Ocean Fresh Pacifica Plankton

[mrhasan]

Alright so I am a strong believer in food (both for me and for my fishes ) and love trying out new foods. So this time, I bought a 4oz pound of Pacifica Plankton which arrived recently at Concept Aquatics/Aquariums (I always get confused which one is right :P). So thought about giving it a small review since I haven't seen much about this particular product. Anyway, here goes:

1. Packaging:
It is available in 4oz and 8oz packets at Concept. Since it a relatively new stuff for me, I bought the 4oz packet to see how my fishes react to it. Here's the package:



Clownfishes are getting boring because almost all the foods will have their pictures! Atleast this one has anemone too

The pack has a transparent packaging with a block of THIS:



YUM YUM! Oh never mind, who am I to judge it's taste!

The packet itself is a very thick ziplock type back so no need to put them in the fish food box.

2. First impression:

Keep a fine chopped mysis shrimp block and this besides each other and it will look very similar to one another; that was my first impression. But the surprise comes once you open it up It smells BAD! Really BAD! I guess its because of all the planks were trapped alive and frozen and their rotting frozen souls are all decaying and hence the smell! Yummy! The pieces are relatively bigger than I expected planktons to be. Possibly around 2cm pieces, its bigger (well much much more bigger) than cyclopeeze.

3. Fishes reaction

My current livestock includes a foxface, a pair of clowns, one banggai, six chromis and a hippo tang. All of them eats brine, mysis, flakes and cylopeeze. Foxface is not particularly fond of cylopeeze maybe because its too small for its appetite.

Anyway, so when I dropped it in the tank, guess what? Oh well, fishes went nuts. I get a very strong response from my fishes when I feed them cyclopeeze and that's the same reaction I got from them when I gave them the planktons. The LOVED it - that's what I can say. The little hippo would try chuck in big chunks at once. Oh about big chucks, this thing is sticky too.

4. Overall impression

Although its too early to note is affect on the fishes but all I can say for now is they love it. I don't love it since its smelly and sticky but that doesn't matter for this product I have also seen response from the LPS (sticking out their feeders after the planktons went it). I think this would be a great mixture for people who makes their own food since these are not available in grocery stores.

One last thing, for those who is thinking whether you can bbq this stuff, sorry to disappoint you but you cant. Few minutes outside the freezer and it starts to melt so forget about putting it on the grill. And the smell will take all the fun out of the bbq too :P

[HaZRaTTy]

This is the food I use, and I have no problems with it as far. It had come highly recommended for being a very high quality food.

I rinse all my food and use some of the "juice'' to feed my LPS and whatever else around the tank.

I have heard that this is the food of choice by a few fish stores when they have tough to feed fish... You know who you are you little bastard fish!

[BlueTang<3]

This is the only frozen food I ever feed usually buy it in the 5 lb packs

[Aquattro]

This product is supplied by our very own TimT of Seacare Mariculture. Top quality food and something I use as often as I can get it here.

[reefwars]

Love this food as well , I don't rinse and my livestock love it

Now if the 16oz pks make a come back ill be very happy

[mrhasan]

The only complain is: THE THING SMELLS BAD!

[HaZRaTTy]

I still rinse dirty habit I guess I use some Of the thaw to feed my acans and zoas and whatever else and rinse before it goes into the tank. Bleh!

[TimT]

Hi,

Thanks for your review and for trying the food. I had such great success using this food for my fishes when I was a wholesaler that I wanted to offer it to hobbyists so their fish can do well too. I have had fish like sleeper gobies eventually lay egg masses in my commercial holding systems. This food is amazing. I think part of the success is that it comes from the ocean while other foods like Brine Shrimp, Mysis and Cyclopeeze all come from lakes.


Just to comment on a few of your remarks.

Originally Posted by mrhasan

Clownfishes are getting boring because almost all the foods will have their pictures! Atleast this one has anemone too

I can understand labels being boring with clownfish, I chose this particular clownfish as it was my personal favorite due to it's unique coloration. I jokingly called it "Spot" because the center white bar was actually a round white spot.

Originally Posted by mrhasan

The packet itself is a very thick ziplock type back so no need to put them in the fish food box.

I chose to use a thick ziplock top bag so people could break a small piece off of the slab while it's in the bag. Then drop it into a cup of water to thaw out and not have to get their fingers stinky. Whether they rinse it or not that is their choice. Personally I don't rinse it as the juice contains a lot of fatty acids, amino acids etc. I consider it a way of supplementing the acros in my system. I do have a huge skimmer and use ozone so I can export the oils, fatty acids and amino acids quite easily.

Originally Posted by mrhasan

It smells BAD! Really BAD! I guess its because of all the planks were trapped alive and frozen and their rotting frozen souls are all decaying and hence the smell!

There should be a strong seafood type smell but it should NOT smell rotten nor be sticky(like tape). The food is frozen live and then remains frozen during processing. The only time it should thaw out is when you thaw it out to feed to your fishes/corals. The food should be a pinkish white colour.

Originally Posted by mrhasan

The pieces are relatively bigger than I expected planktons to be. Possibly around 2cm pieces, its bigger (well much much more bigger) than cyclopeeze.

There is many different sizes of plankton starting from phyto to zoo etc. The plankton in this product should range in size from .75cm to 1.75cm. It averages between Adult Brine Shrimp and Mysis for size. I have small fishes that eat it with relish such as Green Coral Goby etc.

Originally Posted by mrhasan

Although its too early to note is affect on the fishes but all I can say for now is they love it.

You should see a positive effect after a month or so. One thing I noticed is that when Peppermint Shrimp eat it for a while they turn bright red from being transparent.

I have fed many different types of LPS this food. Everything from Tubastrea, Euphyllia, Acans and Blastos, Scoly's, Lobo's, Fungia and Zoos all love it.

I also have a neutrally buoyant microscopic food based on this product. It ranges in size from 1 micron to 60 microns. I feed this to the zoos and Chalices as well. It is called Coral Grow Vitality.

Originally Posted by reefwars

Now if the 16oz pks make a come back ill be very happy

I will be producing some 16 oz packages shortly.


If anyone has any questions feel free to shoot me a PM.


For more info about the product the website is here

http://www.oceanfreshaquarium.com/pacifica-plankton/


Cheers,
Tim