# New Life Spectrum - Small Fish Formula Food



## Owen Stubbs (Mar 20, 2007)

Anyone using this to feed fish in a shrimp tank? I'm trying to find decent food for my green fire tetras, and this food was recommended, so I picked some up. Should be adding RCS in the next day or so to this tank, but I just happened to notice that the ingredients in this food include "copper sulfate". Will this be a problem for shrimp?

I also have TetraColor tropical flakes - no mention of copper.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

Anything copper-based will be bad for invertebrates in general. Not sure wheter you should feed them that or not.


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

Copper in most foods is almost nothing and you would probably have to dump the whole container in the tank and then it would die of other reasons before it would die of copper. Also most foods are not "copper-based" just that they have almost none amounts added.

I feed everything in my house NewLifeSpectrum and my shrimp love the stuff!!!! Much more then a fat kid loves cake!!! 

I feed mine NLS H20 wafers and flakes since that's also what I feed my zebra plecos and the shrimp fight over it all the time. The H20 formula is almost the same as what you have but it doesn't foul as fast. I have fed all my shrimp NLS which are CRS,RCS,Tiger,Sp.Blue, Amano and they all love it! also fed different formulas of NLS which is.....cichlid formula,growth,thera+a, H20 flakes and H20 wafers.


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## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

http://fins.actwin.com/aquatic-plants/month.200304/msg00136.html

Guess I was wrong.


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## Owen Stubbs (Mar 20, 2007)

The food itself is still a bit confusing to the tetras - they seem to react instantly to flake food, but are not quite sure what to do with these tiny particles of food. I suppose they would adapt if it becomes the only food source. Just heard, and continue to hear, so many positives about this New Life Spectrum stuff, and am willing to make the switch provided it is not harmful to shrimp.


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

Owen Stubbs said:


> The food itself is still a bit confusing to the tetras - they seem to react instantly to flake food, but are not quite sure what to do with these tiny particles of food. I suppose they would adapt if it becomes the only food source. Just heard, and continue to hear, so many positives about this New Life Spectrum stuff, and am willing to make the switch provided it is not harmful to shrimp.


The fish were probably accustomed to flake food at the LFS. Give it time, and they will recognize the pellets as food, not poop


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

also keep in mind that the pellets pack more punch for their size so feed a lot less then you would in flakes.


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## Owen Stubbs (Mar 20, 2007)

The jury is still out on this NLS small fish food. My tetras just sort of look at this stuff passing by on its way to the bottom - like standing in a snow fall! Maybe they just need more time to adjust from flakes, but this stuff sinks so fast, at the moment, I would say 95% of it ends up in the substrate - whether they find it there later, who knows. Substrate is primarily Flourite - so I really cannot see it after it falls.


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

Don't feed them for a day or two and slowly introduce it little by little...they will not starve themselves if they are healthy.


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## Zebrapl3co (Mar 29, 2005)

Owen Stubbs said:


> ... I suppose they would adapt if it becomes the only food source. ....


Lol, that's kind of funny. I suppose if you feed them your own droppings, they would adapt if it becomes the only food source too.
Seriously though, NLS pellets aren't ideal for tetra type fishes.


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## eklikewhoa (Aug 29, 2006)

Zebrapl3co said:


> Lol, that's kind of funny. I suppose if you feed them your own droppings, they would adapt if it becomes the only food source too.
> Seriously though, NLS pellets aren't ideal for tetra type fishes.


Someone's poop is far from food..... but again I guess some are just too childish to see the difference.

Food is food and creatures of habit need to be persuaded just like if a human didn't like eating their veggies...if there was only veggies to eat they would eat it. The NLS *small* fish pellets is fine for most tetra type fish.. though I wouldn't feed it to any Microrasboras or anything. My Celestial Pearl Danios eat it with no problems... I have fry that are no more then a 1/4" that will pick at the pellets till it's all gone.


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## AaronT (Apr 11, 2004)

I personally like to use the Tetra Tropical Crisps. They have color enhancers and they sink. My cherry reds are solid red using this stuff.


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## mabviper (Mar 31, 2007)

I made a mistake of buying the 1mm pellets from NLS. My neon tetras tries to eat it but their mouths are just too small for it. I ended up crushing several pellets just to feed them.


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

Zebrapl3co said:


> Lol, that's kind of funny. I suppose if you feed them your own droppings, they would adapt if it becomes the only food source too.
> Seriously though, NLS pellets aren't ideal for tetra type fishes.


Do you have any experience with NLS pellets? Can you tell me why the 0.35mm small fish formula pellets are not ideal for tetras? I have tried the whole Tetra line of food, and my fish are significantly more active, less prone to bloat, and colorful with NLS.


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## rain- (Mar 29, 2004)

NLS is just about the only commercial fish food my Crystal Reds accept (they like Wardley's Shrimp Pellets too, but not as much as they like NLS). Sometimes I use only NLS if I don't have any shrimpy biscuits (the cobbler's children have no shoes...), but usually I use NLS just as an addition. But it doesn't have any negative effect on my shrimp, I just prefer feeding them food that I've made myself.

NLS seems to be one of the best commercial foods right now.


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## Mauser101 (Dec 16, 2003)

eklikewhoa said:


> Someone's poop is far from food..... but again I guess some are just too childish to see the difference.


Tell that to the Inuit, who'd been successfully feeding seal blubber covered human feces to their dogs for hundreds of years before civilization introduced them to purina.

EDIT: Crud. I just pulled a necro-thread.


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## Chrona (Feb 25, 2007)

Mauser101 said:


> Tell that to the Inuit, who'd been successfully feeding seal blubber covered human feces to their dogs for hundreds of years before civilization introduced them to purina.
> 
> EDIT: Crud. I just pulled a necro-thread.


Try feeding that to your shrimp and let us know how it goes.


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