Hey Guys,

I was looking to order some Optimal Fish Food from Esshup with Hossier Pond Pros and wanted to see if anybody else here in the Dallas area wanted to split a pallet or get a few bags? You save a good bit of money by ordering a pallet or a half pallet. I don't need more than 10 bags and the pallets come in either 24 or 48 bags.

My shop is in Grand Prairie and it could be picked up there our I can meet you in the middle somewhere if it is not to far out of the way.

Let me know if you are interested and we can figure something out. If you only need a few bags that should be ok if we get several people that want some.

I can use a couple of bags. I just bought 4 and had them shipped in.

I would buy 2 or 3 if that would help. How close are you to 360 N & 183 W end or I-20 and 360 South?

I live in East Tx so would come in HWY 80 or I_20, from the East.

This would be my 1st try and I am Assuming it will be formulated and sized for CNBG, Right?

Thanks much for the offer.

If anyone else from the Longview /Tyler area wants some I will go get it and bring it back for you.

I'm right by 360 and 30. I'll put you down for a few bags and let you know when we are ready to order. Thanks.

Thanks Chris. I have been using Aquamax. It has changed, although I was told by a sales rep it was just a different factory and is the same product with different sourcing on some of the ingredients that makes it seem to be different. I am not unhappy with Aquamax, but am ready to try other Hi Quality products so I will have multiple sources.

Really appreciate asking and look forward to reviewing the product. The fish will tell the story.

You're welcome.

I think we have about 15 bags spoken for as of right now.

Wonder how his route through Missouri will look? I would grab a couple bags if possible. Cmm

Just curious what a bag of 500 cost. I was quoted i think $41.00. Thanks

MPC, I'd be willing to drive to Longview to pick up 3 bags. My pond isn't far from there. I've already ordered some Optimal directly but could use some more if it would help round out the buy.

Thanks anthropic. I think we have about 20 bags spoken for. Should have everything figured out in the next day or so.

Cost per bag is $41.34.

Speaking of buying Optimal, is anyone familiar with the website Optimal Fish Food dot com. I ordered a bag over 2 weeks ago and have yet to receive anything. I did get an email confirming my order but nothing has been delivered. I went back to the site, but theres no phone # listed there. I found two emails and sent inquiry last week and have had no response. Starting to wonder if this is a real site or if I've been had. Thought I'd ask here before escalating the issue through PayPal. Has anyone done business with them?

My one buy was through hoosier pond pros site. It took a while, but eventually shipped.

I don't know how the food is handled on their (Optimal's) website. Due to the slower season, here orders are shipped once a week via FedEx. Orders in by Monday morning are usually picked up by FedEx on Wed. When the orders pick up FedEx will be stopping by more than once a week.

I ordered off the HoosierPonds.com site and got the bags in about 4 days.

I would be interested in a bag if you drive thru Paris?

Brian,

I probably drive a few miles from your place on the way to mine. I'll put you down for a bag.

We should have a half pallet spoken for as of right now. When I get a chance today I'll message everybody and see how they'd like to pay.

Just got told today that my pallets of Optimal are being shipped....worked out great since Texas Hunter shipped several feeders out yesterday....spring, has sprung!

I ordered 2 bags from Optimal last Tuesday and got it today. I ordered before I saw this thread or I would've been in on it! I was dry!

Hi Chris, I would would like to up my total number of bags to nine, if possible. I will be picking up some extra for another PB'er. If not then the three will be fine. Thanks again, mpc.

mpc,

I can do 6 bags for you as of right now. Will that work?

I'll be sending everyone a PM shortly with payment info.

Bump.

Anybody else want some food that is in North Texas? Probably have 8-10 bags spoken for already so we only need 14 more bags to get a half pallet worth.

Bump.

Anybody in North Texas looking for some optimal food?

I could use a couple more

I'll take 2 Chris. I'm in Irving so I'll pick them up when they come in.

That should put us up to 14. Just need 10 more bags to be spoken for and we can place an order for a half pallet.

Not sure how many you put me down for, but I could use 6 bags for sure and up to 8 if need be to get order finished.

I had you for 8 and 2 for myself but will probably bump mine up to 4 after thinking about it. That would put us at needing 8 more to place an order.

How much per bag?

$41.34/bag.

All but two bags are spoken for as of right now. If someone else wants some let me know. Placing the order today or tomorrow.

I'm on my last bag now Chris. If needed, I'll take another. Appreciate you doing this!

Food has been ordered and should be here next week. I'll contact the people that have ordered and let them know when it is ready to pick up.

