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View Full Version : Why is PE mysis different than Hikari mysis?


snorvich
03/30/2009, 04:01 PM
Any information would be useful on this subject. Thanks in advance!

bradleyj
03/30/2009, 04:46 PM
If you look on the label, they are 69% protein where most have around 10%. The pe mysis are about double the size of regular mysis. This is the first time I've tried them. Honestly I hadn't even heard of them untill I got the choati.

snorvich
03/30/2009, 04:49 PM
Thanks Brad. I order PE mysis in addition to my hikari. Bipartus arrive tomorrow.

Stanley-Reefer
03/30/2009, 04:57 PM
luckily here in Charlotte, the lfs has flats and cubes pe mysis. We (the fish and I:D ) love it!

JUST BE SURE TO RINSE IT FIRST. You won't believe how cloudy it turns the rinse water/container!

tcmfish
03/30/2009, 05:02 PM
It does however say from dry weight, if I remember correctly. But still I think it is superior because you get the whole shrimp instead of the tails. Also, it may be too big for some small fish, but it is my favorite frozen food available.

Kieth71
03/30/2009, 05:53 PM
I think its funny but my fish love hikari mysis but the pe mysis is to big and they dont really like it.I am not sure if they make two sizes but i have only found the larger size.

LobsterOfJustice
03/30/2009, 05:59 PM
I always hear people raving about it, mainly saying it's whole pieces and a larger size. But I wouldn't want anything much larger than the standar mysis.

bradleyj
03/30/2009, 06:00 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14725639#post14725639 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Thanks Brad. I order PE mysis in addition to my hikari. Bipartus arrive tomorrow.

Good luck with them Steve, and let me know how they do.
My choati has been out since noon and ate two big shrimp.
I know I'm not in the clear yet, but every day I feel more confident that she will do well.

SDguy
03/30/2009, 06:22 PM
Pretty sure that huge difference in crude protein % is dry vs wet weight. IIRC (there have been threads about this) some are FW in origin, some are marine. Obviously whatever species PE collects is not like any of the others....the fattiness of the stuff is just crazy!

Might try searching the seahorse forum for more info...pretty sure that's where the threads were....

andrewkw
03/30/2009, 06:59 PM
PE Mysis is basically all my fish eat and most of what my corals eat (cyclopeeze too).

IMO it's just the best food out there. Even long term my fish are all fat healthy great colour. Corals love eating it. A lot of corals that don't always eat like florida ricordeas love it.

I used to mix food up a lot with home made stuff but its such a mess I can't be bothered just buy the huge slabs of this stuff and everything does pretty good and my tank is less polluted.

Stanley-Reefer
03/30/2009, 07:51 PM
not sure about your small fish, but my chromis, clowns and fridmani eats the PE mysis as fast as the big tangs and wrasses!!! They suck it up without problem.

AuroraDrvr
03/30/2009, 08:06 PM
You also get more for your money. Pick up a pack of PE Mysis and look how little extra "ice" there is in the pack. Now look at most other Mysis packs.

snorvich
03/30/2009, 08:29 PM
thanks everyone. I worry about the size compared to hikari. Tomorrow I will find out; both my bipartus leopard wrasses and PE mysis arrive.

flameangel88
03/30/2009, 08:42 PM
My angels didn't like PE Mysis in the beginning but after couple of feedings and now they will eat them along with the regular mysis. I can't say for sure that they prefer one over the other.

yetiman
03/30/2009, 09:10 PM
Dumb question, what is PE mysis. Thanks

Chibils
03/30/2009, 09:17 PM
It's a brand, Piscene Energetics. My fish (even the firefish&ywg) love it. I've never tried any other as my lfs only carry pe mysis.

ento-reefer
03/30/2009, 09:20 PM
Well I have always fed the hikari brand because that is what I have easy access to. I am going to have to try the PE mysis now that everyone is raving about them. I am sure I could get them at That Pet Place the next time I make the drive up there.

Good luck with your Bipartitus Steve.

LukFox
03/30/2009, 10:30 PM
I've never seen PE for sale, but if they're that much bigger it might be worth searching for it... Interesting. Hikari is definitely on the small side for my fish.

hoosierpat
03/30/2009, 10:31 PM
The hikari is whole but much smaller that the PE. The PE is a freshwater shrimp that was actually a big mistake in Canada. I'm pretty sure that the story goes that the Fish and wildlife services in Canada tried to seed a lake with mysid shrimp because the salmon or trout or some other fish population was in decline and they thought that an additional food source for the fry would help out the population. Anyway, they added the mysis and found out that the mysis would stay at depth during the day when the fish were eating and rise up at night and actually eat the zooplankton that the fish would normally consume. Bottom line is that they ended up with a lake full of mysis and just about nothing else. So Piscine Energetics, or the founders of it, petitioned the government to allow the lake to remain as it was and harvest the mysis instead of trying to fix the ecology of the lake which would have likely been a failure.

