How much protein is too much?

Yes and can you imagine the response from the shop - "Has this food been gently heat treated"

I think if you are going to go down this track to find out the question to ask is "Has this food been spectrum analysed and is Trypsin inhibition achieved?" and be better directed at the manufacturer but you could always have a little giggle and ask a shop and watch the facial expression on the assist as the jaw floats in the wind.

The Tech Den wrote:

Yes and can you imagine the response from the shop - "Has this food been gently heat treated"

I think if you are going to go down this track to find out the question to ask is "Has this food been spectrum analysed and is Trypsin inhibition achieved?" and be better directed at the manufacturer but you could always have a little giggle and ask a shop and watch the facial expression on the assist as the jaw floats in the wind.

I guess it is a little to much to ask from the poor people working at the LFS.
But fun to watch.
Scary thing is that a lot of manufacturers would not know how their food is prepared and what is best for the fish. Attitude is "It sells so it must be good".
Marty

What food do you use to condition your plecs for breeding The Tech Den? I know you have alot of success so it would be much appreciated if you share what foods you think are good for the fish (in your experience). The females need a little bit more protein to develope eggs dont they? So I was wondering what a good balance was and also some good foods. I'm not talking about bn as, well let's face it the girls are big piggies lol and they are always the first to whatever food is in the tank. I'd like to know what you'd recommend for dwarf plecos such as L333 and L134s

I also feed mostly Hikari wafers and supplement with fresh veggies. On occasion I feed Spectrum brand wafers in my community tank which are labeled as "h20 stable" and what Ive been able to glean from this is that they don't fall apart readily so I'm assuming they are compressed. I usually put a drop of Kent Extreme garlic on a few of them and let them soak it up and drop it in the tank. I haven't had any issues with this brand of food at this point.
As far as bloat goes, my first experience with it was after completing treatment in a growout tank for Ich and I raised the tank temps during treatment. I'm assuming the higher temps helped the bacteria to thrive. The Ich was gone but the bloat was awful. I'm really cautious about raising temps now and haven't had any bloat since. But I do like keeping my Bn's with my Mollies since they both have roughly the same dietary requirements. Anyone else think elevated tank temps are a contributor to bloat ? Just wondering.

With the L's they get a variety of food and depending on their family type and also feed differently with the fry.
Hypans usually get Hikari Carnivore, Sera Flora, Mysis Shrimp, Daphnia, Rotifers and Brine Shimp.
Much the same with the Pekoltia's with some zucchini
Panaques get Hikari Algae waffers, Daphnia, zucchini, Sera Flora
Fry in the Hypan Pekoltia will get similar to the adults with the add of Aquacultural Grade pellets and powder.
BN's zucchini Aquacultuaral grade powder and pellets

Flake food is good but with a lot of flake food the vitamins disolve in the water before the fish eat them and would rather it in them then the water.

The Aquacultural food is good where it covers pretty much all that is mentioned in the above posts being extruded, trypson inhibition, vitamin ramped and spectrographic analysis.

The powder is awesome for fry as some fry can starve not being able to find food or competition of the food and the powder sinks covering the base of the tank eliminating this problem.

Looking at having a play more with the Aquacultural food with non hormone colour enhancing namely Canthaxanthin which is natural and adding a few touches that I would like to see in the food.