Omega One Shock

Kanga

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Today while I was in Durban, I went to Northlands to get some Hydrocarbonate for Surgeon and saw the Omega one foods there.

Paid R119 for the Marine Pellets with Garlic. 8.25oz (no idea what an ounce is:whistling:)


Here is where I got shocked when I arrived home.

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OK so the container is a little bigger, to my horror I checked the weights.

Omega 231gr - Paid R119
Tetra 52gr - Paid R101

For 231gr of Tetra it would have been R448. And we thought it was cheap.

Yes I know one is flakes and the other pellets, however its 231gr vs 52gr of food, period.

And damn my fish go nuts for the Omega one.
I will check how they colour and look over the next few weeks.


So here to Omega, a great product available in our little country.
 
Dude, are you sure of the price on the Tetra, last time I bought, if i recall correctly it was R75, I am under correction, I am sure someone will cast light on this.. I must go check around and see if it is still that price
 
Dude, are you sure of the price on the Tetra, last time I bought, if i recall correctly it was R75, I am under correction, I am sure someone will cast light on this.. I must go check around and see if it is still that price

Still have the price on the back of the Tetra, will take a photo if you like:)

But even at R75 it would be R333.17 for the same amount as the Omega, the Tetra would have to sell for R26 to be the same price per gr

Of course the Important thing would be is the Omega a better product for my fish?

Can anyone shed some light?
 
Hey Kanga,

glad you are happy with the food. Our clostest competing tetra product would be the marine flakes and garlic marine flakes in the 63g container.
 
I like Omega one... it's what we sold at the LFS where I worked. My boss gave me some long spiel about why it's better, but I honestly don't remember (wish I did). I'm sure Henk can tell us though... ;)
 
That is astounding. I just checked and I am paying between R100-R110 for 80g of Ocean Nutrion.
 
Hey Sara!

Kanga just woke me up to tell me how amazing OmegaOne is... hehehehe

Short version:

They dont use any fishmeal in hte manufacturing process only whole fresh fish. I'll post the whole long story from their website once i have woken up :p
 
Sorry to say but the Omega marine flakes are way to small.Half way through and all I have is flakes less than 3 mm in size.I won`t buy the flakes again.
 
The long version....

ok guys heres the long version as per the OmegaOne website :thumbup:

in 7 years they went from no where to the 3rd biggest brand of fish food in the USA... not bad if you think about it :)

Ingredients
The Omega One Facility is located on the wild and rugged coastline of Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. We located our facility here in this remote location because it is the hub of a rich commercial fishing network. We are able to purchase our seafood ingredients directly from commercial fisherman. This is the only way to be competitive with such superior raw materials.
The salmon, herring, shrimp, and other seafood ingredients we use are food grade. The high levels of omega 3 & 6 fatty acids greatly enhance the immune system and make for incredible palatability. The skin on our whole salmon are rich in natural beta carotenes for outstanding color enhancement.
We harvest our own kelp, by hand, along the pristine Alaskan shoreline, far removed from any area of human habitation. Rich in vitamins and minerals, nothing can compare to this level of freshness.
Using fresh, cold water marine proteins and kelp, as ingredients, instead of fishmeal and a whole lot of starch (like everyone else) puts Omega One light
years ahead of any other fish food on the market. It truly is the “Best Fish Food in the World” .

Process
Our process starts with purchasing and harvesting fresh, natural, raw materials. We have our own tender, which is a large commercial vessel , that goes out on the fishing grounds to purchase seafood direct from fisherman. The seafood is iced immediately and stored in insulated totes on deck in the same way as is seafood destined for human consumption. You will see this Fishing Vessel (the F/V OmegaSea), in many of our ads. We also use this boat to harvest our fresh kelp. This is done by lowering a smaller skiff into the water to actually gather the kelp by hand in shallow water. The kelp is then taken back to the “mother ship” and stored in totes.
Once on board our precious raw materials are brought back to our USDA approved facility as soon as possible, usually the same day. The raw materials are then frozen in our blast freezer at -40 degrees F, and then stored in our large holding freezer at a consistent -15 degrees F until needed.
Our patented process is very different than other fish food manufacturers and allows for a super emulsified blend to occur between the rich raw materials and the vitamin mix we add.
The resulting Omega One Fish Food has, in a very short period of time, become generally recognized as far superior than anything else on the market and of course, this is due to incredible raw materials that are handled in every way as if they were destined for a fine restaurant. In Alaska, some of our fisherman friends think we go a little overboard in this way but we think your fish deserve the best.

