Loaches Online Forum

I have been looking for a good, high quality algae wafer for some time, but it seems that almost all those on the market have wheat gluten, rice flour, and other cereals as the main ingredients. You have to go way into the ingredient list to actually find algae or anything else remotely resembling something a fish might eat in nature.
Omega One makes a great wafer, but if you break them into pieces they tend to float. That can be a problem in a river tank.
New Life Spectrum makes a good wafer for bottom feeders but it has krill and herring as its main ingredients with algae about fourth on the list.
Ultracolor makes a good vegatable based tablet, but they are very small.
I use them often, but like to provide variety to my fish.
Anyone have any suggestions for a good algae wafer that actually has algae as the main ingredient?

I use the Hikari or King British ones at the moment the fish do seem to like them.

But have you looked at the ingredients?
The Hikari wafers are basically cereal...not much algae.

Unless you make your own up, I don't imagine you will find what you are looking for. I have also noted how algae is not the principle ingredient in algae wafers.

My own opinion, is that the majority of "algae-eating" fish that we encounter graze algae and aufwuchs which makes the vast majority of prepared foods OK for use as part of a balanced diet. If you want to try only algae, then you could try securing some Nori sheets around a stone and see how your fish take to it. It does disintegrate rather quickly though. I read recently that another option is to make up your own paste using agar powder instead of gelatin; I believe that agar does not dissolve in warm water as readily as gelatin does. Blend spinach, peas and some shrimp with the agar and coat some stones with the paste, freeze it in bags and use as needed. You could add some spirulina powder to the mix to give it a little something extra.

www.AlmostNaturalTropicalFishFood.com

...makes some really good foods. E-mail them for the actual ingredients in their algae wafers. I have some, but am using up some older ones before I open the new package. Labeling is not very clear about which ingredients predominate. The basic mix in all his foods is whole fish, shellfish and algae and vegetables. The % varies, though. Some foods have different ingredients like earthworms.

Have a look at HBH super soft spirulina. There isn't a precise breakdown on the bottle but the first thing on the list is spirulina... followed by fish meal-wheat flour-carrot powder-pea powder-garlic powder and lots of vitamins & minerals. My fish really like them! I'm about out and haven't been able to find them recently. Petsmart used to carry them but stopped?

I've been lloking at this. Think I'll try some.
http://www.kensfish.com/kensnocarbcolorpellets.html

For some reason I find the Aquatic nature Droppys a sympathetic food. Fish eat it. Don't know what's in it.

I bought some of Ken's premium veggie sticks with calcium but haven't opened them yet http://www.kensfish.com/kenssticks.html He also has a non-calcium version on the same page

Hi Jim,
I have heard that Spirulina acts as a laxitive if above 5% so that is why it is only added at levels below this. If you go to a Asian/Japanese grocery store you can buy dried Kelp which my Bristlenose love. It should be soaked in tank water for an hour to soften it and remove excess salt.
Nori is OK but as mentioned earlier breaks up and floats round the tank if not eaten.
Cheers Graeme.

That would explain why spirulina is not the top ingredient on any fish food I have seen. I have tried seaweed before and it can be messy.
I will continue to look around based on the input I have gotten.
Thanks everyone!!

I have been buying food from Ken's Fish for a long time. All my fish, including the loaches, love it. He has a lot to choose from too, which is also good.

Hi all.
I'm eating an alga food every day.
Kombu(dried Kelp) and the Nori are very popular alga cooking ingredients in Japan.
Therefore many people feed shrimp and Loricariidae and Otocinclus kombu.

Otocinclus is eating kombu.
Here is image search results.

The leaf of the kombu is thick greatly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombu

The Nori is threadiness and lightly filmy seaweed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nori

I tried the dried "algae" sheets (which my kids got as a snack and they loved it) but they all are salty.
I currently feed kelp pellets from OmegaSea Ltd.
(for Soell).

http://www.omegasea.net

http://www.soell-organix.de/organix-sup ... llets.html

The kelp is harvested in Alaska it says. I did kelp flakes before, but they are not that popular amongst my loaches (even though there is complete fish in there, the pellets go better than the flakes. Looks like my loaches act towards veggies, like kids towards spinach.
The store discontinues them anyway, so I would not know where to get them now.
The loaches love the pleco-tabs from Tetra (some of their food declares sugar as an ingridient, not sure about those tabs though). I need to break them into little pieces, which provides a nice feeling, as the feedind takes longer and thus gets more personal. I am not sure wether they contain wood fibre too, but the good thing is they are some of the few, that don't cloud the water.

... just found those, anybody tried them?

http://www.omegasea.net/product8.html

Omega One is the way those foods (and clip) are sold in the USA. They are very good quality foods, but the ingredients look all the same. I can go to the LFS and read the labels for things like
Goldfish Flakes
Cichlids Flakes and Pellets
Fresh Water Flakes
...and there does not seem to be any difference in the ingredients.

No matter which brand you want, read the actual ingredients. I avoid fish meal and grains in the fish foods I buy, and feed a lot of home made foods.
Powdered Spirulina is available here in a health food store, so I add a generous scoop to every batch. Makes the food come out green, no matter what the other ingredients are.

My fish eat but most are not crazy about Omega1 algae wafers.