My fish love it and so do many other inhabitants
Written: Dec 29 '06 (Updated Dec 29 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fish and other inhabitants love them. Lasts a long time.
Cons: Ingredient list could be better, no Beta glucan.
The Bottom Line: I can't see any reason to not use this food, great food for many reef tank inhabitants.
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| colstudent69's Full Review: Hikari Tropical Marine Food |
I am constantly on the search for new food to put into my saltwater aquarium to vary the diet of my fish and other aquarium inhabitants. I recently went to MACNA (Marine Aquarium Conference of North America) and was able to get a free sample of this product directly from the Hikari vendor.
I did look at the full size package at the conference and noted it came in two different sizes. I just did an online search and could not find both sizes, the only size I could find for sale was 1.76 oz sold for around $5-7 at the time of this review. I also took the product information from my search (everything in italics is directly quoted from the manufacturer):
Manufacturer claims:
Here is a little verbage from the back of the bag:
Marine-S is a daily diet for all small marine fishes. Manufactured using essential fatty acids and high quality proteins, Marine-S helps improve immunity to disease brought about by stress associated with life in an enclosed marine environment, allowing them to live a longer, healthier life.
Marine-S becomes sponge-like rapidly yet won't dissolve. It sinks slowly allowing fish at all levels of the aquarium ready access to its nutrition.
Marine-S will not cloud the water.
Listed Ingredients:
White fish meal, shrimp meal, sea urchin meal, wheat flour, chitin chitosan, brewer's dried yeast, fish oil, protease, dried sea weed meal, spirulina, methionine, lysine, DHA, EPA, vitamin A, vitamin D3, vitamin E, vitamin K3, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, vitamin B12, biotin, inositol, choline chloride, l-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (stabilized vitamin C), calcium iodate, manganese sulfate, magnesium carbonate.
Guaranteed Analysis:
Crude protein (min.) 48%
crude fat (min.) 8%
crude fiber (max.) 2%
moisture (max.) 10%
ash (max.) 13%
My comments on the product contents:
I am not a nutrition expert for fish, so my comments here are limited. The general rule that I have found when reading up on saltwater fish nutrition is that you want to have a high protein content (especially DHA & EPA), high fat content and low moisture and ash content.
This product is almost 50% protein which is a good start, but only 8% fat. The product is 23% ash and moisture which may seem bad, but is actually fairly low compared to some other lower quality fish foods. It would be helpful if the manufacturer listed the percent DHA and EPA as those are the most important components of protein for saltwater fish.
The product does contain a lot of vitamins in the ingredient list, which is a good thing. The role of vitamins in saltwater fish is poorly understood and many people simply say (I'm paraphrasing here): If it is good for humans, it must be good for fish. The truth is that little is known and we just have to hope that is true. One way to improve the product would be to list the amounts of each vitamin in the food. One thing that is missing from the list that I would like to see is Beta glucan. Beta glucan has been shown to strengthen immune system responses in people and there is anecdotal evidence it improves the immune system response in fish as well.
While I'm a little critical above, overall it appears to be a good nutritional food with some vitamins to improve the diet of the animals eating it. But will the animals eat it?
My Experience:
I originally got this food for my two clownfish (Ding and Dong) and they readily consume this food when it is placed in the tank. In fact they are quite aggressive with each other trying to get the last few pellets. So it passes the Ding and Dong test!
How to feed it to the tank:
The pellets are very small and are only meant for small fish, but Hikari also has a larger pellet (Marine A) for large fish, so this is not a drawback. They are slowly sinking pellets and if placed in the tank properly then they do sink. However if you just toss or pour the food on the water surface it takes a while for them to break free of the surface, so I recommend holding the pellets between your fingers and holding them in the water for around 5 seconds before you release them. They will then slowly sink to the bottom of the tank, giving the fish plenty of time to eat them before they hit bottom. They are very light pellets easily blown around the tank, so I recommend turning off any powerful pumps during feeding.
