(upbeat music)
- All right best of fish food 2019.
We got frozen food up here, we have dry foods,
we're gonna find out some of the best foods for 2019.
And we're gonna start with the most popular
so stuff as voted by you, what you guys are buying.
And also the most economical solutions out there,
but what else?
- We're gonna hit up the highest protein content
for your dry foods and your frozen
as well as the highest fat content for both of those.
- So protein and fat are one of the biggest nutrition's
so what they can build their muscles out of
as well as fat being energy for the fish,
for metabolic function.
So really two really important
things when you're looking at a fish food.
We're also going to do best in show,
so the best fish foods out here
as well as what we'd like to see for 2020.
All right so best of 2019, dry foods.
What is it?
- This one took me off guard here,
because it wasn't on my radar.
And it's the PE Pellets, which is what you guys
are primarily buying out of all the dry foods out there.
- Number one seller, caught me off guard as well.
I knew that it was popular but I didn't know
it was that popular, actually.
And I'm not surprised now after the fact
because the PE frozen mysis is one of those things
that a lot of, lot of people are using out there.
So, didn't catch me that off guard,
or did catch me off guard but I shouldn't probably.
So the next one out there, what is it?
- Yeah, right behind them and if you combine
the two together it's actually a little more.
But you have the Reef Nutrition TDO,
and then the Neptune Crossover Diet
which is essentially the same thing.
- So this is actually, it says right on the package,
made By Reef Nutrition.
And what it is is one of these pellets
that are top dressed with a smaller pellet,
or not pellet, powder on the outside of the pellet
so they call it Crossover Diet so it's for
your corals and your fish all in one thing.
So kind of a mix of these different things.
And so, actually if you combine these two together,
Reef Nutrition is the manufacturer of this one,
these are the number one selling fish foods
as voted by you guys of 2019.
- Yeah and then we have the herbivore blends,
right, so what is the top for herbivores?
And it's stuff that we even use
on our own tanks like the big 160.
The Seaweed Extreme by Hikari, number one pellet
for seaweed and then also The Two LittLe Fishies,
Sea Veggies or Seaweed Sheets.
- So this is just a personal preference,
those are the two big ones and they're pretty obvious
I think most people probably knew that.
But these guys are like 67% seaweed
in a pellet form you know that's pretty high
for something that's been turned into a pellet.
And for me personally, if I'm gonna feed
that kind of nutrition it's just a lot easier
to get in a pellet form.
Other people like to use the algae
and attach it to a rock with a rubber band
or you know clip on the window.
It's a lot more work for me.
- Yeah and it gets all over the place you know,
so some people like the Seaweed Extreme
that I can control the dose and the amount
and all that other stuff.
It's not floating all over the place.
- But the most popular 2019,
those are the two if you're gonna feed seaweed to it.
All right so best of 2019 frozen food, what is it?
- Really surprising here on the enormity
of how popular this one is
and it's the Hikari Mysis here.
And that's the bio encapsulated
with the vitamins and additional ingredients
but 10.5% protein, 1% fat.
- So yeah this is a landslide most popular
by you guys and I'm not surprised
I guess because it is one of the cheapest
options up here or most affordable.
But, right behind that there are some other
options out there that are pretty pretty popular.
I'll say like one third as popular as this one.
But they're in a grouping right behind that
and that is the Rod's Food, Hikari's own Canadian Mysis
and then the PE Mysis.
So all kind of in a grouping right behind that.
And so, most people probably wouldn't know
or take the time to look but Canadian Mysis
versus the other Mysis is 1% fat versus,
or 2.3% fat so fat again begin energy for the fish.
- [Randy] That's right.
- [Ryan] So it is like oh at 130% more fat,
so even if it costs twice as much
actually net benefit energy is positive, right.
- Yeah you know and for me,
when I look at ingredients like I look
at ingredients for the food I eat and stuff.
And when I look at the Canadian Mysis
and the PE Mysis it says Mysis, 100% Mysis.
I mean I look at some of the ingredients
in the additional vitamins and what not
in the Hikari Mysis and I mean it's all bio-encapsulated
there's some additional stuff in there.
- Similar to gut loading and what not.
- Yeah, right.
- So you're adding nutrition in that form.
I'll also say that their Canadian version is 12%
protein versus 10% protein in this guy,
so you're adding muscle building ability too.
Same thing with the Canadian PE option out there.
So, the Canadian, both of these are Canadian mysis,
they're more nutritious than the other counterpart.
And then Rod's Food, obviously, it's a brand of
like whole shrimp, whole squid, whole octopus,
whole, you know, whole everything, right?
