Like Chris, I have used Ringer’s Next Generation expander pellets since they first came on the market and for a couple of years or so rated them as the best available – half a dozen pumps and they were perfect but more importantly they retained their size. Having re-stocked with 4mm and 6mm a couple of months ago, I now find that this latest batch just will not sink, no matter how many times they are pumped but more to the point, excessive pumping also causes them to swell up considerably so that a 6mm is almost 8mm.
Yes I do use the gelatine trick and while pellets prepared this way do sink, mainly due to the weight of the absorbed gelatine they are not so effective when fishing for skimmers, which tend to prefer a very soft pellet. (At least in our local commie they do.) Squeezing the pellet under water works ok but this is a pain when requiring a reasonable quantity for feeding.
Ringers obviously don’t make their own pellets so it appears they have received a poor batch from their bulk suppliers.
TF_gixer1.
