I bought some fish food from a local Southern States store called Big Strike fish food. I have been feeding this stuff to the bluegills for about two weeks. First I've noticed that this Big Strike food does not float very good and sinks everytime a fish makes a current eating a pellet near it. I'm also noticing that half the time the bg will eat a pellet but after about five seconds it will spit it out and it sinks to the bottom. Has anyone else seen bg do this? Is this normal when feeding fish? I dont like to see this stuff wasted on the bottom of the pond. I was wondering if fish food goes bad if it sits at the store to long and does not taste good to the fish. I might try some different type of food at the Tractor Supply Store near my house. They were out of fish food last time I was there. Has anyone tried a brand from a Tractor Supply Store?

Most of use here use Aquamax made by Purina Mills. Most feed mills that handle Purina products can get it for you.

Paul get the southern states store to get in some litle strike next time they can. It is higher protein 36% smaller pellet so easier for the bluegill to eat, 6% fat and more palatable. Well worth a couple extra dollars per bag.

Or use AM or GFC.

All brands of food will start to oxidize when stored for a long period of time. It sounds like Greg is familiar with the food, I'm not. I did use the TSC food (floating catfish and the other, 1/8" gamefish size in 20# bags) and my BG did the same as yours, spitting some of it back out. They did less of that with the smaller sized pellets, but rarely spit it back out when I switched to AquaMax.

I normally use the Li'l Strike from Southern states. All of my fish, including the bass, seem to really like it. For some reason, I've not been able to get any in the last month, so yesterday I had to buy a bag of Big Strike. They keep promising that they'll have Li'l Strike "next Tuesday."

For us, it is either that, or the Tractor Supply feed, which my fish don't care for. Neither Purina dealer seems to be the least bit interested in getting Aquamax for me.

I don't particularly like the Big Strike for the same reasons stated, including the lower protein, and I believe lower fat content. Half of it sinks within a couple of minutes. The bluegill don't go crazy for it, like they do for the Li'l Strike. And, I have a lot of smaller bluegill that like to come for feed, and I think it is too big for them.

I'd go for the Li'l Strike. Normally if a Southern States store doesn't carry it, they can get it in a week.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I wish I had known this before I bought the Big Strike cause I think the store did have Lil Strike food but I thought it would be too small for the bluegills in my pond. Most bgs are eight inches long and have no trouble eating the Big Strike. I cant stand the way the Big Strike sinks so fast. At least they do eat some of the food tho. The Tractor Supply store near my house is a Purina dealer but they said they never even heard of Purina Aquamax. I guess if I really want the aquamax i'll have to order it.

I didn't have much luck ordering thru TSC, but a small local feed store that is a Purina dealer was more than happy to order some for me. Now they are selling about 20 bags a week to different pond owners. They order on a weekly basis.