How to Read a Fish Food Label & Energy (Fat, Starch and Sugar)

 

By Clayn; Co-Founder of Paradigm Fish Foods

Go get a container of the fish food that you are currently using. Start adding up the protein, fat, fiber, minerals or ash and moisture percentages. Does it add up to 100 percent? Why not? Lets forget all of the Min./Max hocus pocus and use their numbers since those are the numbers on the report that they get when they send the food to be tested. It appears starch is missing. Follow the example below.

"XYZ Fish Food"
35% Protein
5% Fat
8% Fiber
8% Ash or Minerals
9% Moisture
65% Total

This leaves roughly 35% of the food consisting of starch and sugar. Whats wrong with that?

 Using this Nutrition for juvenile African cichlids study I extrapolated what I believed to be the proper level energy level to maintain healthy fish. The number that I extrapolated was 21-22. I made batches of test food and after testing for three months the fish stopped breeding. That told me that the females didn't have enough energy aka fat stored in their liver to produce eggs. I adjusted the energy maximum to 23 and sent more food out for testing. After about six weeks the fish were breeding again.



How to calculate "Energy"

Starch and sugar have a 1:1 multiplier meaning 1% of sugar or starch equals 1 point of energy.

Fat has 1:2.25 multiplier so 1% fat equals 2.5 points of energy.

Back to our example:

35% starch and sugar equals 35 points of energy.
5% fat multiplied by 2.25 equals 11.2 points of energy
So 35 points of energy from starch and sugar plus 11.2 points of energy from fat equals 46.2 points of energy. This is almost double the amount of energy that our studies have shown to be adequate.

Do you find yourself wanting to throw that container of fish food in the trash can? If not I am sorry that you wasted your time reading this article.

OTHER ARTICLES BY THE AUTHOR

*Whats wrong with making Dough in Fish Food?
*Cyanobacteria (Spirulina) and Algae - Pond Grown vs. Naturally Grown
*Probiotics, Prebiotics, Soluble Fiber and Resistant Starch
*Fish Nutrition 101


FURTHER SUGGESTED RESOURCES:


Aquarium Fish Nutrition


Freshwater Aquarium Care; Basics to Advanced


Paradigm Fish Foods
• Carnivore, • Omnivore, • Herbivore, • Grow, • Graze (compare to sinking algae wafers)


Aquarium Chemistry


Wonder Shells, Regular & Medicated
Unique Version sold ONLY at American Aquarium Products.
Excellent for disease prevention!!!