Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding aquamax

What is the best price anyone has found for aquamax 600 in the dfw area? I just paid thirty two dollars a bag.

I paid $21 for my Purina Game Fish Chow (that's including tax).

Here we buy GFC for about $13 and aquamax for about $26. Of course Purina's headquarters is about 45 min away.

James, our AQMX prices have risen $7.00 a bag in the past five years and likely will rise more in the future due primarily to price incresed in grain.
For all the good folks begging our government for alternative fuels, highly subsidized ethanol has been a disaster.

If you work with your local country feed store and have enough business to justify negotiation, AQMX prices are much lower than you are paying.

Haven't bought feed yet this year; last year we paid $16-something for GFC and $26-something for Aquamax 600. I expect they will be up a buck or two this year, based on increases in cattle and horse feed over the same period. Maybe more.

I paid 35 a bag in waxahachie this week

FYI feed prices have wnet through the roof. My cost is up over $4/bag from last spring and I bought 48 tons. Also fertilizer pries are even worse 30% increase in less than a month. The MAP is difficult to find they say.

I haven't bought any this year but my Science Diet dog food is over $40 for 40lbs. I might just start feeding them bacon cheeseburgers to save money.

Like my grandpa always says "I can't afford to hunt and fish, I just eat steak and lobster".

I just paid $29.99 in Kansas City........ The gal said it had risen $4 bucks over the summer.

Picked up Aquamax, I think 2000, this winter from a feed store that discounted it to move it out for $5.00 a bag. Stocked up!

With the price of fish food increasing (32$ a bag)it makes even more sense to me to fertilize and allow nature to help feed your fish, if you can do it without killing them. I wonder how many pounds of fish food one pound of fertilizer produces? I was reading in a farming magazine how fertilizing your hay fields is more important now than ever due to the high cost of feed. The key to the equation is that fertilizing your pond is much harder to control and should be used with caution but couldn't the statement be made that a little bit is good but too much is bad? How many of you are planning on fertilizing this year?

I have another question about the aquamax. How long can it sit before it goes bad? Would you buy a months supply at a time or would you only buy it every two weeks?

The aquaculture literature I have seen says you shouldn't use feed that is more than 3 months old. The main concern is that vitamin C, which is very important in fish feed -- as are any other vitamins -- disappears after 3 months. However if you're feeding as a supplement vs. the only thing they get, that may not be an issue.

That said some feed manufacturers use a vitamin stabalizer called "Stay C" or something like that to keep the vitamin C active longer. I don't remember who though.

I think you can carry out the feed farther by freezing it but I'm not sure.

It would be nice if someone can contact Mark and get him to comment on this.

Mark?

Cody says this is a good question to call in and ask on the RFD TV show tonight 7PM CENTRAL 8PM EASTERN - Monday Apr 07. DOES PURINA USE VITAMIN C STABILIZERS IN AQUAMAX FOODS?.?

The Purina web site says 12 months shelf life. At least that's what I think I read.

I keep leftover feed in the fridge all Winter, FWIW.

Theo do you eat the aquamax from your fridge? Is it better cold? I have heard that we would be healthier eating dog food but this is the first time I have heard of anyone keeping aquamax in the fridge. What does it taste like?

It sure don't taste like chicken.

It is for my PBR RES to eat. And I have a few extra pounds to start up feeding in the pond this Spring, while my dealer has the first new Aquamax on order.

Last year, I decided to sample my Aquamax carnivore feed. Nasty tasting stuff. I wouldn't recommend it. It is mashed up menhaden garnished by time and hot weather.

Ever watch "How It's Made" television show?
The segment on fish food was very intersting...
You don't want to know whats in this stuff...
UGH...

Have any of you seen the show strange foods with anthony zimmer? He goes around the world eating strange foods like insects, bats, dogs and just about anthing else. One of the foods that he ate was I think from asia. It was shrimp that had been allowed to ferment out in the sun and then ground up into a paste and put into soups. I can only imagine the smell of it because I have had it happen with shrimp we were using for bait.

Shelf-life:

ALL Purina Fish products - AquaMax, GameFish Chow, Mazuri products made for Zoos and Aquariums - are made with L-ascorbyl-2-polyphospate. Roche's tradename for this was "Stay-C".
After one year, 85% of what we put in the mixer is still in the diet. In the old days - 50 to 75% of what you put in was lost the day it was manufactured. This is because Vitamin C is a water soluble anti-oxidant, therefore, by design it is readily oxidizable. The phosphates essentially envelop and protect the ascorbic acid from being oxidized. Once in the gut of the fish (or any animal for that matter) , the phosphate groups are quickly cleaved by phosphatases supplying pure vitamin C to the animal. These diets are good for a year if stored properly. Once wet - they are highly perishable. Keep them as dry as possible. If kept dry, the first thing that will go bad is that the fat will oxidize. The good news is that you can easily smell rancid (oxidized) fat. Once you have smelled it, you can't mistake it. So smell the food. If it smells fishy - great!

If it smells like rancid fat - get new product and discard old.

As an interesting side note - if you look at Requirement estimates for Vitamin C - you wll see that the new estimates are less than the old. I think this is simply because most of the vitamin C was oxidized before the food was fed to the fish.

Freezing does not hurt, and will extend the life somewhat. However, care must be taken if you take food out of the freezer when it is warm and humid, water will condense on it and - as soon as food gets wet - it is highly perishable (and it will get moldy). So, make sure you have plenty
of air circulation if you do this.

The first and most important issue in food storage - keep it dry.
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Price:
All food prices are going up - most people put the blame on a combination of Ethanol/energy policy, rapid economic expansion of China and India, the US Dollar devaluation and speculative money funds pouring into commodities. A couple years ago, eggs were $0.79 a dozen in St. Louis, I just paid $3.49. Corn was in the $2 to $3.00 range for most of the last 30 years, it is now
over $6. A few years back Fish meal was $450 to $650, it is about $1000 now.
Some say the days of really cheap food are over.... I do not know.
Of course most commodities are seeing the same price increases. As mentioned on the thread - fertilizer is up even more, as much is imported(weak dollar hurts) and it is energy intensive to produce and move. Gold,Copper, Oil, Rice.... have also seen all-time highs recently.

Thanks Doc G. some good info. The GFC I bought about 2 weeks ago (just delivered off the truck) was only slightly higher than last year - range about 5%.

MEG, hang around. We need this info.

Excellent post,Meg..
Thanks!