It comes in a resealable pouch and just be careful when feeding the tank. Do not attempt to pour in the food, use the technique I described above as it could very easily pour into the tank too fast and overfeeding is never good.
An added bonus: Everything else likes to eat it to!:
I keep a full reef tank and was very happy to discover that many other tank inhabitants will greedily scoop up this food when it gets away from the clownfish. A short list of things that I've noticed ingesting the pellets:
Candy cane corals, brain corals, ricordia mushrooms, hairy mushrooms, Nassarius snails, mini-brittle stars, amphipods, mysid shrimp, crabs, bristleworms and hair worms.
This is pretty impressive for me as many of the things in that list completely ignore the flake food I feed my tank and many other foods.
It is pretty amusing to see the amphipods and mysid shrimp (that are only about 3x the size of the tiny pellets) fight over the pellets when they hit the bottom of the tank.
Value?
Some people might think that 1.76 oz for around $5-7 is a little steep. However, I add a pinch of this food one to two times a day and have been doing that for 3 months and I still have PLENTY left from the sample I received. A little bit of this stuff goes a long way and I think it is a good deal, if not a downright bargain.
Any Downsides?
I do see that the product does contain phosphate (as part of the stabilized vitamin C) and phosphate is not a desired nutrient in large quantities for saltwater tanks. But since the percent phosphate is not known and the ingredient is far down on the list of ingredients, it is probably a small amount. I have noticed no increase in my tank phosphate levels since using this product almost daily for the last 3 months.
Summary:
Other than that minor potential downside, I would say this is a solid product that would be a nice addition to any saltwater tank dinner menu. My fish enjoy them and many other tank inhabitants fight over them when they completely ignore other food. The ingredients could be listed better and the addition of Beta glucan would be great, but I'm very happy with the product in its current form.
My Other Aquarium Related Reviews:
Testing Equipment:
Salifert pH test kit (3 stars)
Salifert KH/Alkalinity Test Kit (5 stars)
Salifert Calcium Test Kit (5 stars)
Salifert Magnesium Test Kit (5 stars)
Salifert Phosphate Test Kit (4 stars)
Salifert Iodine Test Kit (4 stars)
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals FasTesT pH Test Kit (4 stars)
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals FasTesT Ammonia-Nitrogen Test Kit (5 stars)
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals FasTesT Nitrite-Nitrogen Test Kit (4 stars)
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals FasTesT Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate and pH Test Kit (4 stars) also called the Multi-Master Test Kit now.
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals FasTesT Nitrate-Nitrogen Test Kit (4 stars)
Aquarium Systems SeaTesT Hydrometer (2 stars avoid)
Additives:
Kent Marine Essential Elements (3 stars avoid for beginners)
Pumps:
Hagen AquaClear Power Head 201 (5 stars)
MAG-DRIVE PUMPS (5 stars)
Rena Air Aquarium Air Pumps (5 stars)
Heaters:
Hagen Tronic Submersible Electronic Heater (4 stars)
Skimmers:
CPR Aquatic Cyclone Bak-Pak 2R (4 stars)
Aquarium Systems SeaClone Protein Skimmer SCPS-100 (1 star AVOID AT ALL COSTS)
Aquarium Supply Stores:
Marine Depot Aquarium Supplies (4 stars)
Drs. Foster & Smith Online Store (4 stars)
Aquariums:
All-Glass Standard Size Aquariums (5 stars)
All-Glass Large Size Aquariums (3 stars)
My Aquarium Advice:
The top 10 things you NEED to start a saltwater aquarium (5 stars of course!)
Going saltwater vs freshwater and common pitfalls to avoid
Misc. Equipment:
Coralife Power Center for day/night lights and wavemaker functions(4 stars)
Intermatic Random Pattern Security Timer TN711C (4 stars)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
colstudent69
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Member: Brian
Location: Houston, TX
Reviews written: 127
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Instructional Technology Educator
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