Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Bream feed?

OK, maybe Mark will have some with him next weekend at the Conference. I'll look at the recipe on the bag or maybe just ask him.

Here is the answer from PM. GFC has fish meal .

"Purina® Game Fish Chow® product is formulated in multiple-sized floating particles to meet the feeding needs of a wide range of fish species and sizes. Bluegills, hybrid sunfish, catfish, hybrid striped bass, minnows, and other species all thrive on Purina® Game Fish Chow® product.


With 32% protein, Purina® Game Fish Chow® product is outstanding nutrition for fingerlings. It contains fish meal and an attractant for high palatability, plus Vitamin C to help prevent deficiency-related problems. Game Fish Chow® product is complete, balanced nutrition that provides increased resistance to disease and promotes faster fish growth than natural food alone."

Here is what Doc Griffin provided on the subject.

"High quality fish meal is the gold standard - it has the best Amino acid profile for fish (fish protein to grow fish protein)and is highly digestible. Further, it tastes great to fish (fish meal based diets are much more palatable to carnivorous fish) and it contains about 10% fish oil (high in omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids). Many other proteins can be used as long as they are formulated properly into an overall dietary amino acid profile."

Do you guys think there is much advantage to using aquamax over GFC? I started buying aquamax last summer instead of GFC and it seems to me that the fish will "gorge" themselves on aquamax more so than GFC. That I guess is one advantage. The one thing I don't like about it is it seems the 500 is awfull small and the 600 is a little too big for the HBG. We currently feed a mixture of both but I wish they had a in-between size. Also the 600 was $10 more than the 500 for the same weight bag. Isn't it the same stuff put through a bigger extruder?

My preferences between GFC and Aquamax is based on what species I'm trying to feed and which ones are actually present and eating. When my CC and Shiners were eating 80% or more of what I fed, I put in GFC. I don't think either of those two fish need higher protein feed to thrive and paying the price difference for Aquamax didn't seem worth it for the small % of feed that the BG ate, even though the BG were my primary target.

Now I have BG and LMB eating most of the feed, and I feed Aquamax 500 and 600 mixed. I think that BG and LMB both do better with the higher protein % in Aquamax, so it is worth the price difference for me to feed it now. The BG are still my primary feeding target; I think the bass concentrate on the small number of 600 pellets and that gives the BG more opportunities to eat the 500 sized pellets (although the biggest BG also prefer the bigger Aquamax 600 pieces). If the bass were the goal I would be using (some) Aquamax Largemouth.

It I also my thinking that 500 and 600 are different sizes of the same stuff. I think our local mill charges the same for both sizes, but I have not bought both in the same trip yet and am not positive on that. I will probably be getting one bag of each after I get back from Arlington and should know for sure then.

Size/age (yoy , fingerling and adult) are a big factor also. Yoy/fingerling BG and LMB (most fish) have a much higher growth rate in their first year so they can use the extra protein. Adult BG not so much. But it also depends on the extent to which your feeding is supplemental. If you have high densities of fish depending on feed (aquaculture) then higher is better. On the other hand if your fish are by in large eating natural food with the pellets as a small supplement then higher protein is not as needed.

Depending on the circumstances I mix GFC and Aquamax. In doing so the fish oil from the Aquamax gets on and adds to the GFC. I use/add the size Aquamax most needed to the smaller fish being fed and the application (often 50% protein fingerling food - sinking , or AM 400 with 45 % - floating).

Aquamax chart
http://aquamax.purinamills.com/aquamaxproductlist.pdf