When we think about fish food the first thing that comes to mind is the classic flake or the granulate, not something like the grazer, and yet we really liked this food as well as our fish.
This article is also available in: italiano
Technically it’s a composition similar to the Vitalis Marine Pellet, of which we talked about last year. The vitamins contained are the same, while the analytical composition is slightly different.
But the main feature of Vitalis Marine Grazer Mini is its unusual shape, that makes it resembling a polo. This shape is incredibly useful, infact you can insert the food in a special suction cup and then you hang it inside the aquarium. The fish come to graze it as it were in the sea. Feeding can be different than a mere administration, that is very different from how the fish are used to by nature.
Sure, certain fish, more impetuous then the others, will boss the others, but after a short time you can notice that every fish is happy to eat. They peck the food a little, go away, and come back. Spectacular.
Just mind not to leave the food in aquarium for an indefinite period, but remember to take it out a few hours later in order to prevent it from decomposing. The fish really like it! Moreover, it’s very soft so you can make a sort of tidbits of it, and the bigger fish like them very much.
Like its “brothers” Marine Grazer Mini is made from the usual fish flour, with molluscs, crustaceans and vegetable products. It’s a complete meal for fish that eat more than algae. Otherwise, you have to administer powered or fresh algae, or specific food for their needs.
Marine Grazer Mini it’s available in two sizes, one for public aquariums (and it loses the suffix “Mini”), and one for us aquarists.
Differently from what we’re used to, inside the container there are some slices that don’t fill it entirely like the granulate does. The first time is a strange sensation.
Obviously there’s also the cup that you can se in action here below.
Composition of Vitalis Marine Grazer Mini
The feed is made by the following ingredients:
- Fish flour and derivative products;
- Vegetal derivatives;
- Molluscs and crustaceans ;
- Oils and fats;
- Vitamins;
- Minerals.
Very interesting, as always, the nutritional analysis with a predominance of proteins:
- Raw protein 31,9 %;
- Raw oils and fats 12 %;
- Raw fiber 4,5%;
- Inorganic matter 18,6 %
- Moist 21,3%
- Other 11,7%
Here below there’s the representation of the same analysis:
As we can see from the chart, the food is mainly made by proteins, in smaller quantity than the Marine Pellets of the same Vitalis, and has 12% of fats. For these characteristics it’s suitable for fish that normally eat other fish or crustaceans. The proteins are far below the quantity of similar food (50,3%), while the fats are slightly over (10,5%). The fibers, instead, are more than the double: 4,5 against 1,9. The remains are moist and inorganic matter that probably can be assimilate to the raw ashes in other feeds.
The analytical composition stops at the 88,3%, so we don’t know about the remaining 12%. The set of moist, other and inorganic matter is over 50%.
Vitamins present
Now let’s see the analytic composition of vitamin, trace elements and additives:
- vitamin A 15.000 IU/kg.;
- vitamin D3 2.000 IU/kg.;
- vitamin E 200 mg/kg.;
- Astaxantina 133 mg/kg.;
- Zinc (sulphate monohydrate) 208 mg/kg.;
- Iron (sulphate monohydrate) 28,7 mg/kg.;
- Manganese (manganic sulphate monohydrate) 131 mg/kg.;
- Copper (pentahydrate copper sulfate) 88,5 mg/kg.;
- Iodine (anhydrous calcium iodate) 12,4 mg/kg..
And we have two charts:
In the first one, comparing the vitamines, we can see that the Vitamin A is predominant. Remember that the vitamin A promotes a healthy growth, strengthens eyesight, protects the skin and acts positively on fertility.
When we consider the added mineral, we can see that the main part is composed by Zinc, Astaxantina, Manganese and Copper, followed by Iron and Iodine.
Cost
Vitalis Marine Grazer Mini is present in just one package of 110 grams, and costs 13 euro (more or less 11,8 cents per gram).
In comparison Hikari Marine A has a cost of 8,3 cents per gram, while the smaller Hikari Marine S 11,2 cents per gram. Then there are the 10,4 of the New Life Spectrum – italian presenation, 11,3 of the XAqua Marine – italian presentation, 21 of Equo Menu Marino, 29,5 of Elos SVM2, 15,6 cents per gram of Unica Gran Premium Plus, 12,3 of AquaForest Marine Mix S and 14,2 of Marine Pellets by Vitalis.
For a depth review of fish feeds we also link this important article of some year ago: fish feeding.
In order to give you an idea of the behavior in aquarium here there’s a quick video that we made in one of the administrations.
