Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Aquamax issues?

Cred definitely safe and sound, Tony. I knew you'd rise to the occasion. Keep us in the loop regarding your findings...

WOW...now that's funny!

Hand feeding dry pellets is easy to keep clean - yet fishy smelling hands has always just been part of the game for me - like black soil under the fingernails when planting my salsa garden. Soap and hot water, and I'm all good - at least in my estimation. Still, there's no way to keep one's hands clean when feeding 8 cages hydrated feed daily...my wife finally gave up complaining.

Got an email from my AQ dealer this morning. Basically stated that "the Richmond plant has been having issues getting the fish feed manufactured". So my 16 bag order from last month is still waiting to be filled. He had no idea when AQ would be available.

They should move operations closer to where the majority of the pond owners are.

+1 for the member who suggested we put a map on the forum with thumbtacks where the ponds are. It would help the advertisers or marketers and would suggest potential places to locate future fish food plants.

I ran across an article about Bell Aquaculture in Redkey Indiana that mentioned that Bell has a mill and will custom make fish food to the customers specification.I have no idea about lead times or cost though.Bell looks to be up Esshup's and Cecil's way!

I think I ordered some YP fillets from them one time.

I haven't tried to order any this year and I think I am the only one that uses AQ from my dealer. I just started using it last year.
Hopefully they get things fixed I, if not I guess I will try and find the best substitute. I do know you can have a good fishing pond without feeding I have for years. I really enjoy feeding my fish and the results have been good.
I have seen the bunker boats in Venice La. And it makes you wonder about the harvest. But us pond owners use very little of it compared to where the bulk of it goes.
As far as dogs my beagles like it but they can and do eat about anything.

I stopped by the local co-op yesterday. I asked them if they stocked Aquamax.
He said they could get it, sometimes stocked it, but they always had some "Southern States" fish food in stock. I don't know if that's the name, or where it comes from, or both. It's 32% protein, floating, and $16.95 for 50#s.
Anyone familiar with this feed? Is it comparable to Aquamax 500?
Thanks,
Jeff

Well here is the bad part of all of this for those who have been feeding AM for a while. Once you give your fish this type of quality food it's very hard to get them to take anything else. Oh they will take it a little here and there but not like AM!

It would be kinda like you feeding your dog this awesome food for a year and then getting him some off brand at walmart. What do you think your dog is gonna do when he goes to eat it the first time?

Now for those who have not yet started feeding I would find something that may not be quite as good as AM but you know you can get time and time again at the local coop! Quite honestly this whole looking for a particular type food for my fish is getting old when you have to keep looking, and looking and looking and waiting!

Disappointed,
RC

It looks like this was brought up before, albeit several years ago:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=256761

Here's a little more info on it but it doesn't give a full breakdown of ingredients:
http://www.southernstates.com/articles/pond-products.aspx

If AM becomes harder to get than it already was/is, at $16.95 for a 50# bag I'd be interested in trying it if it's a viable option, as I just paid twice that yesterday buying out the AM my supplier had stocked up for me (from last Fall). $$$ OUCH!

I'm easily going through 80 lbs of AM 600 and 40 lbs of AM LMB per month so like others, I certainly hope for a positive outcome with Aquamax, but a viable less expensive option would also be welcome!

Can some entrepreneur start a processing facility to make fish food pellets using asian carp instead of menhaden as the primary protein source? Seems like the supply of asian carp in the great lakes is soon to be nearly endless. Also a lot more meat per fish than menhaden as well

FWIW as I was reading through this entire thread....
(hey, I'm starting to learn the acronyms)

Seems there are potentially some savings that could be had by purchasing Skretting or others if distribution could be handled better. I am all for buying local but.... why can people buy dog food with free shipping on www.wag.com if they spend more than $50? From what I've seen, the dog food there is $2-$3 higher than if I buy at the local store, but delivered to your door.

Is it possible to quantify how much fish feed could be purchased on that website if the Pond Boss community came together to shop there and got the same potential deal, free shipping? That's really all that website is, distribution and they already have a fish section albeit for aquariums.

Was at a pond conference last night in Northeast Iowa which was sponsored by Purina and Aquamax. They had a few bags on hand but not much. I inquired about the shortage at the beginning of the meeting and both the regional rep which was in from Nebraska and the local rep each were caught off guard. Upon further phone calls by them they then confirmed there was a problem at the end of the conference. It seemed that neither was aware of the problem or if they were they were not going to let the cat out of the bag. They continued to state and were somewhat optimistic that they would be getting a semi load of Aquamax Tuesday of next week. I put in an order and am crossing my fingers. He did also state that there is a new plant coming online to make the product but would not start until they had the bags in the plant!

