Let's Talk About Fish Food

[Betty]

Well, first of all I will say that I like one of the foods -- a spirulina flake that I ordered before I got my tropheus since that's what they were eating before I got them and I wanted to wean them gradually to NLS. I had no problem with that first order.

The second time I tried a couple other pellet foods for my plecos and I needed some breeding caves for my calvus and plecos. It took two weeks for my order to arrive and three of the five caves I ordered weren't in the box and there was no explanation why!! One of those caves that I did get was cracked.

It took me several attempts over about a one month period to get the problems resolved.

I wasn't really happy with the food either. A lot of it was crushed and unusable.

Details and some photos are at this link -- you'll recognize my avatar, different username. . . . www.riftlakecichlids.com/kensfish

I have read lots of positive reviews of his food and service, so I don't know why I had such a problem. I just know that I won't try again. I felt it was bad business to send an incomplete order with no contact to tell me why or even if the rest of the order was ever going to be sent and no mention of refunding for the missing items.

PS. I still have some of that food pictured if anyone wants some. My fish won't eat it. :tongue:

 

[Ratlova30]

oh geeze that is pretty horrible. The entire issue should have been able to be resolved in a day, two tops. The fractured cave should have replaced or refunded regardless if a pic was provided. Sorry for you ruff luck and hopefully he steps up and does the right thing. I could prob use that food for snaillo but not sure when I'll be down south.

 

[DMD123]

The bulk food in bags getting damaged does not surprise me. But it does show that it is roughly handled and possibly improperly packaged when shipped. All that powdered wasted food is basically worthless unless you are feeding some small fry with it.

The damaged product and not shipping everything with no communication is bad. Then all the follow ups you had to do because of bad communication on their part also bad. I would have been tempted to contact my credit card company and had them reverse the charges because the company was not willing to fix the problem. Funny I have use that line when having to communicate with businesses that have been difficult, seems to do the trick.

Wow, sorry to hear about the bad service and overall experience with Ken's.

 

[Betty]

Yeah, it was surprising to me because he has a pretty good reputation. I read a few reviews on Cichlid-Forum that sounded like I could have written them, but most of them give him high marks.

Oh well, there are plenty of other places to get what I need.

Ratlova, I pass through Spanaway all the time -- you can have that food whenever.

 

[TerenceH]

Interesting...

Does anyone know about quality of his food? I have read good and bad experiences.

 

[DMD123]

So tempting because the prices on the bulk bagged stuff is cheap.

 

[TerenceH]

I'd be down to get some of his stuff to sample.

 

[DMD123]

At $150 they do free shipping. It would save you at least $25 in shipping fees to go this way.

I looked at what they stock and could see spending around $40 in supplies with $10 for shipping, but could not come up with $150 on my own. A group buy in my area might be possible because there are quite a few in the area.

 

[Madness]

Well I will order with, Im looking at $150 worth.

 

[DMD123]

I just bought food and water conditioner so I am in no rush. But let me know when you are ready, I can stock up on a few things.

 

[TerenceH]

Yea if I am going to have to drive down there it makes it a bit difficult for me. However I do not burn through food like you guys do I am sure.

Food for me lasts forever.

 

[DMD123]

ig: ig: ig: Our fish are not pigs! ig: ig: ig:

Well maybe a little. :lmfao:

 

[Adonijah]

I could do with some of those freeze dried night crawlers and krill! I'm down

 

[DMD123]

I have never used freeze dried worms like that before. Do you soak them first or just toss them in the tank? That is a lot of worms for a good price compared to live.

 

[TerenceH]

LIVE WORMS is the way to go.

 

[DMD123]

I use the live worms, except during the winter the supplies almost dwindle down to nothing. I would get them from Fred Meyer once a week when I went grocery shopping but they had stopped selling during the winter. I would then have to head up to Walmart and deal with a limited , old, dying batch of worms. So the freeze dried are just an option I would consider.

 

[Adonijah]

I use the live worms, except during the winter the supplies almost dwindle down to nothing. I would get them from Fred Meyer once a week when I went grocery shopping but they had stopped selling during the winter. I would then have to head up to Walmart and deal with a limited , old, dying batch of worms. So the freeze dried are just an option I would consider.

APFP has nightcrawlers my the dozen for ~2.50. I've found in my experiences nightcrawlers and freeze dried krill really help a fish put on the bulk. To answer your question I would just toss them in. The freeze dried krill I've had before has poked me to the point of bleeding but the fish don't seem to mind at all, so I think these worms will be just fine. I'm trying to get away from hikari pellet food which I have a bunch to burn through.. Thanks to DMD I've actually looked at the back of an omega one bottle and was astounded all the ingredients are actual fish, lol. so now I've got my hikari food mixed with a couple omega one (Shrimp pellets/marine sinking small pellets).

Always looking to diversify the food

 

[DMD123]

I dont Hikari is a bad product but they got a lot of bad feedback about the use of MSG in their foods. The Omega One goes on sale so often at Petsmart that it is really reasonably priced and has good ingredients, thats why I use it. My experimentation with the Xtreme I have on order will be interesting. Maybe I will convert to it, AquaMojo's fish look phenomenal being fed on that stuff.

 

[Adonijah]

Does he exclusivly use that food? This was probably answered somewhere but life is busy.. yaddad addidah boi!

 

[DMD123]

I have no real answer to that one. The scale of fish raising he does, is probably one that you wouldnt spend a lot on "treats" like some of do.

http://www.xtremeaquaticfoods.com/

If you go to Xtreme it has his picture and you can link to his site, but on his site it does not link to Xtreme under his links. On his Facebook page he has a link for Xtreme.