Ingredients of Fish Pellets

Call it what you will, fish pellets, fish food pellets or to every fish keeper, pellets is good enough, these are the most common fish food available for the aquarium fish and even for aquaculture.

But what is it made up of anyway? Well here's a comparison of 4 different types, noting some of the similarities they have as well.

Floating Fish Pellets from a Taiwan brand

Main Ingredients
1. White Fish Meal *
2. Wheat Flour #
3. soy Bean Meal $
4. What Germ Meal #
5. Vegetable Protein $
6. krill Meal *
7. Yeast #
8. Egg meal
9. Liver Meal
10.Lecithin
11.Stable Vitamins and Minerals *

Crude Protein < 32%
Crude Fat < 4%
Crude Fiber < 3%
Ash > 12%
Moisture > 10%

Floating Fish pellets from a China Brand

Ingredients
1. High Quality fish meal *
2. derivatives of vegetable origin $
3. cereal
4. fish derivatives
5. flour
6. wheat germ meal #
7. krill *
8. alfalfa powder
9. minerals
10.algae
11.varieties of vitamin *
12.wheat #

Crude Protein Min 35%
Crude Fat Min 3%
Crude Fiber Max 4%
Crude Ash Max 15%
Moisture Max 10%

Sinking Type Fish Pellets from a Japanese Brand

Ingredients
1. Fish Meal *
2. wheat Flour #
3. Krill Meal *
4. Spirulina $
5. Dried Seaweed Meal
6. Brewers Dried Yeast #
7. Gluten Meal
8. Enzyme
9. Garlic
10.Astaxanthin
11.Mono Sodium Glutumate (MSG)
12.DL-Methionine
13.Vitamin A Oil
14.Vitamin D3 supplement
15.Vitamin E supplement *
16.menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of vitamin K)
17.choline chloride
18.L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (stabilized vitamin c)
19.inositol
20.calcium pantothenate
21.riboflavin
22.thiaminemononitrate
23.pyridoxine hydrochloride
24.niacin
25.folic acid
26.biotin
27.ferrous sulfate
28.magnesium sulfate
29.zinc sulfate
30.manganese sulfate
31.cobalt sulfate
32.calcium iodate
33.aluminum hydroxide
34.sodium acid pyrophosphate

Crude Protein min 46%
Crude Fat min 6%
Crude Fiber max 5%
Moisture max 10%
Crude Ash max 15%
Phsphorous min 1.2%

Sinking Type Fish Pellets (Imported from somewhere unknown)

Ingredients
1. Wheat Germ #
2. Krill *
3. Yeast Powder #
4. Shrimp Powder
5. White Fish Powder *
6. Soy Bean Powder $
7. Enzyme
8. Spirulina Extract $
9. Glucan
10.Multi Vitamins *
11.Minerals
12.Etc

Crude Protein Min 42%
Crude Fat Min 3%
Crude Fiber Max 4%
Moisture Max 10%
Ash Max 15%

Legend
* Present in all 4 brands
# Present in 3 of 4 brands
$ Present in 2 of 4 brands

So immediately off the bat, you will notice that fish meal, krill and vitamins and minerals are in all 4 brands of fish pellets. It would appear that these are important ingredients and perhaps will make for good ideas for fishing bait too?

The second observation is that, the Japanese are king of the hill on this too! The level of detail is pretty staggering (Anybody a chemistry major out there?)

The third observation would be that different brands will try to specialize in a certain subset of additional ingredients which will claim to have different purposes such as color enhancement, fast growth, healthy diet and so on.

Bottom line, with all the variety, its good to have a few brands together and try them out. Mix floating pellets with sinking pellets and the like.

As long as your fish like the taste of the food and they remain energetic and look healthy, your mix should be good.

Return from fish pellets to fish food

Return to tropical fish catalogs