Today on BRStv we are going to cover Hikari premium fish diets.
Hikari is a widely distributed brand and can be found in many stores in both frozen and
dry varieties.
Today we are going to focus on their pellets, wafers and freeze dried foods.
Let's start with Hikari as a company.
The aquarium industry has no shortage of new upstarts and giant publicly traded conglomerates
run by boards whose primary goal is really stock holder share value not producing the
highest quality food available.
But there is one thing all of them share in common, everyone says they are the best.
The founders of Kyorin, maker of Hikari diets have been engaged in aquatics for over 130
years.
Started as and still is a privately owned company whose sole focus is exploring aquatic
habitat, husbandry and nutrition to achieve the most attractive, healthy colorful fish.
In 1979, they founded the foods division.
Now they're Japan's most popular and trusted brand as well Japan's largest supplier of
tropical fish.
For the Japanese aquatics goes beyond a hobby it's really more of an art form.
Koi being one of the more time-tested and respected traditions.
Hikari foods have been responsible for every single All Japan Grand Champion koi since
2003, these are quarter million dollar fish where what you feed is not a decision you
take lightly.
Even outside of the aquatics well respected organizations like NASA turn to them when
they need special food for use in unique environments like laboratory testing in space.
In the reef tank the two most popular foods are the Marine A and S. Both use similar ingredients
with slightly different formulations and sizes.
A is a larger pellet designed for stable growth and coloration with larger specimens.
S is a smaller pellet designed for small to average sized fish commonly found in a reef
tank.
First thing you will notice is neither will cloud the water when added to the tank.
The sponge-like pellets hold their shape and won't pollute the water.
You can see in this demonstration where we soaked the pellets for 5 minutes.
There is very little breakdown as compared to this competitive product that you can see
completely disintegrates.
What this means is you can feed less yet still provide the same nutrition because the fish
have much more time to find the food before it disintegrates and pollutes the water.
Less food in the tank means higher quality water which results in healthier fish and
corals, less algae and reduced maintenance like cleaning the glass and possibly even
water changes.
In fact taking the time to hydrate the food in a cup for a minute before using is recommended
because the resulting soft sponge like texture more closely matches foods they would find
as a part of their natural diet.
Hard pellets or disintegrating powders are textures pretty far from anything they would
find in the wild.
If you would like to take this a step further you can hydrate it in some fresh RO/DI water
which will reduce the salt intake and reduce the energy required to maintain the osmotic
balance saltwater fish are constantly working to achieve.
The food itself is made up of primarily sea based creatures and avoids strange components
like fruits and terrestrial animals.
These two foods also provide amongst the highest protein, fat, DHA EPA omega 3 fatty acids
and vitamin levels especially for an omnivorous food which also contains healthy amounts of
algae.
The mix is designed to provide nutrients in ratios the fish can utilize for growth and
metabolic function with as little waste as possible.
The digestibility and balance of nutrients is critical to the fish utilizing as much
as possible.
It isn't the just the specific ingredients that are important it's ratios that are provided
in.
These building blocks of nutrition need to be provided in the right ratios.
Too much of any one of them will likely just result in additional waste added to the tank.
Hikari also produces the first nori-based algae wafer with the seaweed extreme.
The smaller pellets are designed for top and mid tank feeders who typically capture the
food the moment the foods enter the tank and the wafers are for fish who like to scavenge
and feed off the bottom.
This product is 67% seaweed and can be considered a complete replacement for nori sheets in
a much more convenient form.
While it is fun to watch the fish go after the nori, nori sheets are often fairly high
in salt, The holders aren't particularly attractive and as a general rule of thumb it is a good
idea to keep your hands out of the tank as much as possible.
For those of you looking for an alternative for your algae loving fish this is a pretty
solid option.
All three of these foods are packaged in a foil-line mylar bag with a zip lock to reduce
oxidation and preserve the foods.
Do yourself and fish a favor.
Make sure to use this to your advantage seal the zip lock between uses.
Hikari also offers a freeze dried selection as well including shrimp and krill.
Most reefers like to offer some natural foods and sometimes frozen food just isn't an option.
Both the Krill and brine shrimp come amazingly intact.
The shrimp come in these cool little cubes.
When added directly to the tank they float around awhile the fish seem to enjoy picking
at them.
What's nice is the cube itself is too large to go down the overflow and the fish pull
it away.
The krill basically hydrate back into large intact pieces which is really pretty amazing.
The foods are the exact same raw materials as their frozen sister products.
Meaning the shrimp have been gut loaded with vitamins and nutrients immediately prior to
processing to maximize the nutritional quality of the feed.
The freeze drying itself is done with a pharmaceutical grade process to keep as many nutrients intact
as possible.
This more advanced and expensive process removes the moisture while limiting oxidation which
allows the food to maintain many of its original characteristics including color, texture and
flavor.
The resulting moisture is typically under 10% verses commonly over 30% with competitive
products.
The container is purged with nitrogen during the packaging process to remove oxygen and
contains an oxygen adsorbing packet to continue protecting the product after it has been opened.
Freeze dried foods are also an excellent way to incorporate medications and additional
nutrients into the fishes diet by rehydrating them with products like Selcon, KZ's Immun
Stable or Amino Acids as well as some of the popular medications produced by Hikari.
So take a moment and tell us what you like to feed down in the comments area down below,
we love hearing what the community does as a whole.
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See you next week with another episode of BRStv.