Benefits

Fresh Natural Fats for Incredible Appetite Stimulation and Energy

In other words the food tastes great to your fish. How do we know this? In two ways. First, watch your fish eat the food. They will be visibly enthusiastic about it and will continue to eat the food much longer than other brands. Secondly, we merely need to look at the reality of fishmeal based foods (everyone else) compared to foods using only fresh seafood as the main ingredient.
The process of making fishmeal starts with the protein being cooked and dried with natural fats removed and further processed. Both the fats and the processed protein then have preservatives added to prepare them for a long shelf life. Two things have already happened at this point. The fats have lost much of their palatability and processing has nutritionally compromised the protein. And, this is only step one!
Another factor crucial to the quality of a fish food diet is how well the fish that make up the fishmeal was taken care of. Was it iced down on the fishing boat, how long did it lay in the fish hold before making it to shore. This is a critical time for both fats and proteins. Historically fish that are targeted for fishmeal are poorly refrigerated, if at all. And bi-product can lie in vats or on the decks of boats for days. After all it’s only for animal feeds.
Every minute that raw fish is not kept at 32 degrees F., the fat is gaining in rancidity and the proteins are breaking down. This low quality cannot be reversed. It will follow the ingredient right through to the finished product ending up in your aquarium.
The final question is how long has this fish meal been laying in a warehouse before being used in your fish food? Six months? A year? Maybe longer? One thing for sure, it will vary greatly and you or the fish food manufacturer who purchased it will never really know the answer. That is because fishmeal is a generic, bulk ingredient that has very little value. Would you eat food made in this way?
Eventually the processed fishmeal and fats come back off the storage shelf and are reunited when the flaked fish food is actually made. The mix is then processed again, with more preservatives added. The finished product will indeed, keep fish alive, for a time, but the natural attractant ability and genuine nourishment that only fresh ingredients can provide is long gone.
Omega One flaked foods skip the fishmeal stage altogether and start with fresh seafood ingredients - the best available! Cold water marine proteins like salmon, cod, black cod, halibut, herring, shrimp, and krill. We know these ingredients are fresh, because we get them directly from the fishermen. What’s more, we know the fish are taken care of because we know the fisherman who catch them. These are small boat operators that fish for 1 to 2 days at a time. The fish they catch are kept in slush ice and delivered fresh. The end result is an excellent variety of fresh seafood for our product. The difference in smell and taste of fish food made in this way compared to products made with fishmeal is huge. Just watch your fish feed, you’ll be a believer.

Rich In Omega 3 & 6 HUFA’s For Healthy Immune Systems And Long Life

It is a well known fact that cold water marine proteins, such as salmon, halibut, black cod, and herring, are extremely rich in Omega 3 & 6 HUFA’s (highly unsaturated fatty acids). Fish need the Omega’s to build strong immune systems for disease resistance, as well as for the development of strong but pliable cell walls. Having a variety of Omega 3 & 6 HUFA’s is extremely important because, while fish can manufacture some of the Omega’s themselves they depend on their foods for the rest. For example, saltwater fish must have a strong diet of Omega 3’s, since they can manufacture the 6’s themselves. On the other hand freshwater species have a strong need for Omega 6’s in their diet. The fresh, coldwater marine proteins used by Omega One provide the best Omega profile available for the needs of all aquarium fish.

High Levels of Natural Beta-Carotene Color Enhancers in Salmon Skins

A large amount of the marine proteins used by Omega One in their flake foods come in the form of whole beautiful salmon. The skins of these salmon contain the highest level of usable, natural beta-carotenes available in the wild. Red, Yellow, Blue, and Silver beta-carotenes are all present in large quantities in the skins of these fish. Because of the chemistry and the fact that the beta-carotenes are present in the salmon skins, the color transfer from skins of the salmon to the skins of your aquarium fish is nearly 100%. This means your aquarium fish will literally burst with color in a very short time. And it’s all natural.

