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Product type: Gel food for saltwater
fish Manufacturer: Tetra; sold under the
Instant Ocean brand in the US Price: 24-hour Algae and Marine Mix Blocks
£6.99 ($6.49) for 3 x 12 gram blocks; Krill, Algae and
Krill/Brine Shrimp Mixes £8.99 ($7.79) for 20 x 4 gram
sachets Pros: Very convenient packaging; no
freezing/refrigeration required; very clean; little waste; very
nutritious Cons: A small number of the sachets did not
tear off easily from the others requiring scissors to remove (this
production problem may have been corrected); costly compared to frozen
foods Wet-frozen foods have long been the choice for
those species of marine fish that will not adapt to dry foods.
Tetra's answer to this was to create a line of gel-based foods
called TetraMarine that do not require refrigeration but still
provides natural tastes and textures. All of the TetraMarine
foods are enriched with protein, vitamins, minerals, essential omega-3
fatty acids, and other nutrients important for marine fish without the
need for thawing and rinsing of waste water. Five products are offered, but only four were
available for my review. They are: TetraMarine Krill (krill in a
nutrient-enriched gel) TetraMarine Mix (krill and brine
shrimp in a nutrient-enriched gel) TetraMarine Algae (nori algae in a
nutrient-enriched gel) TetraMarine Mix (brine shrimp, krill
and cyclops in nutrient-enriched gel block) TetraMarine Algae (nori algae in a
nutrient-enriched gel block) The two TetraMarine blocks are advertised
as 24-hour feeding blocks, each package containing three feeding blocks
that are designed for species that prefer to graze. The sachets contain
enough food to feed the average size, medium stocked tank for one day,
although with my stocking level, one sachet proved to last two days.
The food is a paste like texture mixed with gel, but the gel is not as
abundant as in some of the gel based frozen cube foods I have used in
the past, that is, it does not have a rubbery consistency to it. Now on
to the results of my review. The inhabitants (all adults) the foods were tested
on are: Tomini Tang False Lemon Peel Angelfish Coral Beauty Angelfish Saddleback Clownfish Two Yellow Tail Damsels The fish in question were on a sole diet of New
Life Spectrum Pellets which proved to be a highly nutritious food.
All of the above fish continually ate the New Life Spectrum
greedily with no sign of boredom. The first food I tried was the
TetraMarine Krill. At first the fish were a little
reluctant to eat this food and may have been due to recognition. In a
short time, all the fish with the exception of the Tomini Tang and
Coral Beauty began to sample and eat. On the following feeding, all the
fish ate the Krill. The next food tried was the TetraMarine Marine
Mix which contains both krill and brine Shrimp. All fish ate this
readily, and the same can be said of the algae
mix. The last food tried was the algae block and this
did not appeal to me too much. The reason being is not that the fish
did not eat it, but because of the high water flow in the system, the
block tends to drift into areas where the fish cannot get at it and can
create a nutrient and/or waste problem. On the other hand, I found the
TetraMarine Krill to be a very convenient form of food to feed
to my Bubble Tip Anemone. I just squeezed the sachet directly into its
tentacles and presto, feeding complete. |
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