If you are planning to breed fish and raise fry, you will need the appropriate food to feed the babies once they are born. One of the products you may run into when doing some research on this subject is NorthFin Fry Starter.
You can check out Aquarium Blueprints’ review of the formula to see how the fish fry food stacks up.
Ingredients
The NorthFin Fry Starter is made of 100% whole Antarctic Krill, which goes by the scientific name of Euphausia Superba. This food source contains amino acids, chitins, fatty acids, minerals, omega3 fatty acids, phospholipids and vitamins to help your newborn grow quickly and healthily.
It also contain Astaxanthin, which is an antioxidant that will help bring out the colors of your fish. The food may also have some Naturox (Rosemary Extract) and Ethoxyquin, both of which are also antioxidants.
Guaranteed Analysis
The NorthFin Fry Starter mostly contain crude protein and crud fat. You can find the guaranteed analysis for the food below:
- Crude Protein: Min. 48%
- Crude Fat: Min. 14%
- Crude Fiber: Max. 2%
- Moisture: Max. 9%
- Ash: Max. 9%
Package Sizes and Pricing
The Fry Starter Formula comes in two package sizes 50 g and 250 g. You can find the current price tags for both portions on Amazon with the following links:
Expiration Date
This food product has a “Best Before” date. In our packaging, it is located on the backside of the bag.
As a general rule, we also recommend feed all of the content in the bag within a 6 month period of breaking the seal and opening the package as exposure to oxygen will degrade the krill. You should also store the food in a temperature and humidity controlled place with no direct sunlight.
What fish will eat NorthFin Fry Starter Formula?
For our experience, our Corydora, Guppy, Platy, White Cloud Minnow fry all enjoy eating the powered krill. The babies of Angelfish, African Cichlids, Boeseman’s Rainbowfish, Endler’s Livebearer and other fish that produce small fry should also enjoy this type of food.
Pros
The biggest pro when it comes to the NorthFin Fry Starter is that our fish enjoy eating the powder. This include both the fry as well as the adult-sized fish we keep. So, if you have some leftover after raising your fry, you can still feed it to your adult fish.
We also liked that the food has been grind down to basically fine particles. As a result, the food can easily fit into the mouths of the fry we were raising.
If you have bottom feeding fry, such as Corydoras, this is also a good food source as the particles will eventually sink to the bottom of the tank.
Cons
Our biggest issue with the NorthFin Fry Starter is pretty apparent once you open the package for the first time as there is a strong fishy smell. So make sure you are mentally prepare your nose for it before opening.
Because the krill has been basically grinded down into powdered form, its size can also problematic. For one, the food can easily be suck into your filter. If you have a bubbler, the air pressure may also send the food flying out of the water. Last but not least, it is very easy to overfeed your fry as the food particles are tightly packed. If least uneaten, the food will decompose and foul your water.
Directions
According to the directions on the packaging, you should feed your fry 1 to 3 times a day. You should only drop in enough food for your baby fish to eat in 1 or 2 minutes.
If you want your fish to grow in size as quickly as possible, we recommend feeding 3 times a day. To feed, you should first turn off your filter and/or air stone. As we already stated above, the powder can easily be sucked into the filter and/or splash out of the water with any type of water pressure.
Once you remove any water movement, we recommend using a clean chopstick to put the food particles into the tank. To do so, dip the tip of the chopstick into the tank water to wet the utensil. You can then dip the wet tip of the chopstick into the NorthFin Fry Starter bag to capture a small portion of the krill. Afterwards, dip the utensil in your tank water and swirl it around the aquarium to release the food. If the fry ate everything in less than a minute, you can then add another pinch of the krill using the same method.
If you are keeping fry with older and bigger fish, we recommend feeding the adults first so that they won’t eat the krill. If you don’t, your larger pets will easily devour the food before your fry can get to it. For best results, we recommend separating the adult fish from the fry. Segregation is also important as there is a chance that the bigger fish will eat the smaller fry. So you should raise the baby fish in a separate tank or container if possible until they grow big enough to not fit into the mouths of your biggest fish.
When feeding, make sure you don’t overfeed as the fry can be sensitive to ammonia spikes. Not to mention that getting the uneaten food out of the tank is extremely troublesome due to its small size. Thus, we recommend taking some preventive measures such as having live plants as well as shrimp and/or snails as a cleanup crew in your baby fish tank in case you overfed.
Recap
We find that the NorthFin Fry Starter to be an excellent food if you want to quickly add a lot of size to your baby fish.
With that said, you should be careful when feeding by turning off your filter and/or air stone as both can prevent the fry from getting to the food.
We also recommend using a chopstick to put the powder formula into your tank so that you don’t accidentally overfeed your baby fish.
