Opinion: Ken's Food

[Melody]

Just got an order in from Ken's Fish (http://www.kensfish.com/) which included all sorts of food. Some of it is Ken's food, some is HBH. 5 & 1/4 pounds total for somewhere around $50 with exchange & shipping.

This is what that much food looks like - that's a toonie on the Freeze-Dried Earthworms. Its covering pretty much the full width of my kitchen table.

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f227/canadiansinternetdotcom/KensFlakeOrder.jpg


I haven't tried it yet - I'll give the first feeding tonight. The HBH Colorbright Flake is a given - they already like that. Otherwise I bought Ken's Premium Egg Flake, Ken's Premium Vegetable Flake and a quarter pound of Earthworms.

Repackaged food isn't always the best - you have to put a lot of faith in the person doing the job. It has to be stored properly and immediately repackaged to retain the full vitamin content.

I know other people have tried Ken's food so I'm hoping we'll hear from them too.:smile:

[Melody]

As mentioned in the 'Garlic' thread, the freeze-dried Earthworms are a good size for soaking in garlic or med's if you have larger fish. Fed them tonight. They all gobbled them down but since they were presoaked in garlic I don't know if it counts...lol. You know the size of the sun-dried wormies on the sidewalk when the Summer sun comes out after a rain? About that size :Eeewww: .

[CACAdmin]

From the picture you posted, I figured the worms would be pretty big. Glad to hear everybody devoured them.
:err: For someone who went :Eeewww: at the idea of a compost to grow your own worms, I'm amazed that you could soak them and then cut them up for your fishies. What did you use? A knife and fork (so you didn't have to touch them with your fingers.:DevilGrin: )?

[Melody]

I don't mind crumbling something dry - might as well be oatmeal at that point.:yes:

[Melody]

The first flake I've tried is the Ken's Premium Vegetable Flake.

From the site:

Kens premium vegetable flake:

Formulated using a wide variety of vegetables, including only the best kelp! Plecostomus, tropheus and a wide variety of cichlids thrive on thsi diet! This is a very, very veggie flake at an excellent price!

Ingredients: Mixture of plants and vegetables including: seaweed, spirulina, carrots, squash, spinach. Vegetable oils, soy meal, yeast, wheat flour, vitamin & mineral supplement. Asorbic acid (source of vitamin c). Natural and some artificial coloring.

Guaranteed analysis: Crude protein 35.0% min., crude fat 7.0% min., crude fiber 7.0% max., moisture 8.0% max. All natural ingredients, except for some artificial coloring. No preservatives.

They loved it! The most notable event was that the Ghost Cats ate it with enthusiasm - they usually don't like to eat vegies.:Think: The only difference I can see between this vegie flake & the others is it contains seaweed, so maybe that took their fancy.

One thing I've learned is that enthusiastic feeding frenzies do not necessarily mean the fish are eating the food - they'll often spit it out so I always watch for that. No spitting :smile: . Its a very thin flake, almost soft yet it still has that crispy edge so I know its not stale-soft.

So far so good. Tomorrow I'll try the Egg flake, which I bought mostly for fry but I'll give it a whirl on all of them.

[madattiver]

I feed my fish a diet of "Earthworm Flakes" and "Earthworm Sticks" from kensfish.. every one of my fish love it.

[Melody]

I only let the fish choose to a certain point - them being opportunistic feeders, otherwise known as piglets.....lol....but there are foods they won't eat and that certainly isn't a problem with this stuff. Thanks for sharing your experience with it!

This morning they had eggs for breakfast, or egg flake anyways. This is another example of a name not telling the whole story. The main ingredient isn't egg, which I knew and was fine with, but I thought I'd reiterate that a name only means so much.

They loved the egg flake too. From the website:

Kens premium egg flake:

Formulated for young fry.

Ingredients: white fish protein concentrate, mixture of vegetable concentrate, spay dried egg, frozen or dried brine shrimp, brewers yeast, soy flour, oat flour, wheat flour, lecithin, vitamin/mineral supplement methionine. Ascorbic acid (source of vitamin c). Natural and some artificial coloring.

Guaranteed analysis: crude protein 45.0% min., crude fat 6.0% min., crude fiber 5.0% max., moisture 9.0% max. All natural ingredients, except for some artificial coloring. No preservatives.

What I like most about it is its high in protein but also has a decent vegetable content, which I firmly believe that herbivores and omnivores need as fry too.

Only the fry will get it with any frequency, but since they like it so much I may mix it with another flake for the older fish too. It certainly inspires them to breed so it can't hurt.

Its a very thin flake like the Vegie Flake is, which I prefer for my fish since they're smaller. I did find that a pinch was a lot more than a pinch of the thicker flakes so I overfed. :rolleyes:

The rest is HBH flakes so that concludes my review from this order. I fully intend to order again and I'll post if I get a different kind. Some things become apparent over time and I'll post if that happens, but I don't anticipate any prob's. Overall I think that Ken's food is an economical alternative for Canadians to consider.:smile:

[Katalyst]

Figured I'd chime in about Ken's Fish Food as well. I've been feeding them Egg Flake for awhile as well as the earthworm sticks but just ordered.

HBH Veggies Flakes (Am trying tonight)
More egg flakes (the goldfish begged)
5 Stick Blend (its already gone!)
Meat wafers (my king tigers say thanks Mel)
Naturose (mixed into my snail and shrimp food too soon to tell)
Spirulina Pellets (cause's pleco's to mosh and trample one another to get at it)


And a few caves that hopefully will help keep the peace in my pleco tank.

