Fish Nutrition

[Carlrs]

FROM:

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Quality_Fish_Food.html

ENERGY; Limiting of Fish Food Energy Levels:

What is also noteworthy is that fish use sugar and carbs/starch found in any fish food first since they can store very little if any.
In a study conducted by fish food guru Clay Neighbors (utilizing a University of Florida study as his foundation), founder of Paradigm Fish Foods & now patent pending AAP Custom Fish Foods found that fish stopped breeding after being fed a trial diets of less than 226 points (energy point system) of carbs and fats. This means that the females didn't have enough reserve energy to produce eggs.
Clay raised the energy a little and the fish started breeding again.
They established that the optimum combined carbs and fat is about 280 points for the average warm water fish (in particular cichlids), anymore and the fish can suffer from fatty liver and other issues and much less and the fish are not receiving the proper energy requirements.
It is noteworthy that these same studies showed that cool water species, in particular trout, did require higher energy levels, which was to be expected.

A University of Florida study has shown ceroidosis of the organs and Malawi Bloat are directly related to energy levels of food being too high.
Another point as to the importance of optimized energy levels are free radicals/oxidative stress.
Free radicals are highly unstable molecules that are naturally formed when the fish converts food into energy. Free radicals can cause "oxidative stress," a process that can trigger cell damage, therefore limiting these free radicals by an optimized energy level will benefit your fish long term.

My own observations over decades of professional fish keeping with 1000s of clients aquariums concur with this research and also includes Dropsy and as well as issues of bloat in goldfish.
Susceptibility to other infections such as my observations with Columnaris are also confirmed in this research.

This is why the optimization of energy levels in a fish food is so important as research and professional observations point out!!

HOWEVER, My own extensive studies, in particular those I conducted using the Bahooka Restaurant's 110 aquariums showed that no one food should be used and that supplementation is always a good idea as there is most definitely a time & place for higher energy levels
Examples of times to temporarily increase energy levels include; breeding, healing after injury/sickness, and when new fish are added to an aquarium.
A good compliment for this reason includes many frozen prepared fish foods as well as fish foods that mimic frozen/fresh fish foods and stimulate nature feeding behaviors such as AAP/Gamma NutraShots.

As well, while I stand by the energy levels in this research, my own personal research indicates hitting this "perfect" score (280) then adding 5-10% would add any margin needed for times when energy levels might need to be quickly increased will the while not adding to fatty liver and oxidative stress more than needed.

Energy Point System
Starch, Sugar, & Proteins 1%:4 points (multiply percentage by 4)
Fats (Much more efficient energy) 1%:9 points (multiply percentage by 9).
Then add both numbers to get your fish food's energy points.

Please note many fish foods fail to provide starch/carbohydrates/sugar in their analysis, so you have deduce the carbs/sugars by adding all known percentages then subtracting to get the car/sugar likely percentage. If Ash is also not listed, I would add an average of 9% when making this deduction.
You can then add these numbers to get the points of the fish food you are feeding (this applies to dried fish foods).

The SUMMARY section of this article provides another example on how to read a fish food label using a popular discount store brand fish food so as to get these numbers. You will be astonished as to how many popular fish food brands, even those considered among the best, get poor grades as per optimum energy levels.

As an example, using a good food, but still too high in energy levels as proven in University level studies, is Hikari Goldfish Gold which gets most of its energy from starches (which is not the best way as shown), but more importantly their energy levels are higher than what are considered best. This said, I have used Hikari Goldfish Gold in extensive fish food studies (in particular using the 110 aquariums at the Bahooka Restaurant), with better results than many fish foods, but part of this reason is I used it on conjunction with other fish foods such as FD or Frozen Brine Shrimp and Spirulina 20.
So I am not saying to throw away these foods based on energy levels alone, just to only consider them a part or supplement to your fish' diet.

Video Resource:

Overfeeding Fish | How Often Do You Feed Fish | Fish Food