# Feeding NLS Pellets



## BitterCowgal (Sep 5, 2006)

I posted on the New Life Spectrum Forum a series of questions regarding feeding my Piranhas (and my other fish) and have some news I thought I'd relay onto this board.

Pablo, the creater/founder of NLS, answered my questions. Btw...what other fish food company can you think of that you can converse with the actual creator? I sure can't think of any...hence yet another of my turn on's about NLS. Anyhow..on to what I asked and what he said.

Below is the question I asked on the NLS Forum (aka my story):
On August 19, 2006 I purchased three half inch Red Belly Piranhas. When I got them they were rather pale in coloring with clear anal fins and completely void of the small black spots they normally have along their sides. I wish I'd have got a picture of them a day after arrival. I began feeding them NLS Community Formula. They took to it immediately with no hesitation at all. They even search the gravel for the few pellets that make it all the way to the bottom. These three had been on a diet of Live feeder guppies at the pet store so I was utterly suprised at the extremely quick transition to pellets. These three are now 1" in length, have many nice dark black spots along their sides, have bright (almost neon-ish) red anal fins and are beginning to get a hint of orange-red near their pectorals. I haven't even had them a full month yet. How's that for results? My question...is the Community Formula adequate for them for now? All of the Piranha fanciers I've talked to have told me that while my trio are taking pellets right now, they'll probably stop once they're older as they'll 'want' meaty foods instead. I think this is nonsence but...thought I'd ask your opinion. So...should I be supplementing my trio with 'meaty' foods such as the Krill, Tilapia and such? I've tried my babies with Tilapia once but they weren't all that interested in it. They picked at it a bit but held out for their NLS. I was also told I could take the NLS pellets, the 'meaty' foods, along with a few veggies and blend them all together and place them with gelatin to form a sort of DIY food cube. This seems like more work than is required. Again....thats why I'm asking you. Is this necessary or am I good to go with feeding NLS exclusively?

His answer...
Pablo stated that he knows of Piranha breeders whom feed NLS exclusively to their fish. Exclusively meaning that that they do not feed any other foods at all, just the pellets. He also said that the NLS Community Formula is just fine for Piranhas on a long term basis. This means they'll also be just fine to increase to the NLS Large Fish and NLS Jumbo Fish as they grow. He said that the advice I mentioned in my question was nonsense (hope that doesn't offend anyone as I'm sure that wasn't his intention). Essentially what he said was that if the fish will eat NLS they will thrive... period, everything the fish need is in the jar. He also stated in a different thread on that forum that some fish need to be trained on to pellets. Simply don't feed them for a day or two so they're hungry then offer them only the pellets. They'll catch on quick. Btw...as I stated...my Piranhas were not familiar with pellets prior to me getting them and yet they readily took to NLS. As Pablo says.. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating" and the vitality I see in my fish (all my fish...not just the Piranhas) is all the proof I need.

Someone else on the NLS forum said that there are many myths & misconceptions about pellet food, and fish nutrition in general, and unfortunately these myths seem to get repeated over & over again by many armchair experts.

Some links to read over...
http://www.newlife.ipbhost.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13
http://www.newlife.ipbhost.com/forums/inde...p?showtopic=159
http://www.newlife.ipbhost.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49
http://www.cichlid-food-canada.com/article.html

Not to mention...
NLS is the only company to offer the below guarantee...
Copy/pasted the guarantee:
(A) In 10 days you will "notice" better health & color. Health and colors will max. out in 60 days.
In order to honor the guarantee, you must feed Spectrum "exclusively". If you dillute with inferior food, you will also dilute the results. We can not guarantee other brands of food period.
We will refund your money if our products did not yield results.

I'm not trying to convert folks over to feeding NLS exclusively but ....knowledge is power.

So...to sum things up...after my existing supply of Tilapia Fillet and Krill are depleted, I will no longer be buying anymore. Instead I'll be feeding NLS pellets exclusively just as I have been. I only offered the Tilapia once and haven't offered it again since they didn't eat it. I think my Oscars will end up finishing it up...lol. I'll post some pictures of my fish tommorrow.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Id have to aggree. I also feed NLS to my fish. No P's but reguardless they have exploded with vibrance in color. they look great. I have a FH that is already getting emense pearls all over his body and fins. his throat is rich reddish purple. And he is a voracious eater. I bought a can of the small stuff and they ahve outgrown the micro pellets. But I did use half the can to make gel cubes. damn such a mess. and in reality it offers no more nutrition them the straght up NLS. NLS has one of the best ingredient sets I've read on any of the foods on the market. and as far as pellets go I'm just not interested in feeding my fish any other then the NLS. because its just not up to par.
And I aggree thats awesome that you can speak to teh actual creators of this great food. and I really dig the packages they come in. keeps everything nice and fresh. I wish NLS was around 10 years ago when the best stuff for large cichlids was tetra max.


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

Although pellets are extremely good for your piranha a varied diet is always better if your piranha continue to eat pellets eagerly then i wouldnt change that but to feed them exclusively on pellets may not be the best idea a varied diet can do wonders i would still feed talipia and maybe shrimp or blood worms as a switch off food in compliment to the pellets. but do as you please and a strick diet of only pellets is WAY better than some people who have a strict diet of only feeders so


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

JustJoshinYa said:


> Although pellets are extremely good for your piranha a varied diet is always better if your piranha continue to eat pellets eagerly then i wouldnt change that but to feed them exclusively on pellets may not be the best idea a varied diet can do wonders i would still feed talipia and maybe shrimp or blood worms as a switch off food in compliment to the pellets. but do as you please and a strick diet of only pellets is WAY better than some people who have a strict diet of only feeders so


Pellets by nature and composition are a varried diet. especially the NLS they contain just about everything you could possibly feed the fish seperatly.