As far as the difference in nutrition, I don't really know. I would assume that because they are from a colder environment, their metabolism is probably slower and they probably retain more fat stores on a day to day basis.

Big E
03/31/2009, 01:58 AM
As far as the amount of protien & nourishment there is no difference between Hikari & PE mysis. I did extensive research about 4 years ago & the numbers are exactly the same.

The manufacturers label the percentages differently but if you really crunch the numbers they are the same. I posted the actual info in a RC thread........if you can find it on a search it will probably be in the archives.

I've always bought Hikari because it's much less expensive & really didn't care about the size I was feeding my fish.

pammy
03/31/2009, 05:10 AM
I saw PE Mysis for the first time over the weekend (before reading this thread) and grabbed 2 packs. I can't believe how much larger the Mysis is compared to the Hikari that I normally get!! I'd say at least triple the size. My Ocellaris clown fish and my shrimp goby had no problem gobbling it down, but my new Orchid Dottyback grabbed a piece, and it was way too big for him to swallow, so he just sait there with a big piece hanging out of his mouth. The PE Mysis does have a mixture of sizes blended in though. If you go to their website, they talk about how they have some babies mixed in with adults etc. My dottyback just happened to grab a huge one. The largest adult shrimp in the PE Mysis is about 3/4" long. Another thing that surprised me, is that I couldn't believe how much shrimp one tiny cube of the PE Mysis contained once it thawed out. I have the larger cubes of Hikari, and feed one whole cube to my tank. I thawed out one small cube of PE Mysis, and it was a TON of food compressed into that small cube. I had to cut back to only 1/2 small cube last night, and it was still a ton of shrimp. The small pack of PE Mysis cubes cost me $9, vs $6 for a little bit larger pack of Hikari cubes, but there must be a lot less liquid in the PE Mysis cubes, so I'd say in the end, the cost is probably about equal.
Pam

iamwhatiam52
03/31/2009, 06:28 AM
What about the oft repeated admonition that freshwater organisms are not suitable food for marine fish?

My fish love the PE. Even tiny gobies manage to tear them up and swallow surprisingly large pieces.

LargeAngels
03/31/2009, 07:14 AM
As stated above PE mysis is freshwater mysis from Canada. I don't know where Hikari gets theirs.

Hikari has two sizes, small and big. PE mysis is almost in the middle, towards the larger size, of the two Hikari mysis.

SanFrancisco Bay also sells one that resembles the smaller Hikari.

tcmfish
03/31/2009, 08:06 AM
The large hikari mysis is a bad option IMO. I have never seen a fish eat it and thats working at a LFS trying to feed a ton of fish. They just look the other way, but the small hikari and PE are both good options, I just prefer the PE because of the size of the shrimp you get.

SDguy
03/31/2009, 08:09 AM
Only my largest angel and male lyretail can eat the jumbo hikari mysis. The stuff is HUGE...and hard...like small krill...not at all soft like PE mysis.

Makes great RBTA food though :)

LargeAngels
03/31/2009, 08:26 AM
My large angels, dwarf golden eel, rosefacia wrasse, rhomboid wrasse and other wrasses love the large Hikari mysis. I wouldn't be without it anymore. I also like cause it is larger the extra tend to sink onto the bottom and angels and wrasses will then forage for them a later. Excellent for tamarin wrasses that forage all the time. They will bite, chew, spit, bite chew and spit until they've eaten it. It's funny cause you can hear the loud "snap" of the the tamarin wrases when they bite.

snorvich
03/31/2009, 01:12 PM
Well now that I have used both, I am going to switch to PE mysis. Much better in my opinion. I cannot say what all the differences are but subjectively it seems like you get more food per volume (less water run off), and it smells differently to me, so possibly will smell differently to the fish as well.

LargeAngels
03/31/2009, 01:19 PM
Steve: Do you think that the Hikari mysis has "smelled" more in the last couple of months than previously? The latest batch I bought after DFS were out for a while smells more. Also, IME PE mysis quality will vary throughout the year and sometimes my fish won't eat well on it.

