Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding A whole lot of cheap feed? or half as much aquaMax

Man! I have been looking at this AqauMAx and MAN the stuf is COSTLY! Not sure what to use either. I have the usual mix of Bream, Catfish and bass, But I also have Blues as well. Righ now I feed them cheap floating catfish food from tractor supply stor. It is $17.99 per 50 lb bag. The AqauMax is $35.00 dollars a 50 lb bag.

Which would be more benifical, to feed a whole lot of this cheapy stuff? Or Feed half as much as the aquamax?

These fish I sware If threw out a whole 50 lb bag they would eat it all at once!!!! I am not kidding!

What are your goals for the pond?

What species are eating the pellets?

Goals are key. Probably the channel cats are the ones hogging the food - they will indeed eat every bit you throw out. I would imagine the blues put a hurting on it as well, maybe even more than the channels since they get bigger. If catfish are your main interest, stick with catfish chow - they'll grow well on it and you won't have to take out that second mortgage for food.

If on the other hand bluegill are the priority, I would suggest removing as many catfish as possible, by any means possible including trotlines, juglines, limblines, bowfishing, etc. Then once the Big Berthas are gone, you can buy some Aquamax and start maximizing your bluegill.

Big_pond, a tilapia grower that I know used a 50 pound bag of the "cheap" stuff recently. After draining the holding tank, there was almost 10 pounds of sand in the tank bottom. It was a filler in the cheap stuff. Maybe they devour the cheap stuff because it is starving them.

Aquamax will not only be a quality food, but because it is so much more digestable and contains only usable ingredients, in the long run it can cost less than the "cheap" stuff----You need less to grow bigger fish. Some "cheap" feeds will contain chicken feathers as the main protien source Protien from ground feathers is not digestable by fish and is therefor useless (even though the % claimed may be accurate).

Try to find proven info on the food's % of digestability and absorbed nutrition. IIRC, Aquamax products are consistantly in the high 90's while some store brands may be in the low 20's. An added benefit to more food digested besides better growth rates is that high digestibility means a big reduction in fecal waste. This can help maintain better water quality---another growth rate improver.