If you have an extra, I'll take it.

Anybody need some more feed? I'm down to my last bag.

I'll probably buy 4-5 bags so if we can 20 more spoken for I'll order another half pallet.

Price is $41/bag if we order a half pallet.

Chris,

What size pellets are you getting?


Is this for LMB, CNBG or generic?


Thanks

Original BG. I'll ask and see if we can combine different sizes on to one order.

10 bags spoken for. 14 to go.

Chris, I'm sure you can. Highflyer, there isn't a "generic" food. There's Bluegill food and Bass food right now. The bass food is in 50# bags, 40# bags for the Bluegill feed. The pellet size of the Bass feed is as close to 9mm as the mfg. process allows. There is an Optimal Bluegill Jr. feed, smaller pellets for fingerling fish. But, that feed isn't "on the market" yet, although samples are available.

Brian,

They can do both feeds on the same pallet.


And for those wondering the feed can be picked up in Grand Prairie, TX.

I could do 4 bags of bluegill feed.

14 are spoken for. 10 to go.

Chris,

Is this food good for Tilapia?

Tilapia don't need high protein food. They are like cows - herbivores and not like BG or LMB. Plain catfish food would be better or food that is plant based rather than fish/protein based. Small tilapia can use higher protein food better than adults due to their increased growth rate.

From SRAC - https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/53

…in commercial foodfish
ponds the crude protein content of
feeds is usually 26 to 30 percent, onetenth
or less of which is of animal
origin. The protein content and proportion
of animal protein may be
slightly higher in recirculating and
flow-through systems.
The digestible energy requirements
for economically optimum growth
are similar to those for catfish and
have been estimated at 8.2 to 9.4 kcal
DE (digestible energy) per gram of
dietary protein.

In the absence of feeds
specifically prepared for tilapia, a
commercial catfish feed with a crude
protien content of 28 to 32 percent is
appropriate in the United States.

Brian,

Tilapia do well in the pond were feeding it in, along with the BG, RE, and LMB.

Joshua

Thanks all, sounds like this food is good for the BG, but I might want look at other food for the Tilapia for T4 this winter.

Hey Brian,

You know I'm no pro but FWIW, when I think Tilapia, I think herbivore. Have you looked into a cheap grain based chow? What do the fish farm guys that raise Tilapia feed?

Bill,

Good question, I was just wondering because of the winter indoors Tilapia setup I have. I figured the food would be good for the rest of the summer in the pond, and any leftovers would be used for T4 over winter if it was appropriate feed to use.

Tilapia are Omnivores....plants just swim slower and are easier to catch!

HF, it won't hurt to use the leftovers, but food specifically made for Tilapia will be less expensive long term, and have the correct trace minerals, etc. for best growth.

Heck, get the Tilapia food and mix in what left over Optimal you have to use it all up this year. It wouldn't be any worse than a tilapia eating Optimal in a pond.

17 bags are spoken for. Only need 7 more to place an order.

Tilapia feed like herbivores although they are classified as omnivores in many cases. A classic omnivore is a bear or human which eat both plant and animal. A tilapia is not like that wrt feeding. It consumes some animal matter in the process of feeding on small plankton like species some of which are plant and some animal. It will also eat small animals that live in the plant matter it consumes.


From Fishbase

Omnivorous (Ref. 21, 12524), feed mainly on algae and phytoplankton (Ref. 4537, 7248, 12501, 12522, 12524, 13337, 36683, 44894, 52307) but also take some zooplankton, small insects and their larvae (Ref. 4537, 7248, 12524, 13337, 44894, 52307), shrimps (Ref. 12524, 13337), earthworms (Ref. 12501) and aquatic macrophytes (Ref. 6465). Juveniles carnivorous/omnivorous, adults tend to be herbivorous or detritus feeders (Ref. 2, 6465, 13517). Large individuals have been reported to prey on small fishes (Ref. 2, 6465, 12501, 12522), and occasionally cannibalise their own young (Ref. 2, 6465). Exhibit considerable plasticity in their feeding habits (Ref. 6465, 13544)….

Food and Feeding Habits: Diet Composition Oreochromis mossambicus

Extensive list -- http://fishbase.org/TrophicEco/FoodItems...ies=mossambicus

Going to go ahead and place the order. Should have 5 bags still available. If you want them let me know.

Pickup is Grand Prairie?

Yes. Food should be here by the end of next week. I'll keep everyone updated.

Chris,

I'll take 3 bags of the BG version.

