Do any of you have any opinions on Optimal Bluegill Food? I just ordered a bag to try and was wondering if anyone that has tried it may want to share their experience.

I use it and I think it works great for my Redear and Bluegill, the golden shiners like it too. The Redear are so fat they look like they could burst.

I've used it on my redears since last fall. I can't say enough good things about it, or the customer service. Seems to be a great product.

Both my BG and CC seem to like it. I was told that CC will also grow well on the sunfish food.

Yes CC will do fine with Supp feeding of sunfish food .

I still have 50#s of my current multi-size pellet feed. I only supplemental hand feed so 50#s will last me a good while. My understanding is Optimal is coming out with a feed that has multiple size pellets as well. FWIW, if they do market a multi-size product, I will be giving it a try. I'm a big fan of multi-size products as they feed all size classes of lots of different species and the Optima chow is being advertised as healthier for the fish in the long term. My reasoning is, if Optimal can provide the same or better growth rate than is provided by current feeds on the market and increase the fish life span, then, at the end of the day, you have the potential to raise even larger fish than folks are achieving now.

+1 order with confidence.

Today was the first day feeding with the Optimal and the gills were gulping it down. So far so good.

Bill, where have you been hiding? The Optimal multiple sized pellets in one bag Sunfish food have been out since last Fall.

Bill, page 3 has pictures of the different sized pellets in one bag. Check the date of the post.
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=423360&page=1

The multi-size Optimal is very well received by my BG, CNBG, and RES. Only been feeding it to them a few months, so not sure about weight gain. But so far as I can tell, they will just keep eating it no matter how long I feed them.

I have been mixing catfish pellets with the Bluegill food, and have only a few pounds of pellets left, and lots of the Optimal. What if I feed the BG and CC the Optimal Bluegill food exclusively? Any harm to the CC?

My fish ate it. They eat the AM400, 500 and 600. They eat the Cargill I get from tractor supply and they eat both the sinking and floating 32% catfish food I get from a couple different places.

They seem to gobble up about anything I throw to them, the Optimal included. No rejection problems at all.

Performance? I have no clue.

In my pond, I have LMB, SMB, HSB, BG, RES, HBG, YP, CC and now Blue Tilapia. I have been feeding Optimal exclusively since early summer last year. All that are eating it seem to be doing well.

I started hand feeding Optimal to my BG about two months ago. While I see some eating it, I do see a lot of them spitting it back out. I'm only there on weekends so they only get it a few times a week. The majority of it gets eaten by CC and turtles. I've got native BG that are not pellet trained and some Ots CNBG which I assume are the ones that don't spit it out. Guess I'll just keep throwing it out there see if they take to it.

L,

I stocked 1"-2" OTS CNBG in my pond this past October. I have fed Optimal since November. My son caught one .275lb 7" long last week. I feed 3x per day totaling 1.5#/day. In less than 1 minute the feed is gone. I dont think you can go wrong with the feed. The feeder was my best investment.

Yeah I don't think there's anything wrong with the feed, I'm thinking my native BG are just not used to it. Or there are other food items in the pond theyd rather eat. I don't want to use a feeder just yet until I see that they'll eat the pellets. Otherwise I'm just feeding the CC and turtles.

Dang! I remember that thread now. I am old and easily confused. Was there another Optimal feed coming out this spring? Maybe YP?

My larger native BG that I stocked in December have become pellet trained by the smaller CNBG from the fish truck last September. I have noticed BG eating a Optimal pellet, spitting it out, then swallowing the next pellet they find. My pond is clear, and one day I watched an 8"or so native BG spit out every other pellet it found, and swallow every other pellet. Several eaten and several spit out.

John, did your small CNBG like the AM400 you took home? I think you will find they will come up to the bank edge when they see you coming and beg for it once they get a taste.

Mine like your Chartreuse Waxie's!

What I have observed with any feed is if the pellet the fish takes is hard and it is a little on the big size for them they will spit it out (often with a larger fish right behind them that takes it in and keeps it). If it has been in the water long enough to be softened they will retain it.

