Tetra reveals quality nutrition you can trust

With so many food options on the market claiming to benefit fish it can be difficult to know which brands to trust. That’s why, Tetra, the experts in fishkeeping, volunteered to have its own food tested in comparison with similar products of reputable competitors to highlight the quality of its nutrition.

Results have shown...

Healthier* and more consistent growth

Tetra tested TetraMin and Tetra Goldfish against the same competitor food products in its own Biological Quality Assurance laboratory to compare their effects on growth and feed conversion across a 12 week period. The results of these food performance tests were also clear: fish fed with TetraMin or Tetra Goldfish showed healthy and above all consistent growth (see Figures 1 and 2), whilst the weight gains of fish fed with the rival products either stagnated or even decreased in some cases.

Less waste for cleaner water

In addition, Tetra’s food demonstrated a good feed conversion rate which shows how efficiently food is converted by fish. The lower the quotient, the better the feed conversion rate. This means that fish need to be fed less to get all of the nutrients they need, which in turn helps to improve the water quality. The food performance test clearly demonstrated that TetraMin has a considerably lower feed conversion ratio, whereas the values of some of the rival products deviated by over 100%. TetraMin performed extremely well thanks to its top-quality ingredients that are perfectly tailored to the fishes’ needs as well as its successful combination of prebiotics and BioActive formula which helps fish to make optimum use of nutrients.

For its in-house food performance test, Tetra selected four popular species of tropical fish which are illustrative of a large group of tropical fish (as depicted here, red phantom tetras/ Fig. 1 and platies/ Fig. 2).

Honest labelling

In its very own Quality Assurance lab, Tetra constantly ensures that its food products contain exactly what is shown on the label. But this isn’t the case with all brands, as was demonstrated by analyses performed by an independent laboratory* that tested the amount of protein and fat actually contained in TetraMin, Tetra Goldfish and two other products of reputable European competitor brands. The results revealed that whereas both Tetra products contained the declared values, some of the competitors’ values were considerably different or even far beyond the tolerance limits prescribed by the EU Animal Feed Regulation.

Tetra’s in-house test proved that fish fed with the rival products grew on average up to 61% less than those fed with TetraMin. This result highlights the excellent quality of Tetra’s raw ingredients and formulas.

* Based on Tetra Min Flakes and Tetra Goldfish Flakes tested against two European leading competitors. Based on the feed conversion ratio measuring an animal’s efficiency in converting feed into body mass and therefore its average healthy growth. Growth and feed conversion and declaration check, September-December 2017.

** SGS Germany GmbH, undisclosed, available from Tetra GmbH.

Ashleigh Foster, Aquatics Marketing Manager at Tetra comments...

“At Tetra, we’ve been working relentlessly to offer tropical fish the best possible diet for more than 65 years now. Our founder Dr Ulrich Baensch demonstrated true pioneering spirit not only by inventing TetraMin, the first ready-made flake food for tropical fish, but also by making scientifically founded research a top priority for all food developments from the outset. Today, our focus remains on carrying out detailed research into the nutritional requirements of aquarium creatures so that we can continue to create tailored solutions for a complete and balanced diet leading to healthier fish.”

In addition to launching the results of Tetra’s study, the brand has also recently revised its product packaging following extensive market research to provide clearer product names, benefits and imagery, which will be introduced gradually to stores.