[Melody]

The love those meat wafers! I do find that they leave particles in the water though, which sux, but otherwise they're a real hit here too.:thumbup:

[Katalyst]

The love those meat wafers! I do find that they leave particles in the water though, which sux, but otherwise they're a real hit here too.:thumbup:

I find the pellets do to but the cory's and stuarti's usually gobble it up.

[Melody]

Yeah a little mess is worth it :smile: . It probably just seems like a lot because they're so concentrated. Flakes, frozen... it all has small particles to some degree or another.

[Katalyst]

Bumping this back up as I've tried a few new foods from Ken.

LOW TEMPERATURE DRIED DAPHNIA:

This new breakthrough in drying leaves the vitamins while removing the water. This new process is like freeze drying but leaves behind much more of the vitamins for better results when fed to your fry. Daphnia provide two essential vitamins of primary importance to fish development: vitamin A which is fundamental for growth and an anti-infective agent in mass culture, and vitamin D which is primarily responsible for the production of bone in vertebrates. Daphnia also provide small amounts of vitamin B, which supports tissue growth and stimulates appetite, and vitamin C, which boosts immunity

Moisture 9.70% ,Fat 2.40% ,Fiber 9.60% ,Ash 18.90% ,Phosphorus 1.44% ,Crude Protein 50.80%* ,Xanthophyll (AOAC) 180 mg per pound ,Myristic 5.60% ,Myristoleic 4.90% ,Palmitic 19.60% ,Palmitoleic 9.60% ,Heptadecenoic 4.70% ,Stearic 3.40% ,Oleic 10.20% ,Linoleic 6.90% ,Linolenic 23.40% ,Arachidonic 1.30% ,Hexadecadienoic 1.90%.

*83.5% of Crude Protein is Digestible -This is the only thing I am curious about


I've only fed it a few times but everyone seems to enjoy it, its almost a flake food like consistancy. I'm feeding it to some cory fry and my tatia perugiae's who are still small enough that they are still surface feeders. In a few months apparently they will take the bottom and spawn in caves which I think is pretty neat but off topic. I really like the idea of low temperature and freeze dried foods & will definately continue to use these as well as try a few other foods from Ken. He's an absolute great person to deal with, in the past I had a problem with my heat packs being duds, he replaced the entire case of them without questions. Service like that will keep me coming back every time.

Its frustrating to think about all of the money I spent on expensive fish foods thinking I was doing the right thing by them. Only to find out about high heat processing etc. Thanks Mel for opening my eyes.


KENS PREMIUM MEAT & SPIRULINA WAFERS:NEW NOW AVAILABLE

THESE ARE A MUCH DIFFERENT FOOD THAT IS LOADED WITH MEAT AND THEN WE ADD A TOUCH OF SPIRULINA. THIS IS EXCELLENT FOR YOUR BOTTOM FEEDERS THAT LIKE MEAT.

INGREDIENTS: SALMON FISH MEAL, PLANKTON, SHRIMP, KRILL MEAL MIX, WHEAT GERM MEAL, WHEAT FLOUR, ALFALFA MEAL, SOY MEAL, DRIED SPIRULINA. VITAMINS, MINERALS AND STABILIZED VITAMIN C. NO PRESERVATIVES.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:CRUDE PROTEIN 35.0% MIN., CRUDE FAT 6.0% MIN., CRUDE FIBER 5.0% MAX., MOISTURE 6.0% MAX., ASH 8.0%.



I thought the were the origional meat wafers that I am used to. While the fish seem to enjoy it, they start breaking down the minute they hit the water. No matter how much I gravel vac (and I am gravel vac obsessive), I still find traces of it a few changes later. In all fairness to the product, the fish enjoy it and my fry are growing like weeds. I did end up with planaria in my shrimp tanks when I started using it, I know its me assuming, however I've never had planaria before. Because of this I'll probally only feed this to bare bottom tanks to keep the mess at a minimum.

[cadafi]

I feed practically just ken's food to my fish!

[Melody]

Always great to have more than one opinion! You can tell this was before I researched heat processing much, but I still get some freeze-dried food from Ken.

I think the Daphnia must be pressed & then flaked or something, because it definitly isn't the little creatures like you get from the other brands. I'm always happy to see an attempt to keep the temperatures lower in commercial food lines.

[Melody]

Please be aware that you can be charged an extra $40 in brokerage fees plus product taxes at the border if you ship through UPS. It looks like it's the cheaper option to choose UPS ground on the website form, but it isn't.

I would have appreciated being informed of that when I chose the option for the first time in my most recent order, but I wasn't. Apparently he'll let you know if you call in your order, but otherwise he doesn't. Go figure. :rolleyes: I should think in this economy a person would want to keep their customers.

Likewise for UPS - signing for a package isn't worth gouging a customer for $40, but they know their customer (or former customer in my case) has to pay it or they won't get their package. If they could see beyond the end of their nose, they'd realize it costs them much more in the end to lose a customer and have that customer share their experience.

Both companies had been contacted prior to this post and niether is in the least concerned. Consequently, I felt it was my responsibility to inform those who wanted to order due to this thread, so they're not handed a surprise $60 (or more) invoice from UPS at the door like I was. :mad: