Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations zeigler fish food

while we were on vacation a few weeks ago we stopped at the pisgah wildlife center at pisgah forest north carolina, its a pretty neat place. out back of the office they have large trout runs that are slap full of trout. they have food in a bubble gum dispenser and it has a strong smell similar to aquamax. i called them this morning and they said they use zeigler fish food. i thought i would pass this along to you all that are having trouble getting aquamax. i havent had any problem getting am, matter of fact i picked up 2 bags yesterday.

Zeigler is a very commonly used trout food. Trout need a higher % protein than most common pond fish. They have a variety of products.


http://www.zeiglerfeed.com/html/index.htm

bluegill benefit from the highest protein food also, right?

The fish farms around here that sell feed, sell Zeigler Silver or Gold. This is the same they use in their operations and sell to the public as an all purpose fish food.

My HBG slowed down on feeding because of the temps. Pond was 48°F this morning, but when the temps are suitable, they are all over it, and seem to be growing well.

No....

Purina did a study and compared their current food to a test food with higher protein, and there was no benefit to the higher protein. So there is a Max that is beneficial, over that there is no benefit to the increase in protein. I don't remember what the number was and will need to find the study again to find it.

Sean

It is my understanding that protein is not the only determining factor to fish growth and health.

Definitely. I've learned more about fish food this year than in all previous years.

Lots going on in the field of study. The best food is that which matches the species natural food. There are 3 major elements of fish food - protein , carbohydrates and lipids (fats). Then there are all the vitamins and micronutrients. Did a talk on this at PBC iv on fish nutrition.

Found the study...it was on trout, not bluegill... I would think the same principles would apply to all fish. That is, there being a Max amount of protein that the fish can metabolize.

https://www.uwsp.edu/cols-ap/nadf/Projec...n%20Content.pdf

Sean

The basic point is shown below.

With all other components being equal between the two raceways, the only experimental component that was different between the two treatments was the content of the two feeds. Companies that produce commercial fish feeds are constantly searching for something that will enhance the growth of the fish at a more rapid rate. “Both the quantity and quality of the diet influence the metabolic partition of the components” (Cho & Kaushik, 1990)
but as very few companies release the ingredient lists of their experimental feeds, the quantities of protein, lipid, fats, and carbohydrates are difficult to assess.
Protein is of crucial importance to carnivorous fish such as rainbow trout so it has rightly been the ingredient of interest. Past studies (Lawson 1996, Okumus and Mazlum 2002, and Heinen et al. and Hankins 1993) have shown no growth differences in rainbow trout fed diets with protein contents of 38% to 65.5%. This was also seen in this study where rainbow trout were fed two diets with protein contents of 41% and 56.5%.

The thing about trout is the maximum growth rate at optimum temps is about 1.5 inches per month. I believe we could get that with our bluegills, bass, and yellow perch with selective breeding. Trout have been selectively bred for over 200 years.

Lincoln University has grown some 1 lb. bluegill in 10 months.