Does your homemade fish food float or sink?
I'm just wondering if it would be worth a persons time to make the food or not, in the quantities needed, or if it would just be something that a person would do more as a hobby.
If a person were to start from scratch that never had made fish food before, considering any equipment that needed to be purchased, any supplies that needed to be purchased, and any energy used (gas or electric), what would it take to make 50# of food ($$ and a persons time)?
Here is a label from AquaMax 600 and 500, the most commonly fed sizes of Purina Aquamax fish food.
FWIW, the last 50# bag that I purchased was $0.714 per pound, including sales tax. (it takes me 20-25 minutes each way to and from the store)
It sinks.
It would be more of a hobby as it requires your time.
You could just mix the mash and feed it like the ornamental fish farmers in southern Florida.
In the aquarium my goal is as little waste as possible as it is a fragile ecosystem. A large body of water can absorb more waste.
What I did in the recipe above is reduce waste in a pond food as cheaply as possible. It would be better to use soybean meal as a binder however it is more expensive.
Protein digestibility percentages:
Whole Menhaden Meal 93%
Shrimp Meal 86.5% average
Wheat 42%
Soybean Meal 91%
A quick look at the Aquamax ingredients:
Fish Meal - This is a parts meal meaning after salmon or catfish fillets are removed the remainder is cooked and ground into a meal. This meal has a high ash content since a good portion of what is used is bones.
Poultry by product meal - Warm blooded creatures make poor fish food. Fish are not made to process warm blooded creatures.
Soybean Meal - Quality protein and starch (energy) binder
Corn and wheat - starch binders
Soybean Oil - This doesn't make sense to me. Vegetable oil is far inferior to fish oil in fat quality.
Pork Blood Meal - Warm blooded creatures make poor fish food.
Fish Oil - Very Good.
The question is does feeding a quality mash produce the added weight desired to offset the increased cost.