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## BitterCowgal (Sep 5, 2006)

JustJoshinYa said:


> *Although pellets are extremely good for your piranha a varied diet is always better* if your piranha continue to eat pellets eagerly then i wouldnt change that but to feed them exclusively on pellets may not be the best idea a varied diet can do wonders i would still feed talipia and maybe shrimp or blood worms as a switch off food in compliment to the pellets. but do as you please and a strick diet of only pellets is WAY better than some people who have a strict diet of only feeders so


Thats one of the biggest misconceptions. A varied diet is not necessary if the food your feeding is aleady balanced. It's also not always the best option for the diet. NLS is already a balanced food with a lot of variety in the ingredients so there is no reason to feed a variety of foods with it. That'd just be wasting money and from dietary research I've done can actually cause vitamin deficencies if you O.D on certain vitamins. Several of the links I posted address this misconception in full detail.









I'm a firm supporter of the company and definantly back Pablo's product 110%.

Black Sunshine,

you beat me to it


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## oryschakgp (Nov 5, 2005)

Another vote for NLS. It's all I feed my mbuna cichlids and they look vibrant and are very healthy.


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## Apott05 (Jul 19, 2005)

iv fed my RBP nls. I use the jumbo fish formula as the other pellets are to small for them.


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## BitterCowgal (Sep 5, 2006)

Wow... Glad to see that I'm not the only NLS supporter.







I didn't manage to get any pictures for today as the battery went dead on my camera. I'll be busy tommorrow but I'll post some on Monday definantly.

I decided that I will go ahead and keep some Frozen Krill around as an occasional treat. It won't be fed on a regular basis though...just once in a while. Probably only once or twice a month.


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## LouDiB (May 22, 2006)

I feed my P's exclusivly on NLS or Hikari Gold Large Pellets

The problem is: the waste is signifigantly more than a feeding of tilapia.

They poop EVERYWHERE!!!

I like it because it is balanced, cheap, and easy.

Because of that, I don't mind doing an extra gravel vac


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## JustJoshinYa (Mar 25, 2006)

I wish my p's would except pellets but they dont... my next p i will train to eat pellets though i dont think it will be exclusive, but it seems to be very beneficial.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

my only problem with the NLS is the size of the pellets that are avalible at the only fish store that carries it in this area. even the jumbo is still small. 
When I mentioned Tetra Max before I really ment the Jumbo min. those sticks are like 1" long. Thats what I'm looking for when I'm talking about large fish food. NLS just dosen't have anything like that at this moment. I wish they would cause I'm already on the biggest pellets they sell and my cichlids are still small. I'll be feeding them a half can at a time of these little things when they get full grown.


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## BitterCowgal (Sep 5, 2006)

If you go to NLS's forum (see the links in my original post), Pablo will probably be able to assist you in training your P's onto pellets...even ones who seem to refuse it right now. It can be done.

------------------------------
Are you feeding the 7mm Extra Large Fish formula? NLS comes in .35mm , 1mm, 3mm, 4mm and 7mm pellets. Pablo uses his NLS pellets on his own Cichlids so I doubt there isn't a size adequate for feeding the big boys.







May be a good idea to go to the forum and ask about larger sizes. You can get the larger sizes from a mail order company. He could probably give you names to local dealers that could get the really big stuff though.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

I got the biggest stuff that was readly avalible. Well thats not true I got the cichlasoma pellets. but they were the sme size as the biggest stuff there. Maybe they didn't have th 7mm pellets. these are about 3mm. 7 might work. the arrowanna isn't very interested in them.


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## BitterCowgal (Sep 5, 2006)

I'll be trying to get pictures of my little monsters later on today.  I finally got them named as well. 
Their names are: Boss, Bully and Gremlin.







They've really grown a lot on their pellet exclusive diet and are starting to color up.







It's so adorable to watch them circle at the surface begging for their pellets...lol. They come rushing to the front of the tank and look up everytime they see me by the tank. Too cute.







Yes I even have the light on and no it's not dimmed.


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## rocker (Aug 12, 2005)

cant wait for pics

great to hear their eating pellets


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## BitterCowgal (Sep 5, 2006)

Pictures have been uploaded and posted to the forum...
See this thread-> http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=133687


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## BitterCowgal (Sep 5, 2006)

More pictures coming up. I went on a brief 4 day vacation, came home and my trio has grown at least a 1/2 inch. That makes Boss and Bully about 2.5" ..possibly 3" and Gremlin 2".

...and WOW on the color coming in on them.


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

No matter how nutrient-rich and balanced pellets are (I'm in no way questioning that!), a pellet-only diet cannot be compared to a diverse diet that besides pellets also contains things like shrimp, mussel, fish fillet, frozen fish, earth worms, crickets, meal worms and/or other fresh food items. Whether pellets contain just about every nutrient imaginable, it's not fresh: and certain vitamins/trace elements/nutrients can only be offered through fresh food.

Personally, I use pellets (not NLS however - not available where I live: I usually get Hikari) as a part of my piranha's diet, and also feed them some of the items mentioned before (and they are extremely colorful for mature Redbellies). I'd never keep them on a strictly pellet-only diet.
I agree with the remark that pellet food is much more messy than fresh foods, and results in extra cleaning sessions.


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