It seems to me that some pieces of my older AM600 is almost twice the size as my newer bags of the same. Just me?

The size of the pellets can vary depending on when the extruders at the factory were last cleaned. Watch carefully in the future and you will see a fair amount of variation of the AM600 over the long term. It would think there are ways the operator of the extruder can slightly change the size of the final size of the pellet. The main complaint that I have with Purina Aquamax feeds is their quality control is sort of 'loose' regarding production of the larger sizes of Aquamax.

Baro,

Your original bag you have may have been the feed that was extruded temporarily in Mississippi vs. the regular plant in Richmond, Indiana. It appeared to be twice the size. I wasn't happy with it as it didn't seem to be as good of quality, and I had bluegills in a cage with mouth gapes to small for it.

Odd. I got 3 bags in Sept and they have different size pellets. The smallest are normal 600 size but fully half the pellets are 3X normal size. They will not run through my TH feeder. Not happy. A pic later.

Always been a huge AQMX fan but with crumbly oversize 600 may be looking for a change -

Cecil got it. I spoke with the Purina top guys three weeks ago. When they had the recall of AquaMax last summer, production at the Richmond, Indiana, plant shifted to Macon, Mississippi, long enough to clean out the Richmond plant. The Macon plant didn't have all the same ingredients and their die was different, thus the size difference. All production has now shifted back to Richmond and Purina assures me that their quality control is on track and that we'll be getting AquaMax products from there, through the normal channels. It took awhile for them to overcome the volume of feed recalled, to keep the supply chain moving as normally as possible and to catch back up from the feed lost in the recall.

Thx all. My feed guy was starting to think I was crazy...... well he's partly right. My stripers don't seem to like the smaller pellets as well. My 4 dogs that help me feed the fish just don't care> :-).

Be careful feeding your dogs the pellets. It will make them fat. My dog is off the pellets indefinitely due to weight issues. I had a fish farmer tell me his dogs gained a lot of weight on them too.

Our dogs love the food pellets. I have to throw a hand-full off in the grass every 30-40ft to keep my dogs from jumping in the pond trying to eat what I'm feeding to the fish. They love it!!!

Cecil, just curious how the diet is going with your Akita? And what is her name? .

She's lost 4 1/2 pounds from 121 pounds to 116.5 pounds. I try to take her on long walks every day I can but the weather here has been brutally cold. Doesn't bother her but it's hard on me walking into cold wind.

No people food. I'm sticking to my guns. She is eating the dry dog food twice a day. Total 3 to 4 cups a day.

Cecil, if you think this weather is brutally cold, you must really hate January and February!

C'mon Cecil, what's that cuties name?

Actually no. For some reason this damp cold has been chilling me to the bone lately with the strong winds.

Here's what the WGN Weather Blog had to say about the next couple of weeks:

FEATURE03162013
Winter just won’t give up
Posted on: March 15th, 2013 9:28 PM by Richard Koeneman No Comments



The weather pattern remains active and cold, and computer models indicate no change through the end of the month. Winds at the 18 thousand foot level -- winds that act as the primary steering mechanism for surface weather systems -- are forecast to remain predominantly from the northwest for at least two weeks. This pattern will result in repeated intrusions of Canadian air into the Midwest through month's end, and consequent cold temperatures. Chicago's daily normal high temperature, 47 degrees on Saturday, rises one degree every two or three days at this time of the spring, reaching 53 degrees on March 31. That's the fastest rate of rise during the entire spring. Despite that rising climatological imperative, the city's day-to-day high temperatures are forecast to remain steady in the 30s through the current 7-day forecast cycle -- averaging 13 degrees below normal.

Cecil, do you have long johns for seining?

Yes and more!

Low of 18 and a high of 24 on Wed.....

I know the Ducks (Mallards) love them things. I threw them a handful a year or so ago and they've been begging ever since.

I just bought 2 bags of 600 and, at least the first bag, it's basically the same size of 500 and my fish won't touch it. I don't understand why size is so important to them. I've tested it several times,...throw a scoop of 500 out and they won't touch it; get a scoop of 600 and throw that out, they ravish it. even the BG have no interest in 500.

