Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Game fish chow

does anyone know where to find the experation date on a bag of purina GFC? I decided to try some and it took me forever to find a feed store that had it. Its really light colored in compairison so other feeds ive used and its very dry. most feeds I have tried have a kinda oil on them. This was dry and dusty. Just wondering if maybe it was old feed or if it was all like this.

GFC is notably lighter in color and less oily than Aqaumax 500 & 600. IIRC higher protein feeds tend to be darker than 32% stuff like GFC.

I will look on a bag of Aquamax 600 I have and see if I can see an expiration date - perhaps it would be the same place on GFC since they are both Purina (?).

There was a number that was stamped on the bag. It was something like NOV07831 or something close to that. I hope that doesnt mean it expired in november 07. The bag doesn't look like the one on there website though. The guy at the feed store said they sell alot of it so I wouldn't think it would be that old. But who knows!

Based on the date on my bag, that is the manufacture date.

The "dusty" aspect would make me return it. When I pay the price for Purina I want NO question on quality or freshness!

doesn't the feed lose some nutritional value after about 3 months?

I think it depends on the brand. It is my understanding that the Purina Aquamax has Vitamin C stabilization that makes it last quite a bit longer...maybe closer to a year, as long as you're not keeping it in an inferno or something.

I just don't have alot of fish that come eat at the feeder. 1 Second is what I have it set on now and some days they don't eat all of that. I just want to try to get the highest quality feed I can find to them. The feed stores around here just don't carry any high end feed and I can't get them to order any. I wanted to use the Aquamax or the silvercup but my options are Cargills aquafeed, Purina game fish chow or Orangeburg milling fingerling floater. The Aquafeed I brought the other day was moldy and the orangeburge was really dusty and I was worried that it would eventually jam up my feeder. It was a really good feed as far as nutrition went.

GFC is dry and has some residue feed dust. It has lees chance of being rancid because it is not oily outside. If you opened it and you did not see any mold and it did not smell rancid then it was ok.

The fish are seeming to like the GFC better than any other feeds that I have used so far so I think im gonna stick with it for a while thanks for answering all my questions everyone.

jsand13 - "I just don't have a lot of fish that come eat at the feeder. 1 Second is what I have it set on now and some days they don't eat all of that."

That is common in summer in the south. Fish are not as active and have lots of other stuff to eat. Same here.

the food I buy at Burris has the man. date clearly stamped on the tag, and also the recommended 'sell by' date of 6 months later also clearly marked. I hate the 'coded' dates that are hard to figure out.