Has Hikari changed their ingredients back?

[finnfinnfriend]

Well I trust their formulas because the company has been around for a long time and they put a lot of research into their foods. I am not saying any food is better than any other but I like Hikari and that is just my opinion :)

[callistra]

Do you have it in front of you?

Do an experiment?

Do you have any other pellets like Omega One or NLS?

Make three small cups of same amount of water and place a pellet or two in each cup. Let it soak 15 minutes. See which one expands the most.. I've done this with lots of pellets and the Hikari quite obviously expanded the most. It also continues to expand if you let it over the hour. Others get saturated faster. That's when I set my stash aside for medicating

[finnfinnfriend]

I think if you let hikari soak for a long time it will expand, but what is your point? They won't expand in the betta onvlce he eats it. The stomach acids and such break it down.

[finnfinnfriend]

Oh you mean ones that expand are good for medicating? What kond of medication would I need to administer that way?

[finnfinnfriend]

Callistra what was your point in saying that about the pellets?

[callistra]

Actually the reason why pellets like these cause constipation is the same problem with freeze dried foods.. they are so dry they actually do absorb moisture in the gut leading to constipation issues. the more they swell the worse they are/more likely to cause this. Hikari swell higher than average.. NLS being so little you can't even use them for medicating. Omega One also swell far less than average.

Feeding meds are good for internal infections, especially parasites. There are some antibiotics which are pretty readily absorbed but feeding meds for internal parasites tends to work miles better than most baths.

[finnfinnfriend]

Oh okay.

My hikari pellets are the exact same size as my nls pellets and according to the label they have about the same amount of moisture. They do not swell up in the stomach. There is no way a pellet would be floating in the water for anywhere near a fraction of 15 minutes before my betta ate it...

Also if something soaks up a bit more moisture it should be easier to digest than a dry little pellet that doesn't soak up water. Think about it, live food is mostly water...that's probably why they make them like that....Hmm never thought about that before...good job, Hikari!

[bethyMT]

I think what Callistra is trying to say is that any food that expands a lot in water has a lot of wheat gluten or other grain in it. Protein doesn't suck up a lot of water, grain does.

To understand why this isn't great, we know that bettas' digestive systems are not made to digest lots of grain/carbohydrates. When food containing lots of grain is injested, it still does suck a lot of water out of the fish (it will still expand a bit before it's digested). Since bettas aren't designed to do this, it'll cause constipation and bloating.

Foods that are protein based will not expand as much no matter where it is, in the water or in a stomach. The betta's digestive system is designed to handle this, so it's not a problem. Bettas don't have enough fluid in thier system to handle a lot of grain and grain based food...the water is sucked out of them faster than they can replenish it. Funny how this can happen with fish, but it does.

Does that make any sense? We need to look for food that is the closest we can possibly get to what bettas would eat in nature. They eat protein, with a bit of green matter(whatever is in the stomachs of the insects they eat). There's no carbs in there, so carbs is something you'd want to avoid. My hikari betta gold has wheat as the first ingredient. I tossed it, since I don't want to be constantly worry about constipation. But I'd only guess that you can continue to use that food and constipation would only be an occasional thing. Some fish tolerate it better than others.

[finnfinnfriend]

Well mine doesn't seem to expand much in the water and it is protein based. Maybe you did that experiment with the old formula or something...My betta has not had any problems with constipation or bloating. Sometimes ingredients in pellets foods may look odd, but they have been scientifically formulated to be nutritious to bettas. I'm sorry but I am going to trust the scientists. I already said this is just my opinion and I tried to be polite about it, so please stop preaching NLS to me because I use that food as well anyway....