SDguy
03/31/2009, 01:51 PM
We had some locals get some small, brown PE mysis a little while ago. But it seems to have returned to normal in the newer batches.

Big E
03/31/2009, 02:11 PM
The small pack of PE Mysis cubes cost me $9, vs $6 for a little bit larger pack of Hikari cubes, but there must be a lot less liquid in the PE Mysis cubes, so I'd say in the end, the cost is probably about equal.

You need to shop around........I get the large 16 oz of Hikari pack for 6.79 to 6.09 from Dr. Fosters. PE mysis is waaay more expensive. Those small cube packs are like 3.5 to 4 oz. or so.

Normally I'll buy a large bulk of frozen food from them all at once that lasts me a year or so.

I only feed mysis to smaller fish........for anything larger I feed fresh seafood homemade mixes..........again way cheaper than buying PE mysis.

You won't see me buying PE mysis or Rods Food because they are way overpriced & there are alternatives just as good. In the end, I guess it comes down to preference.

snorvich
03/31/2009, 05:15 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14731657#post14731657 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LargeAngels
Steve: Do you think that the Hikari mysis has "smelled" more in the last couple of months than previously? The latest batch I bought after DFS were out for a while smells more. Also, IME PE mysis quality will vary throughout the year and sometimes my fish won't eat well on it.

That is very interesting. I too bought from DFS after they were out but I never thought about that until you mentioned it. I have both PE and Hikari. When does PE quality deteriorate? Does anyone else find this to be true??

Stanley-Reefer
03/31/2009, 05:24 PM
snovich--did you rinse the pe first? It's pretty cloudy stuff if you don't

I love Rods and PE mysis!

fender4string
03/31/2009, 07:08 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14726136#post14726136 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rockymtreefer
I think its funny but my fish love hikari mysis but the pe mysis is to big and they dont really like it.I am not sure if they make two sizes but i have only found the larger size.

An LFS near here has two sizes of PE mysis. There's the size that I'm pretty sure everyone else on here is talking about and there's also a small size.

Bret61081
03/31/2009, 08:05 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14733089#post14733089 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
That is very interesting. I too bought from DFS after they were out but I never thought about that until you mentioned it. I have both PE and Hikari. When does PE quality deteriorate? Does anyone else find this to be true??

The quality never changes depends on the time of the year. People will get it dark brown if it defrosts before it hits the freezer. Ive been using it for years and all my fish eat it. from my Chevron tang all the way down to my Tiny Janns Pipes and Cryptic 6line wrasse. PE is the best IMO...there is no water packaged in it like the Hikari. As far as sizes, I have never seen anything other then the Original but I will email the company and find out.

Dave Harms
03/31/2009, 08:15 PM
Thanks for the info guys, I now know a lot more about mysis then I did before! :D

snorvich
03/31/2009, 08:27 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14733140#post14733140 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Stanley-Reefer
snovich--did you rinse the pe first? It's pretty cloudy stuff if you don't

I love Rods and PE mysis!

I rinse all frozen food except Rods. Thanks!!

Elysia
03/31/2009, 08:40 PM
If the frozen pack has thawed and been refrozen, then the mysis will be discolored. According to some of the seahorse breeders (and these are people whose animals live almost exclusively on frozen mysis) the long chain fatty acids (if I remember correctly) will begin to break down pretty soon after thawing. So you want to purchase your foods from a reliable retailer (and make sure that all shipping is done through a reliable shipper.)

conjuay
03/31/2009, 09:15 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14727413#post14727413 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
thanks everyone. I worry about the size compared to hikari. Tomorrow I will find out; both my bipartus leopard wrasses and PE mysis arrive.
I have a flat bottomed dish, and a small steel flat egded spatula. I break off some of the PE mysis and -before it thaws- attack it with the spatula. you'd be amazed how quickly you can reduce it to a much finer size for both fish and corals!
If you try this with most other frozen foods, they fly out of the dish, but the mysis can be shaved down very fine.

tcmfish
03/31/2009, 09:28 PM
Since everyone is on the topic of feeding. You can also buy frozen shrimp raw from the grocery store, freeze it in cups so that it forms a rod, and shave it with a cheese grater. It is a little time consuming but it is a great way to feed good food.

One thing though, it might take some coaxing for finicky eaters.

AuroraDrvr
03/31/2009, 10:19 PM
Just picked up some Omega One. It is a larger size of Mysis. But you do not get nearly the same quality of Mysis as you do with PE. There is alot of free space in the frozen sheet. And its more pieces of mysis than whole ones.