Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose How to Make Fish a Regular, Consistent Food Source

To determine how much corn is in a feed you have to look at the ingredient list. The ingredients are listed in order by weight so the first ingredient is the most abundant. The first 4-5 ingredients make up the bulk of the food. Here's the ingredients for Aquamax 600:

Ingredients: Fish Meal, Soybean Meal, Ground Corn, Poultry Meal, Fish Oil, Wheat Middlings, Hydrolyzed Poultry Feathers, Corn Gluten Meal, Blood Meal, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Menadione Dimethyl pyrimidinol Bisulfate, Choline Chloride, Calcium Pantothenate, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphoshate (source of Vitamin C), Thiiamin MOnonitrate, Biotin, Folic Acid, Cholecalciferol, Riboflavin, nicotinic Acid, Di-Alpha Tocopheryl Acertate, Vitamin A Acetate, Ethoxyquin (A Preservative), Zinc Oxide, Cyanocobalamin, Dl-Motioning, Manganous Oxide, Ferrous Carbonate, Copper Sulfate, Zinc Slufate, Calcium Iodate, Calcium Carbonate, Cabalt Carbonate.

Unfortunately many animal feeds are used to recycle waste from the human food chain. Some of the ingredients are self explanatory and most of the ingredients at the end of the list are added for vitamin and mineral content. Fish meal is a concentrated protein power made from scraps of our fish industry. This fish meal can contain a controversial preservative called ethoxyquin which is used when transporting fish. Additional ethoxyquin is added to this food to preserve it. Fish meal can be made from what's left after fish are cleaned and processed for human consumption (guts, skin and bones) and it can also be from farmed fish which is fed a commercial diet and is lower in Omega 3's. Poultry meal is the same, scraps from chicken processed for human consumption, often low in quality and high in bone (backs and necks). Wheat Middlings are basically sweepings off the floor. Corn gluten meal is a concentrated protein source derived from corn (not gluten at all).

Most of the ingredients are inexpensive low quality sources of protein. Protein's that are animal based are much better assimilated than those that are plant based unless the food is intended for herbivores. A variety of protein sources are used to cover the amino acid profiles needed for the species the food is meant for. All extruded feeds need carbohydrates to form a kibble shape but they aren't very beneficial or nutritional to most carnivore species they are fed to. The extrusion process utilizes high heat that helps break down carbohydrates making them more bio-available.

Here is a simplified explanation of Corn vs. Canola Oil. When speaking about people, we consume way too many omega 6 fatty acids. They are inflammatory and contribute to illness and disease. Omega 3 fatty acids are the good guys, anti-inflammatory. Wikipedia explains this well: "Some medical research suggests that excessive levels of omega-6 fatty acids, relative to omega-3 fatty acids, may increase the probability of a number of diseases and depression. Modern Western diets typically have ratios of omega-6 to omega-3 in excess of 10 to 1, some as high as 30 to 1, partly due to corn oil which has an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 49:1. The optimal ratio is thought to be 4 to 1 or lower."
Canola oil has an O-6 to O-3 ratio of 2:1.

What Leo says is true, fish that are fed commercial feeds are not near as healthy to eat as fish that forage for natural food when referring to omega fatty acids.