Zueflo

Robert Guggenbuehl's Top-Aquaristics grower-flakes with spirulina and artemia

General information

Robert Guggenbuehl (Honorary President of Aquaria St. Gallen, Chairman of DCG Switzerland) wrote following report in the journal DATZ:

“My chichlids and killi fish in nearly 40 tanks want to be fed appropriate to their species. Moreover, the wild species which I caught during my tropical journeys are much more sophisticated than fish born in captivity.”

Therefore, his long-time dedication to feeding fish in tanks has led to a developing idea of producing a high-qality food which is still affordable.
He tried to do without artificial colourants and flavourings. For a good durability, he added high doses of Vitamin C and E. In order to cover as many different proteins as possible, many different sources are combined.:

Spirulina, yeast, artemia, soy, rice, shrimps and fish meal

Those different sources of protein promise good growth. By adding astaxanthine as a nature-identical colourant, the pigments in fish will develop an intensified red, but also yellow, green and blue colour.

Meanwhile I have a three-year experience with this product. The fish have a beautiful colour, grow well and are very healthy. The high-quality ingredients are utilized very well and therefore strain the water less than cheap food which contains a high amount of undigestable ingredients.

Characteristics

Food type	Nature-identical main food for all fish in tanks
Target group	Small and medium-sized fish in tanks
Conservation form, heating conditions	Flake food, dried
Producer	Interquell
Minimum durability	12 months after production
Ingredients (in decreasing weight proportion)	Wheat; fish- and shrimp hydrolysate; spirulina (10 %); soy protein hydrolysate; dried yeast; rice; shrimps; artemia; vitamin pre-combination, carotene colourant pre-combination
Packed weight	ca. 80 - 120 g/l

Ingredients and additives

Crude protein	43.3 %
Crude fat	5.0 %
Crude fibre	3.0 %
Crude ash	10.5 %
Vitamin A	30,000 I.E./kg
Vitamin D₃	2,000 I.E./kg
Vitamin E	300 mg/kg
Vitamin C, stabilized	150 mg/kg
Calcium	0.5 %
Phosphate, calculated as phosphor	0.9 %
Sodium	0.4 %
Lysine	3.0 %
Carotene colorant: Astaxanthine	225 mg/kg

Use

Sprinkle small amounts onto water daily; do not use too much.

As we do not add any attractants, scents of flavourings, it is possible that the fish might hesitate to eat the flakes, especially when they were used to food with additives. You need to be a little bit patient here; after 2 - 3 days this hesitation will fade. You can also make the change easier by blending in prefered food (e.g. frosted bloodworms) in the beginning.