I am wondering what is the better food? I have hybrid bg and perch.

Purina Plug

Wow, great question. Right to the point.

I'm not sure that you could do much better than Purina, but both feeds are knows for being "quality" feeds. In general, the better the feed, the less waste will be produced. This helps the water quality, and hence the overall fishery as well. I've fed literally TONS of each, and the fish seemed to find both very palatable, and I had evidence, albeit anecdotal, of good water quality for the entire growing season.

I'd add that it's a good idea to tailor the size of feed, and the protein makeup of the feed to your specific fish so that you get maximum utilization. This also helps with water quality, and keeps your overall costs as low as possible. Feed is considered to be "expensive" these days, but it's my opinion that it's a really good investment to go with the best quality feed possible.

Bruce:

I think the expense of high quality food is "percieved" and it isn't really any more expensive than cheaper(per pound)feed. I'll bet if someone did a study that would be proved. If the cheaper feed was better, I think the people that are raising fish for profit (aquaculture) would be using the cheaper (per pound) feed.

I think people don't consider how the fish seem to do better on the better feed. Less waste in the pond, and the fish seem to grow quicker.

I agree 100%. Higher quality feeds deliver more weight gain/unit cost than cheaper feeds. So long as the pellet size is correct, and the amount you feed every day is appropriate, it pays to go with a feed like Purina or Zeigler.

IMO the lower cost feed (32% protein) at times can be as good or even better than higher cost (40+% protein) feeds, If and importantly IF you are feeding omnivorous fish such as catfish, koi, carp, tilapia, bullheads, minnows, and maybe sunfishes. I say maybe sunfishes because they often thrive and do best on animal based foods (invertebrates) which I would think contain high protein. I think the higher protein foods closer simulate bug/meat diets than the lower 32% protein feeds. There have been studies that showed for BG and similar fish, the 32% feeds can provide good weight gain and growth. But I don't recall that these studies looked at the amount of waste and biofouling of water produced by 32% vs 40+% protein foods. As mentioned I also think there will be less waste produced even for omnivorus fish when they are fed a higher protein food.

Bill, I agree. But, it's not just the % of protein that people need to look at, they also need to know how the company got that percentage (is it easily for the fish to digest the protein).

I'd rather feed Purina GFC than the generic 32% Protein food from the local feed store just because I don't know where the protein was sourced.

The purina gfc is $20 per 50lb bag and it a floating pellet (random sized)32% protein.

The zeigler finfish is $40 per 45lb bag with 50% protein slow sinking. 1.5mm size

I want to go with the zeigler but i want the best food for my fish. (my fish are 3-6in)

I've used both Zeigler gold and Purina aquamax for the trout that I stocked.
In the first 2 years of my pond the trout farm that I got Brooks,Brown,Rainbows and Tigers from used Zeigler, so that's what I used first and then tried Purina later in the season, I did this for 2 seasons and found no difference in acceptance by the trout.
Now it doesn't seem to matter what I use as the trout have so much natural food in the pond they don't eat much of the pellets.
In all years I've had excellent growth from spring thru fall.

I use GFC as well since it is middle of the road and wanted to make sure my fish would take to it.

It is also just as cheap as the catfish food so that is how I went.

Now I plan to try or switch to AM next spring but that all depends on price, and amount they eat. I am sure I will double what I fed them this year so that would be about $50 a month as compared to $115 a month on AM.

I wish I had two ponds about the same and I could put up each feed on a pond and see which one did better year after year.

Thanks

Guys there are lots of studies (aquaculture) on fish feeds and their performance. Bill's comments are on point and so is Bruce's on considering the species of fish. They are each different. Keep in mind that most of those studies are on fish at hatcheries/aquaculture operations where feed is the diet (limited natural food). That makes a big difference. Goals , goals , goals -- supplemental feeding or dependent feeding. There is material here on protein and feed make up and species.

I only use sinking feed , in limited circumstances and in winter or for fry/fingerlings.

I don't know much about either brand, but it seems that comparing Zeigler's 50% protein feed with the sort of middle-of-the-road Purina GFC is quite comparing apples to apples. Bruce, Bob, other Purina guys, is that a reasonable perception in this comparison or not?

No that is why I posted what I did.

That is similar to AM 300 fingerling starter. I only use that for starting small fingerlings 2-3 inches where they can eat sinking feed. I would not use it on 3-6 inch fish. IMO GFC will do fine for BG and YP in the 3-6 inch size and bigger. If I wanted to mix in some high protein I would add some AM 400 - 600 depending on the fish size.

For those interested, yellow perch (YP) grow much better and eat it much better if using Aquamax carnivore (41% protein) compared to GFC (32%). If you look on the Aquamax Carnivore bag (lower front left) there is a picture of a yellow perch. Amax carnivore has fish meal in it, and YP do eat quite a few small fish thus the benefit of the higher protein pellet.

I actually had bad eperiences with ziegler feed back when I ordered it straight from the source by the pallet. Several bags had moldy food upon arrival. Only once have I got a bag of moldy food from purina and silver cup. It was a bag of aquamax largemouth.

I wont use ziegler, but regularly use aquamax and silver cup and gamefish chow. I use sinking foods in the spring and fall and floating foods in the summer. Fish are still feeding strong right now on sinking foods, but wont hardly touch a floating nugget.

I wish I would have thought about getting some sinking food instead of the GFC, I just wanted to try to get at least one more month out of them.

I wonder if they will eat much once it finaly sinks?

What are some options for sinking food in the size range of GFC?

GFC is multiple sizes. It is the only one like that. IMO sinking feed has limited uses in ponds (not aquaculture operations). Not very efficient once it hits the bottom in normal circumstances.

I've had mixed results. In my forage pond I have everything from fry to 7 inch BG, CNBG and some GSF. I've tried AM and GFC. They overwhelmingly prefer the GFC.

In one pond with larger fish they prefer AM but will certainly accept GFC. In another pond with a lot of various sizes they prefer GFC.

Well maybe since they seem to got at it like crazy I may just stick with it. May mix in some AM 400 or 500 just to see what happens.

Thanks