):
Fish Nutrition

Carl

[corycatwoman]

thank you bike guy i wasnt exactly sure how to word that correctly took me a minute of double checking. the only problem with supplementing food when your not sure what your doing is if you feed to high protien foods to the wrong fish. but ive never heard of a fish getting sick from eating too much vegies. vegies are safe bet. and always if you run out of food and dont know when you can get more if you always keep vegie flakes on hand your fish will thank you for it till you can get the correct food for them.

i try to feed all my fish a balenced omnivour diet but with my mbuna they are more herbivours so i try to supplement the omnivour food to them and feed the spirulina regular. i also underfeed my tanks for i found with my mbuna it lowers the agression some but it does. but with my community tank i feed it once a day for 4 small mouths and 1 large mouth.

the mbuna get fed twice a week just enough that they get all of it ate in less then 3 minutes sometimes theres a few stray flakes still floating after 3 minutes they usually fall in the rocks and either get ate or bulldozed for they are always rearanging gravel.


so if your fish are omnivour i personaly would feed them veggie flakes in the morning and omnivour flakes evening daily.

if your fish is carnivour i would feed them vegie flakes once every other week just for 1 serving if you feed twice daily. only feed vegies one morning and meaty diet the rest of the week or 2 weeks.

if your fish is herbivor it is best to feed mainly all vegie flakes for even vegie flakes do have some meaty protiens that is just right for them.

as for ease i would say an herbivour or carnivour is the easist of the 3 to feed. although the simplest as i said above is the piscavours for they only eat live fish. so you just get a small tank of feeder minnows feed them a ton of spirulina and your piscavores eat the minnows and they are set easiest of all.

[corycatwoman]

lol after i posted i just realized carl has simplified what i already just said before i could say it.

you have a professional opinion and then you have my lehman opinion same words just he sounds smarter!

[Carl]

Mar 5, 2010 21:18:10 GMT -5 corycatwoman said:

lol after i posted i just realized carl has simplified what i already just said before i could say it.

you have a professional opinion and then you have my lehman opinion same words just he sounds smarter!

I am not sure about that

Either way different ways of explaining a subject is always best, so all input is great.

Carl

[goldenpuon]

Thanks for your input. You wrote a very good reply that completely answered my question about feeding that to carnivorous fish. No point on slamming yourself. You did a good job. It isn't the words that explain the idea, it's getting the concept understood.

Thanks as well Carl for answering my other question, and also you Bill.

[corycatwoman]

no problem. that was an easy one. its the more difficult ones that ill be first to say i cant help with but am just as curious as the asker. but this one i could handle!

and it was a joke no slamming neccesary. was only saying carls 30 plus some years fish experience is alot more profound and professional then just me using my common logic and experience