If you are feeding pellets that are fairly big in relation to the fish size I think you will see more of this spitting the feed back out till it softens. I feed a little bit of AM400 (which is a BB size pellet) in the shallow water for my 2-3" BG. I often throw just a few of the larger AM500-600 mix just beyond to keep the larger fish interested away from the high protein AM400 (all the fish love the 46% protein AM400, even 3# CC). I see a 3" BG hit an AM500 pellet and spit is back out (because of its size and it is still hard) but they never spit out the AM400 which is smaller.

I believe size of pellet in relation to the fish size and if the pellet is dry or hydrated has a lot to do with the fish spitting a pellet back out.

Snrub,
Yes, but they won't come in less than about 18 inches of water to eat it. The pond was very clear. I put in some blue dye to darken the water a couple days ago. Since then it has been cold at night and windy. My pond temperature was down to 61 degrees this morning, so everything is off the feed a little. Forecast is to stay below 60 degrees with lows in the low to upper 40's until Tuesday. Cold rain possible too. I have already had one BG spawn and the big native males are guarding second batch of eggs now. I hope the cold doesn't ruin the spawn. Looks like you are a little warmer there than we are.

Very similar reactions from my relatively young fish. Biggest pellets are sometimes spit out by smaller fish, though they eagerly take smaller pellets so it obviously isn't a matter of taste. Eventually the bigger pellets soften and are eaten, sometimes 20 or 30 minutes later.

My fish eat it just not as aggressive as Aqua or Skretting. I think it will be fine. I am going to try it with a different feeder soon to see how it throws before I throw down the cash for one.

My fish eat the Optimal with no problems. It's been a game changer for me.

My fish are all over it. Primarily YP. I am feeding the original formula, I think.. At least the bags look very old, and have an expiration date of 5/21/16, so I'm assuming it's original formula. The YP are hammering it. I am on my 5th bag though.

The formulation hasn't changed since it's inception last year, the pellet size has changed a couple of times, but the last pellet size change was in late September of last year.

While the date on the bag is set at 6 months after production, I was told that is a "sell by" date and the "use by" date is really 6 months after the "sell by" date.

I've never seen my RES eating the aquamax food and are certainly not feed trained. Have any of you folks that use Optimal noticed the your RES eat it that wouldn't eat the aquamax?

Thanks,
dan

I'm raising my hand.

Have seen RES eat many types of pellets.

That was certainly the case for me. My RES appeared to not want anything to do with AquaMax, but when I began feeding Optimal they trained within a few days. But it is possible they were eating AquaMax in small amounts and I just started paying better attention once I started feeding Optimal.

I feed my CNBG, Redear, F1 and Blue Tilpia fingerling size catfish food that I pick up from local Co-op. I have 4 feeders that go off simultaneously and most feed times it is like the water is boiling with the feeding activity.

The posts above did get me thinking. Is there a correlation to quality of food and life span for my fish?

I am catching quality fish in each species with good relativity numbers.

A 50# bag costs me $22.00 plus tax.

But should I be feeding a higher quality food?

This is the information from the label.

FAITHWAY 36% FINGERLING CATFISH FOOD

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS
CRUDE PROTEIN - 36%
CRUDE FAT - MIN 2.5%
CRUDE FIBER - MAX 6.0%

INGREDIENTS

GRAIN PRODUCTS, PROTEIN PRODUCTS, PROCESSED GRAIN BY PRODUCTS, FISH MEAL, PORCINE MOAT AND ELONE MEAL, HYDROLYZED POULTRY FEATHERS, ANIMAL FAT, VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENT, VITAMIN D3 SUPPLEMENT, VITAMIN E SUPPLEMENT, RIBOFLAVIN, NIACIN, CALCIUM PHENOMENAL, FOLIC ACID, MEXADLONE, SODIUM HYDROCHLORIDE, ASCORBIC ACID, MANGA NOUS OXIDE, FERROUS SULFATE , COPPER CHLORIDE, ZINC OXIDE, SODIUM SOLONILE

How do the fish look?