- Very popular.
- A total different approach to feeding your fish
with Rod's Food and also very high in protein and fat.
Because that's so, those are most popular
as voted by you guys.
- All right up next is most economical for 2019
and which one makes the least dent on my wallet,
what do we have?
- Ah, really I don't think it matters.
So we didn't actually vote on that because all of these
are so inexpensive, there's a lot of areas we'll do
the best of where economical is the most important factor
and like or at least one-third of the whole thing is
probably like making sure that this is affordable.
In this case, all of these fish foods are affordable
whether you spend five dollars or seven dollars
a month on fish food, probably isn't the biggest
expense in the tank and it's really obvious if
you're looking for the cheapest ones out here
which ones they are.
So, I think most of us are actually watching
something like this because we wanna know which ones
are providing the most nutrition and healthiest
for the dollar, not necessarily cheapest option,
we're definitely going to get to that today.
So that leads us right into the highest protein
content of any dry food for 2019.
Again, protein, what the animals are using to build
their muscle tissue and it was actually
the Golden Pearls, one of the new foods that we
just added.
And Golden Pearls is predominantly like a larval
and breeding food, so ya know, what you're going to use
to breed food, not surprisingly gonna have
the highest protein out there.
Now, the Golden Pearls are tiny little pellets, right,
so they might not be appropriate for all of your fish.
But the point here is to when you're shopping for food,
ya know, look for the things that have some of the
higher protein contents out there.
I'd say anything, you know, 45% and above
is probably pretty good.
This guy here was 55% protein, so going even beyond that.
And I wouldn't nit-pick a few percent one way or the other,
'cause it probably doesn't make sense, but if you're looking
at 30% protein, that's a pretty far drop.
So highest protein content of frozen food for 2019,
which one was it?
- This one I've used in my own tanks before
and it's the Hikari Mega-Marine, the mix here.
That's 13.2% protein as compared to the next
runner-up, which is about 11.9%.
So about a percent difference.
- So not surprising because this is a blend,
so they mix a bunch of different types of things
in there to make the Mega-Marine and I know that
with a lot of the products they gut load them
with vitamins and other types of nutrition.
So, highest protein content out there, 13.2,
so about a percent higher than some of the other options.
The next closest options, being the Canadian Mysis.
- Yeah, Canadian Mysis presumably the PE mysis,
because we think they come from about the same,
both Canadian Mysis, probably coming from the same lake.
I haven't actually been up there to see.
But, these things have 11.9% protein in this guy right here.
The only difference I'll say is that 8 ounces, the PE one
is about four bucks cheaper, so ya know, pick your
favorite brand, but the four bucks probably ain't
gonna make a difference huge one way or another.
- Right.
- So one of the other big ends of nutrition, which is
fat content and energy, which one was the highest
for dry foods?
- Yeah so this one was 10% higher than the next dry food
fat content, in which case,
the BRS freeze dried Calanus, 26% fat.
- 26% is way, way higher than most of them out there,
granted this is a very particular food,
so it's a tiny, tiny powder, you probably feed like
antheus or whatever in it, but it goes to show,
if you're gonna feed fish like antheus, who need
a lot of energy to sustain the fact that they're
swimming all day long, the highest fat and probably
the easiest digestibility, something like this.
You do definitely want to get it mixed up
and dissolved before you put it in there
or use some of the frozen options, which presumably
have the same fat content in it?
- Right.
- But, right after that, what was it?
- I mean, it's breeding type of foods like
Sustainable Aquatics Hatchery Diet or
the TDO and Neptune crossover type stuff.
And these are 16% in each of these, respectively.
And the hatchery diets, we actually use through,
the clownfish terranea tank, and now we
on a lot of our tanks we use the TDO stuff, so-
- Yeah.
So, again, 16% is actually like some of the other
dry foods out there can be as low as 5%,
so that's 1/3 the amount of energy in there,
so these absolutely are gonna be some of the best options
and again, the reason Sustainable Aquatics we use
for the clownfish harem series is 'cause they provided
the clownfish, thought we'd use the same feed that
they're using to breed and take care of 'em.
All right, highest fat content in frozen, which one?
- I mean, this one beats out quite a bit because
fat content in frozen food's pretty low.
And in which case, again, it's the PE Calanus,
so similar to the highest fat percentage in dry food
now in the frozen form, it's a 6% fat content.
- Which is about double, right?
And the next one, lowest down is the Rod's Food blend
at 2.9% fat and you might notice that these are
definitely smaller or lower levels than the dry foods
and that's because there's water in these other foods
out here that make up some of the percentage.
