JKB - FYI - "The Meat" - Here is the summary of the first 6 weeks of the green sunfish (GSF) feeding trial that was the basis for my endorsement / testimonial on the Optimal Website. esshup has a similar study using bluegill.
Six Weeks Fish Food Feeding Trial for Green Sunfish by Bill Cody
These are the results for feeding green sunfish (GSF) Aquamax 600 and Optimal Fish foods for the first six weeks of my feeding trial. Starting sizes for body length of GSF in both groups ranged from 2.625� to 3.25�. Twenty five GSF were placed into separate fish cages. Cage 1 fish were fed Aquamax and fish in Cage 2 were fed Optimal Bluegill Food. Both fish foods were hydrated prior to feeding because some of the fish appeared to be too small to eat the food of a dried large size pellet. The hydrated pellets were chopped into smaller pieces prior to feeding. Fish in both cages were fed daily to the point of satiation.
The 23 GSF (2 died) as a group eating Aquamax gained a total of 24.2495� (615.93mm) which converts to an average 0.970� (24.63mm) gain per fish.
The 25 GSF as a group eating Optimal gained a total of 32.74� (831.6mm) which converts to an average 1.423� (36.16mm) gain per fish. Not all fish gained equally in length.
After six weeks the GSF body lengths for the Aquamax group ranged from 3.0� to 4.75�. Body lengths for Optimal food were 2.75� to 5.06�. Pecking order and behavior of fish in a cage where the most dominant fish probably ate most of the food was likely the reason why some fish in each cage displayed little growth. GSF are notorious for having an aggressive dominant type of behavior.
At the end of six weeks half of the GSF from the Aquamax group were placed in a separate cage and fed Optimal. The other half of the GSF eating Aquamax continued to be fed Aquamax. Splitting the Aquamax test fish into two groups was to see if the half now eating Optimum will out perform those still eating Aquamax. The caged GSF eating Optimal continued to be fed Optimal.
My feed trial study will conclude when the water temperature drops to 60F around the first week of October 2015.
Awesome stuff Bill! Will you be posting your results here? I can tell you there is a group of my guys here in MN wanting this data. Some of my guys have switched over feed to Optimal, including myself, for various reasons. It would be great to have blind study results. It's perfect for us too because of the GSF experimenting that we are conducting in shallow water ponds