Revolutionary Protein Binding System

Omega One is the only dry fish food available that utilizes a protein binding system. This is a result of using undenatured proteins (fresh seafood). All other fish foods, due to their use of fishmeal, require large amounts of starch binders such as flour, potato products, rice, and other starches to hold their foods together. This is because denatured proteins, (proteins that have been processed) such as fishmeal have lost the wonderful ability to gel. This gel quality can be seen when frying a fresh hamburger or an egg. The protein, upon being cooked, gels together and stays together.
However, like a powdered egg, fishmeal can never “stick” together again with out help. This is where the starch comes in. By using a large amount of starch, the fishmeal can again be put in a whole form to be fed to fish. “Hamburger Helper” dishes work in the same way. Large amounts of starches are cooked with the crumbled left over hamburger resulting in a dish that stays together.
There are two problems with this. One is that fish need only a small amount of starch in their diet. Unfortunately, it requires a large amount of starch to hold fishmeal-based foods together. In fact you can see that on all other fish food ingredient labels the second ingredient behind fishmeal will be some kind of starch, such as wheat flour, or ground rice. Essentially this extra starch is a filler, replacing potential high quality proteins and fats.
Omega One flake foods do not need large amounts of starch additives since the binder that holds the food together is the freshly cooked proteins themselves. The result is a high level of fresh marine proteins and fats. An amount and quality of which closely resembles what would be found in a natural aquatic environment
The other problem is that starch binders are water-soluble. This means that whatever vitamins have been added to the food begins to leach out immediately upon hitting the water. If the food is not eaten immediately there may be substantial vitamin loss.
The protein binding system of Omega One flake foods is not water-soluble. Vitamins are held in complete suspension until eaten, at which time the fish’s digestive system takes over and absorbs 100% of the vitamins in the food. This results in a tremendous benefit to the fish as well as the water quality.
In addition a protein bound flake becomes much more flexible, or willowy, in the water resulting in a much softer, more “mouth friendly” food .

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, all other existing dry aqautic foods are essentially the same, their major ingredient is fishmeal and all other major ingredients are for the purpose of holding the fishmeal together. They are easy to manufacture but nutritionally and taste compromised from the start.
By using fresh, undenatured marine proteins from the start Omega One has truly “broke the mold” on a 30 year old industry. The benefits to this new process are incredible, with new ones showing up as more and more hobbyists use the product.
The bottom line is that simple is better, and you can’t get any better than using wholesome fresh ingredients. So don’t be misled with highly technical jargon about why one fishmeal-based food is better than the other. Ultimately it’s just splitting hairs off the same dog. Fresh is best! and always has been!
 
Sorry to say but the Omega marine flakes are way to small.Half way through and all I have is flakes less than 3 mm in size.I won`t buy the flakes again.

Hmmm... I don't use them this way. I just mix them in with my all-in-one reef food.
 
I would like to try the pellets,where can I buy in the Northern suburbs (Cape Town)
Hi zookeeper -

I am not sure about the Nothern Suburbs, BUT, I can tell you that the LFS in lower Bree Street (CT CBD) stocks Omega One. They are about to become sponsors (in the next few weeks)......

Cheers!
 
I also use Omega One - Garlic pellets, Kelp pellets and the regular flake.

My main criticism with the pellets are:

1) The garlic pellets do not sink (or not quickly enough), so they end up going over the overflow. I do not have the same problem witht he Kelp pellets which sink slowly allowing all fish the chance to get to them, not just the brave ones that venture to the surface.

2) The pellets are a little big for small fish eg damsels and blennies. They cannot fit into their mouths. Before the Omega One I used Nutrafin pellets. These pellets were much better in terms of size and "sinkability".

When I buy again I will go for the flakes rather than pellets for the above reasons.
 
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I (and the fish) dig these flakes... Compared to other flakes I have used they do not look over processed (tetraMarin flakes all look identical in thickness and consistency).
 
1) The garlic pellets do not sink (or not quickly enough), so they end up goign over the overflow. I do not have the same problem witht he Kelp pellets which sink slowly allowing all fish the chance to get to them, no just the brave ones that venture to the surface.

The kelp pellets float as per the lable... its more of malawis than marines but the guys in the states plan on brining out the kelp and colour pellets in a sinking form... :)

i find it strange that you say the marine pellets do not sink... i feed it to both my marines and my discus and it sinks perfectly fine this side... and with all the otehr users that i have spoken to... i will chat to the guys in the states and hear if they have a fix for this. :thumbup:
 
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