So 2.9 with the Rod's Food was the highest
of all of them out there, so bravo to Rod.
All right so best in show 2019 for dry food,
which one is it?
- Yeah this one, we're gonna give it to the
Reef Nutrition TDO, I mean, we use this around
the house all over the place here in BRS.
It's got a wide variety of different sizes, pellet sizes,
so from small fish mouths to large fish mouths,
you get to choose which one works best for you
and your tank.
It's got a good mix of that fat and protein
and a lot of breeders use it.
- This is probably the number one breeding food out there
in our industry.
And not only that, but I got a little special note
on the packaging, so this is a foil lined mylar bag
that keeps all of the oxygen and moisture out.
It also comes with multiple stay fresh packets inside
of it to protect the food, has a really tight fitting
little spout that's actually easy to get small amounts out
and then re-seal it again.
So, if you make a good product, it's only as good
as the package that keeps it fresh and they really
bring it all the way around by making sure that,
you make a good one, protect it in the end.
So, I have to totally agree, best in show, if I was to
use any one out here it's probably gonna be the TDO
and I'll even go all the way over to the Neptune ones
if you're looking for that crossover diet
and you wanna feed both the small little particles
for the corals and your fish, they don't have as many
sizes in here but you can see on our website, actually,
all of the individual grain sizes next to a little ruler
and really get an idea of what you're picking up
when you do.
All right, so best in show of 2019, frozen food,
which one is it?
- Well since we made our DIY reef chili, but we're
not packaging and selling it, I've gotta give it
to somebody else who's doing similar type of things
and that's Rod's Foods for sure, the widest size
of different food, so I mean there's pieces in there
for your larger fish, pieces in there for your
smaller fish, and plus a diversity of the types of food
that's in there.
- So I agree and as a whole shrimp, whole krill,
whole squid, just the list goes on and on and on
and most similar to what people are doing with
other areas of pets where you're looking
for total nutrition and you look for a wider range
and he's nailed it here, it's got a good mix
of that fat and protein and gotta give him best in show
but right behind that, if you just wanna use something
more simple, what is it?
- Yeah, the Canadian Mysis and the PE Mysis,
these types of things have that, like we saw, you know
high protein and higher, high fat contents in them.
And you know, Calanus for both, both the freeze dried
and the frozen option, just a highly nutritious type
of single food.
- So I gotta agree, I had very, a ton of success
using just the Canadian Mysis, doesn't matter,
Hykari, PE, pick your pleasure, but outside of that,
if you're gonna feed tiny, tiny little fish
like the antheas and what not, the Calanus, the frozen
option is probably my favorite of the two.
But either one will work if you don't wanna
mess around with frozen and those are best in show.
So what would we like to see in 2020 for fish food?
So what are those improvements for 2020 that
we'd like to see?
- I mean, TDO really knocks the packaging out
of the park here for us and there's an opportunity
for a lot of people to probably up their game
in the packaging as far as all these different dry foods.
So, you know, maybe some of your favorite dry foods
manufacturers will up their game in packaging.
- Yeah, put a dollar's more in the packaging
and the quality of the product will be good because
some of the times this stuff lasts for months.
- Yeah. - So inside of that also,
I think we can up our game as an entire industry
and stop thinking about necessarily the cheapest
possible way that we can feed our pets and start thinking
about the best way we can feed our pets.
You know, predominantly we've been thinking fat and protein
only for a really really long time, the cheapest protein,
the cheapest sources of fat,
but you know in the entire pet industry all over,
we're actually elevating the game in how do we keep our
pets healthy for a really long time.
Like, some of the cheapest cat foods out there
may get my cat to 10 years and some of the best
ones may get him to 20.
These are the pets in my house, too, with my fish
and I would happily spend a couple extra bucks
to make sure that we can get them all the way
and keep them healthy as long as possible.
And not just protein and fat, but a whole array
of nutrient developments important to metabolic function
like if I don't get vitamin K, I'm gonna lose my eyesight,
same thing with the fish, there's all kinds of tiny
little things in there that really help the fish survive.
So let's up our game in 2020 and look for better ways
to evolve the fish food game.
- Directly tied to that is probably that reef chili,
the DIY frozen food that we just made.
I mean, it hits this nutritional value on a lot
of different fronts, like 20-something different
ingredients going into it so you get to see
what goes into your food.
Since we're not shipping this one out the door,
you can make your own and we have a recipe for you,
it's available right here at this link.
- And actually making your own food, you get to mix
it all in, reef chili or no, might actually be
the best of 2019.