Repashy SuperFoods Bottom Scratcher - Invertivore Gel Premix

Start with the honest part: this is an aquarium food, and for most people reading a PostPods page it is the wrong product. If you keep terrestrial isopods, Morning Wood or Bug Burger is what you want. Bottom Scratcher is here for the aquatic side of the shelf, and it is very good at that job.

What it is for

Invertivorous fish, meaning the species that in the wild eat insects, snails, small shrimp and aquatic larvae rather than other fish. Corydoras, plecos, loaches, puffers and gobies. Caridina and Neocaridina shrimp. Dwarf crayfish. It sinks slowly and holds together on the bottom, which is where all of those animals feed.

Why it is unusual

Almost every commercial fish food leans on fish meal for its protein. This one contains none at all. Every protein and fat in the formula comes from invertebrate sources, the four largest being krill meal, black soldier fly larvae meal, mussel meal and squid meal, with some forty supporting ingredients behind them including brewer's yeast, seaweed, kelp and rose hips.

The argument for that is straightforward. A corydoras does not encounter ground fish in a river. Matching the protein to what the animal actually evolved to eat is more likely to support breeding and long-term condition than simply keeping it alive on something convenient. A practical side effect: no fish meal means no fishy smell during preparation, which anyone who has made up a gel food will appreciate.

The analysis runs 45% protein, 10% fat and 12% fibre.

Making it up

Bring water to a rolling boil and pour it into a heatproof bowl. Add powder immediately at one part powder to two or three parts water, whisking hard as it goes in. Two parts gives a firmer gel that holds longer on the bottom; three gives a softer one that breaks up faster for shrimp. Pour into a shallow tray and leave to set, which takes under an hour.

There is a second format worth knowing. Set the gel thin, then dry the sheet at around 65C until it is firm right through and leathery. Dried through, it keeps for months in a sealed tub. Under-dried and sealed, it will mould, so err on the side of longer.

Storage

Sealed and dry, the powder holds for a year. Made-up gel keeps about a fortnight refrigerated. Feed small amounts that get cleared, not large ones that sit, in an aquarium as much as anywhere else.

The rest of the range

For anything terrestrial, the two products named in the opening paragraph are where to look. Both are built for detritivores; this one and Soilent Green are aquatic foods that happen to share a shelf with them. The rest of the feeding kit is in accessories.

Powders go out with the rest of what you have bought, tracked and overnight, posted Monday to Thursday.