Amtra produces Pro Pearl 1.5, a pellet feed destined to all marine and fresh water demanding fish characterized by a high proteic contain, a good contain of astaxanthin, which isn’t very promoted, and with active carbon.
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As I always say, pellet feeds are produced at low temperatures compared to other feeds. I think this makes them the best feed to use in aquariums, in theory even best than granular feeds, obtained at little higher temperatures. It’s less polluting than frozen feeds, but it keeps all the nutritional properties that otherwise go lost in feeds made at high temperatures (here more details on fish feeding).
The first thing you notice about Amtra Pro Pearl 1.5 is its black color because of the vegetal active carbon.
AMTRA Pro Pearl 1.5 is made by herrings flour, source of Omega 3, krill and shrimps, cereals like corn, veggies, spirulin, hydrolyzed fish protein, brewer’s yeast, peas and salmon oil. Then in addiction to this formulation there’s natural Astaxanthin and vegetal active carbon. So appears to be a complete feed for non-algae eaters fish, in case you consider to add also lyophilized or fresh seaweed, or specific feeds for those fish.
I really like the presence of active carbons because they help to clean the intestine of the fish, just as it’s important the Astaxanthin. The feed not only is complete but it also has something more.
AMTRA Pro Pearl 1.5 is a pellet feed, the shape is vaguely spherical, but they’re cut pellets, and it has two sizes, 1,5 and 0,5 mm.
AMTRA Pro Pearl 1.5 feed floats very well, and I love that in the feeds. It eventually drops at the bottom because the fish rush on it, but it falls slowly.
Differently from the usual we won’t show you the contain because it’s all here. A plastic jar without spoon or sealed or screw closure. It’s very weird the absence of the spoon, which is very useful and I don’t like to touch the feed with my bare hands.
AMTRA Pro Pearl 1.5 composition
IThe feed is composed by the following ingredients:
- Herrings flour;
- Krill flour;
- Shrimps;
- Spirulin seaweed;
- Corn;
- Hydrolyzed fish protein;
- Brewer’s yeast;
- Peas;
- Salmon oil;
- Vegetal carbon;
- Vitamins;
- Minerals.
Very interesting the nutritional analysis. As always, the main part is composed by proteins:
- Raw proteins: 49,5%;
- Raw fats and oils: 9,5%;
- Raw fibers: 1%;
- Ashes: 6,8%
- Moist: 6,7%
- Other: 26,5%
The same analysis has been reported in the following chart:
As you can see, the feed is mainly made by proteins (half of the whole) and a 10% of fats. This makes it a caloric feed, appropriate for fish that usually eat other fish or crustaceans. The proteins are close to the average quantity in similar feeds (49,7%), the fats too (9,8%), while the fibers are less than usual, 1 against 1,6. The remains are moist and ashes, that added to that percentage that we don’t know, bring the filling material to 40%, right above the average of 35%.
The vitamins
Let’s see the analytical composition of vitamins, trace elements and additives:
- vitamin A: 8,455 mg;
- vitamin D3: 0,035 mg;
- vitamin E: 105 mg;
- vitamin C: 425 mg;
- Zinc (sulphate monohydrate) 17,666 mg.;
- Iron (sulphate monohydrate) 26,32 mg;
- Manganese (manganic sulphate monohydrate) 12,384 mg;
- Copper (copper sulphate pentahydrate) 1,02 mg;
- Iodium (calcium iodate anhydrous) 0,39 mg.
From which derives the following chart:
In the first graphic, comparing vitamins, we see that, differently from the usual, the Vitamin C is the predominant. In many species of fish the ability to synthesize the ascorbic acid or vitamin C isn’t very developed so we have to supplement their diet with vitamin C. This depends for the mainly part on the enzyme kit of the fish, which has a poor activity of the L-gulonolactone oxidase enzyme (Chatterjee, 1978) which catalyzes the conversion of glucose into ascorbic acid, and the benefits are:
- Biosynthesis of bile acids
- Catabolism of tyrosine
- Activation of folic acid
- Biosynthesis of steroid hormones
- Iron metabolism
- Antioxidant
- Collagen biosynthesis
- Biosynthesis of norepinephrine
- Important immune function
- Metabolism of some hormones
- Wound healing
The vitamin A promotes a healthy growth, improves eyesight, protects the skin and helps the fertility.
When we focus on the minerals, there are for the main part Zinc, Manganese, Iron, then Copper and Iodium.
Notice the black color of the feed in this close up view of the pellets.
AMTRA Pro Pearl 1.5 is sold in two packages about 100 and 250 ml. While AMTRA Pro Pearl 0.5 is sold in a package of 100 ml.
The feed costs
The small jar of 250 ml costs 11,99 euro while the 100 ml one costs 6,39 euro for the “pearls” of 1,5mm and 6,59 for the smaller pearls of 0,5mm. Considering that the smaller jar of 100 ml has 60 grams of feed, so it’s 10,65 cents per gram, that are 8 for the bigger version which is more convenient.
For a useful comparison, Hikari Marine A costs 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, 11,3 of XAqua Marine, 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 for Vitalis Marine Pellet.
For a deepening on fish food we suggest our useful article: fish feeding.