Brian,

That should make all the bags spoken for.

Food has shipped and will be here early next week. I'll message everyone to figure out pickup details once it gets here.

Sounds great, thanks for answering the questions.

Food will be here Wednesday. Everybody should have a PM from me about pickup.

I just bought four bags from Schillig, but notice the Optimal website is directly competing with their dealers. This is a lot like what Texas Hunter does...I prefer the Vertex model of protected territories. Scott and Matt have performed a TON of research and marketing pro bono, there should be some benefit. Maybe there is, I'm certainly not an insider by any means.

On another note, I strongly encourage everyone to support your Pond Boss paid advertisers - the revenue generated from paid advertisers like Scott and myself and many others enable the forum to exist we all get to enjoy.

Undercutting your reps can not be a good long term plan. I am not saying that is the situation as I don't know any specifics.

Well, despite my good intentions, I apparently don't appreciate the full landscape of all details regarding relationships I cited, so I think Matt's going to clarify some things. Was just reporting what I witnessed regarding price points on a couple websites and made some inferences accordingly - but didn't have the full picture. My bad.

I'd like to establish I am grateful Optimal is creating a high quality resource for pond owners - and from all reports here they are great to work with, responsive, and informative. We've needed that for a long time - looking forward to more great things from Optimal.

Thanks TJ for the concern, and all the shout outs for Optimal from your previous posts... Love to see your knowledge being spread to private waters and throughout. And thanks to the Pond Boss and Pond Boss community for having such a great medium; with such a core of professionals and enthusiast alike all working toward a common goal. The forum has been/is a great place for us to advertise and I encourage other businesses if they are on the fence to advertise here. Do it! I know as Optimal increases its bandwidth we will be advertising more.

And your right. Scott is been great and with his knowledge and experience, I only can say great things about that guy, Except I think I can still out fish him though !

But few things I wanted to clarify, regarding your post.

I feel that comparing Optimal to the same business matrix as Vertex is not all that great. A feed company is volume and consumable driven so margins need to be lot lower. (meaning you do not buy five aeration systems each year); along with being bulky to ship making distribution a large percentage of the overall cost. So using the same business strategy would only drive up the price for the end user. Where a dealer would come into play, without driving up price, is if one would purchase large quantities and did local distribution because reducing distribution costs is only money in the dealers pocket.


I do not think anyone is working pro bono. I have been with Optimal from its conception and Optimal is not built on not realizing someone's value. It would be short sided of us to not help the people that are helping us.

Which brings me to my next point, that Optimal is listening and has a huge invested interested in this market (private waters).
I love Optimal because it is so committed to producing the best food for pond owners, their fish, and it's core focus is for people in this community.
For Instance:
-Listening to you on pellet size.
-Species focused feed.
-Producing a Trophy Bass feed for long life expectancy.
-Performed a nationwide histology of Bluegills (results to be published hopefully this fall...really cool stuff by the way)

Those are just a few examples.


So I will conclude with "seconding the motion" from Tj's post; which is:
“On another note, I strongly encourage everyone to support your Pond Boss paid advertisers - the revenue generated from paid advertisers like Scott, myself, OPTIMAL and many others enable the forum to exist we all get to enjoy.”

Thanks for listening Pond Boss Community... You are great people!!!

I'm sorry Matt, but after reading the middle paragraphs where you are making some points about your business model I got lost in the wording.

I want you to succeed, I'm experimenting with Optimal and so far so good. Can you put what you were saying in plain english?

Does buying from the Optimal headquarters directly compete with dealers who may want to resell it?

Do end consumers get similar prices going directly through the PB forum or through links set up here vs going to another retail location?

Is there another retail location or a dealer network that 'resells' Are they allowed to mark it up to add some middle-man profit?

Just want all the folks here to know simply how to get it but not in a way that hurts future development and future sustainability especially since we have such a good thing going.

I will also again thank the kind PB forum member recently absent in postings but who may be reading this who connected me with the 2nd generation (multisize) Optimal product for me to get my feet wet. I'll likely have 10-15 pounds left by the time of ice over so if someone in Michigan would like to try some I'm happy to share the love and find a way to get some to you.

Thank you and I hear a gauntlet being thrown down. About time you got your butt here and posted too.

O.K., throw your pink Snoopy pole in the truck and lets have a fish off. No fair fishing in Marks cages though.....

Food has arrived. I believe I messaged everyone. Let me know when you want to pick it up.

I have 3-4 extra bags if someone wants some feed.