Back on November 23rd, I made a change in diet for most of my fishes to try out the insanely popular LRS feeds; specifically the new Fertility Frenzy.  I purchased four 8 oz. flats for use in my fishroom, and 4 more flats went to Mike Doty’s fishroom to try on some problem spawners. As of today, I’ve gone through two of them; I’m using about 8 oz of this food per week.
While hardly a scientific and controlled test, I figured changing one variable in the routine (feeding a different food, and more frequently) would at least provide some insight.  And if pairs which were not spawning suddenly sprung into action, well, wouldn’t that just be great?  There’s been a lot of positive feedback but also some rather remarkable claims made about these feeds…on the one hand almost too hard to believe, but also too hard to ignore.
I instantly saw some fish willing to gorge themselves on feed in a way that perhaps they wouldn’t on others. The small particle size and gel binder is very reminiscent of Repashy’s Spawn and Grow formulation…so much so the cynic in me mused “is LRS just repackaged and augmented Spawn and Grow?” I’ve offered this food to just about every fish in the room…freshwater, saltwater, juveniles to adults.  Most take it and “enjoy” it….my Altums (Pterophyllum altum) have a hard time with it, but the Betta smaragdina “Guitar” juveniles pounce on this food.
One of the Clownfish pairs that initially showed the most promise was the F1 Lightning X Lightning pair.  Upon going onto the LRS Fertility Frenzy, I remember confiding in a fellow breeder that I thought the fish looked uncomfortably fat, and I was actually worried that this could lead to a problem such as egg binding.  Well…my concerns were unfounded, the pair put down their most recent nest on Sunday, November 29th. This is their 25th spawn.
This first nest was no larger, or no better quality, than any of the prior nests. Perhaps only 6 days on the food is not enough to see the impacts of the new diet that most hobbyist feedback would lead me to expect.
Another possibility here is that whatever is driving nest size and quality might not be dietary in this pair. A third possibility might be that the prior staple diet, Spectrum’s Thera A, represents a comparable source of nutrition and thus, the switch to LRS could simply effectively be a lateral move (everyone knows Spectrum is a very solid, premium pellet).
It’s going to take several more weeks of feeding to make any sort of anecdotal observations that I’d put weight behind. But it does remind me that in breeding there probably isn’t a shortcut or magic bullet.  Feed, while important, is only part of the equation.