Spoke with Clayton today from Optimal about my order. Had a great conversation with him for about a half an hour. Pretty much the how's and why's of Optimal, where it came from, their goals and what makes Optimal so different.

The thing that really got me was I ordered one bag...for a small pond. One bag and he had the time to speak at length about the product. That says a lot.

There ideas make a lot of sense. When I was teaching agriculture (FFA) our show animals went thorough the same thing. You might have 4 or 5 different show feeds...all saying they are the best...all having very similar nutritional breakdowns. But, once you started seeing results, and looking at the ingredients...ie: where that protein or fat was actually coming from, you started seeing the difference, and why one feed was better than the other. Digestible nutrients. If it goes right through them (for lack of a better word) they get little out of it. You start with better base ingredients...purer ingredients...you get better results with less feed.

Anyways, I really appreciated his time. I'm not trying to advertise for them or anything...just wanted to say thanks and if you are having questions about the feed, give him a call!

Thanks for sharing, Peach. Seems a pretty common theme that Optimal is not only trying to change the way fish foods are made, but also a commitment to customer education and satisfaction. I had the same experience with Skretting recently - and my fish have responded very well to the feed vs my previous brand. It's amazing, and we're fortunate to have some options.

Something for YP? Inquiring minds want to know..

Peaachgrower, you touched on one thing that many pondmeisters miss. The better the grade of food and the more that the fish can utilize the food, the less comes out the other end. I am seeing less weed/algae problems in ponds where people switched from lower grades of food to better grades of food.

I switched to Optimal over a year ago and I am really, really happy with the results.

I guess its a lot like raising show animals. It sounds disgusting, but lower grade base products WILL be seen in the manure. You'll see the consistency and amount change also. We use to put corn in the crockpot ever night to feed the next day to soften it so the animals were able to digest it. You would go from seeing alot in the manure to none. There is so much more than just a feed tag. I have seen two feeds fed to two similar show calves with nearly identical nutritional breakdowns (feed tags). One was a name brand (moormans showtec)...one was made in a feedmill locally. The feedmill feed was made from bulk grains. The breakdowns were the same, digestibility was NOT, the end result was SURE not.