She's still loosing weight, down to 112 now from the original 119.

600 should be a lot bigger than 500.

Should be but it aint, I just checked my second bag, it's the same smaller size..The only thing I can hope for is they accidentally bagged 500 and marked it 600, if this is the new size, I won't be buying any more.

I've got 5 bags of 600 ordered, so I'll let you know about the size when it shows up.

I found some old 500, this new stuff is in between the size of 500 and the regular size 600 so maybe it's just quality control or recent cleaning as Bill mentioned.

I just picked up two bags of 500 and two bags of 600. They both appear to be the same size as last year before the recall. All bags were of consistent size and consistent color.

Here's a size comparison of AM500 & AM600. I just picked up the 600 on Saturday, the 500 is from last Fall.

Not having seen or used AM600 before, has it gotten smaller? I was really expecting a greater size difference.

AM600 Label for those interested (Oh, and those are my kind of "Directions" )

500 should be 3/16 --- 4.8mm

600 should be 9/32 --- 7.1mm

See
http://aquamax.purinamills.com/aquamaxproductlist.pdf

Thanks Eric, now I feel bad for not finding that myself and I always try to research before posting!

Thanks again!

Keith

Lovnlivin's pictures of the pellets are typical sizes that I see for the Aquamax Carnivore fish Pellets sizes 500 and 600.

My question for Purina Mills or anyone else is how many pellets of size AM600 (5D06) are equivalent to the nutrition in a 2 inch fathead minnow? Is there a way to calculate this??

Lovnlivin that is why questions are good. There is so much info here no one can keep up. I often find really good stuff I must have read but do not recall. With enough collective brains on the forum one of us should remember and have an answer.

Yes Bill there is. The FH part is the easy one. The AM part is proprietary. Same for other manufactures. It could be replicated (reverse engineered) in a lab.

ewest- If the AM part is proprietary why did Purina advertise that there big LM bass pellet had the equivalent nutrition of a small trout (don't remember the size of trout - 6"-8")? Can one use the amount of protein in a 1" or 2" FHM and add the protein content in AM pellets until the two are equal??

Because everyone knew (it was announced as a marketing point) that the LMB pellet was made to match a ground up RT. That is where the formula came from. Purina (Mark Griffin) took a RT ground it up , extracted the water and reverse engineered it and then matched the breakdown (protein , amino acids ,lipids and carbs) with ingredients to make the LMB pellet. They don't say X pellets equal one RT nor do they give the caloric breakdown.

Pondboss just posted a video on facebook and Lusk is in it stating that Aquamax Largemouth 6-7 nuggets equals nutrition of a 12oz rainbow...for whatever that is worth. (he may have just been speaking in generality for those who are more uneducated with AM feeds)

I guess you could weigh some of each, do some cross multiply and divide to get an idea on the AM600 to Fathead minnow question

I wonder how much different the AM500/600 formula is from AM largemouth.

Eric,

Is the LMB pellet still available?

I do know one thing; fatheads and small bluegills will hammer them for the crumbles that come off of them. if they didn't sink so rapidly they might be a viable way to feed small fish.

Cecil, sorry to "butt in" as you were asking Eric, but here's some info on the LMB food. He may have more to add.

http://www.aquamaxbass.com/
I believe that's our own Bob Lusk in the video!

And here's the actual product listing
http://aquamax.purinamills.com/AquaMaxLargeMouth.pdf

Do you know approximately how long it floats? I did a "float" test with about 25 of the AM500 in a pitcher and it was at least 26 hours before it sank (sank during the night). And that includes stirring it occasionally.

Keith

Cecil, I can still get AM LMB from my supplier.

Is it safe to assume my HSB would eat the AM LMB as well?

My HSB absolutely destroy AM LMB pellets. It sounds like bricks hitting the water. I started them on broken up LMB pellets when they were 10-12 inches (broke them in half +-).

My AM LMB pellets float about an hour if they don't get hammered by the fish. Never tried that in a controlled environment though.

Here is the AM chart.