Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Smallmouth bass for restaurants.

I am selling Black Bass (Largemouth mostly) to a restaurant. The consumer wants a dressed on-the-round (gutted, de-headed, and de-scaled) that weighs about 1 lb which means with a Largemouth Bass a live-weight of just under 1.5 lbs. The larger fish in the 3 to 4 lbs range is larger than a serving size, the desired size I see locally. Growth really slows down once our bass hit about 1.5 lbs, so economics of production favor smaller fish too. As soon as you start using live forage, your production costs are going to skyrocket. I recommend you use a fish formulated for carnivorous species with a protein content in the range of 38 to 44% crude protein that is really low in terms of carbohydrate content. You are likely to have trouble finding a supplier that can provide feed you need that is economical on a small scale. We are certainly having the issue. Volume needed to get price down is on the order of tons per batch purchased.

If you use the typical salmonid diet, then you are likely to get into winter mortality issues related to problems caused by carbohydrate processing changes imposed on the liver.