"GRAIN PRODUCTS, PROTEIN PRODUCTS, PROCESSED GRAIN BY PRODUCTS, FISH MEAL, PORCINE MOAT AND ELONE MEAL, HYDROLYZED POULTRY FEATHERS, ANIMAL FAT, VITAMIN A SUPPLEMENT, VITAMIN D3 SUPPLEMENT, VITAMIN E SUPPLEMENT, RIBOFLAVIN, NIACIN, CALCIUM PHENOMENAL, FOLIC ACID, MEXADLONE, SODIUM HYDROCHLORIDE, ASCORBIC ACID, MANGA NOUS OXIDE, FERROUS SULFATE , COPPER CHLORIDE, ZINC OXIDE, SODIUM SOLONILE "

Fish meal is very good. This is a high proteine % for catfish food - most is 32% or even less. Catfish can use the grain products but the BG , LMB etc. can't use it as well.

Poultry feathers?

I fed that Faithway feed before and wasn't impressed. My fish turned there nose up at it.

Couple of 12" CNBG I caught this morning. Caught 21 total and probably 18 of them looked just like these.

I have no catfish in my pond but the fish I have seem to be doing great and they love the food i am feeding. Any reason to change to a higher priced meal??

What % of the fishes food is from pellets ?

That is not uncommon. Not saying it is good or ok just no big shock. Sometimes it is labeled poultry by-products.

Ewest I noticed it was called "fingerling" catfish food. Must be for commercial fish farms raising catfish for the fingerling stage. All I have ever seen up here is 32%.

It's getting harder to find feed with fish meal(ground up menhaden).

+1 or the % is reduced.

Ewest, I don't know exactly how to answer that question. I don't think I feed enough "pellets" to be there only food source. I harvest some of the bream occasionally some are jammed full of "pellets" some have had small fish and other items in there stomachs.

The CNBG look great. How do the LMB look? Do they eat pellets?

Ewest, F1 look great! Last 20 I have caught were all in the 95 - 120% of Relativity chart so felt good about that.

I guess im a fish nerd because I weigh and measure almost every bass over 12" and I keep a record in a spreadsheet...

If the BG look like yours and the LMB are doing well then I would not change anything. Just keep watching for changes that indicate a problem.

Keeping good data is great way to pen point when a change started or is starting to happen. IMO would also do data on BG keeping notes. Then compare current with past.

The pictures look awesome. Theres nothing wrong with being a Fish Nerd.

Joshua. I need to do that on the BG but wow... we catch so many. This weekend we caught over 125... Maybe take measurements on every 10 or something like that.

Hey, how are your Tiger Bass doing? Are they catchable on artificials? I'm considering getting some myself -- right now I have no bass stocked at all -- and would like to get the benefit of your experience.

Pinetar,

Doing a 10% sample of 125 or measuring every 10th one or a combination will work. Sometimes the first 10-15 is great and sometimes its not. I have a inclination that the first ones will be good representation, since you are feeding optimal.

Joshua

The TB are doing really good. I stocked them in 2010. Excellent growth rates. Had several over 10 pounds "caught" in last electro survey this past spring. Really only have tried to catch them on artificial bait. Plastics, crankbaits, top water, you name it.

I did let my forage base build for 2 years before I stocked my F1 TB. I think that is a big reason for my success.

I was thinking one every 10.. not the first 10 to 15. What do you mean "feeding optimal"?

I think he was referring to feeding (did not notice you were feeding another food). Try this. Measure (get data)on a representative cross section of your fish population. If 10 % are big 40 % mid size and 50 % small then measure in those %. Out of 200 fish measure 2 large ones 8 mid size and 10 smaller fish. If you want a bigger sample then double the # measured ( 4 , 16 and 20) Chart them over time.