Great job, Doc!

My supplier is making calls as well, so as someone posted earlier maybe enough voices (in addition to the Pond Boss himself) will attract some attention?

Maybe?!?

His bosses also made reference to a certain letter that was sent to Purina about the issue. I should also add he was wondering how I knew so much about the subject and I told him the Pond Boss Forum! He was unaware of this website prior to this. I even showed him this thread with Bob's post and he started to get more of a picture about what is going on and the problems moving forward if this continues to be an issue. Hopefully the higher ups will as well.

Well lets so a little quick math here. Just as a maybe type situation.

We have 12600 members on the forum.
If only 10 percent of them feed AM to their fish that's 1260 members.

1260 members times 38 bucks a bag is $47,880 bucks if only you bought 1 bag per member. So lets say each member bought 4 bags. That's $191,520 bucks. I buy 5 to 6 bags a year and I am small time compared to some out here!

So lets say 10 percent that's may be to high. So lets go 8 percent that's 1008 members out of 12600.

1008 x 4 bags per person = 4,032 bags. 4,032 bags x 38 = $153,216 bucks.
As you can see the numbers can add up quick. And this is just our forum.

RC

Good info. Thanks! I'll see if they have the little bites.. It's a pretty cheap gamble, just to see if they'll eat it..
That is, once I get some fish.. Hehe

The 17 dollar a bag stuff likely means it's protein source is mostly corn and soybean meal. Likely OK for carp and catfish. Not so much so for BG and likely not much good for LMB.

I suspect menhaden is more nutritious due to high fat content. But I'm not an expert!

Agreed. My pond to be will only be 8 to 10 acres, small by Texas standard, but I can tell you right now that four bags would be much closer to my monthly deal than yearly.

And I still would like to to tap into the possibilities of using the new secret sauce food that enhances growth, palatability, and even fish lifespan!

Well I am looking at this from my small perspective. I am sure in Purina's eyes 200 to 220 thousands dollars is chicken feed to them. Compared to what they do every day.

But this can get high real quick. I am sure my number are low.

If you took same 1008 members times 10 bags and 38 bucks a bag now your talking almost 400 grand! At that point it's gonna be hard to start looking the other way!

I wonder if Bob knows how much AM they sell in a year average? That would be interesting to know. Is it really that small of a nitch market compared to their other products? I can't hardly believe that... but maybe it is?

RC

RC, I understand what you're saying and I'm sure someone at Land-O-Lakes would know with the push of a button how many bags were produced and sold last year.

Even if they sold 50,000 bags at a profit of $20 per bag, I think herein lies their reasoning. Even though $1m seems like a lot to us, to Land-O-Lakes it's probably preventing a greater profit on more marketable feeds just by producing the AM.

To them it's probably small potatoes in the scheme of things, like Bob mentioned, "They've" (upper management) has decided to focus mainly on their core products, meaning that there will be no urgency to make some of their line of lower volume products. AquaMax fits into that category.

Bought three different fish feeds today.

Sportsman Choice Trophy Fish (Cargill) (compare to Purina GFC with multiple pellet size for multiple species)
$14.49 for 25# ($.58/#) (Tractor Supply Co.)
36% protein, 4% fat

Sportsman Choice Floating Pond and Catfish Food (Cargill)
$17.99/40# ($.45/#) (Tractor Supply Co.)
32% protein, 4% fat

Catfish Supplement 32(sinking) Land O'Lakes Purina Feed LLC
$20.00/50# ($.40/#) (local Coop)
32% protein, 2% fat

Have previously bought the Land O'Lakes floating 32% from the coop and as I recall was around the same price per # as the Sportsman Choice.

They only had 4-25# bags of the 36% protein stuff. Would have bought more and none of the 32% floating if they would have had more. I like to mix in a small portion of the sinking food as I don't believe all my fish come to the surface for the floating and I like to feed some on the windward shore when it is windy and the floating just floats up on the bank, thus at least the sinking gets down to where the fish can eat it. I never feed a large percentage of sinking to make sure it gets cleaned up. Another TSC store is supposed to call me when they get some 36% in. It is marketed as a multi-species feed and has multiple size pellets kind of like Purina Game Fish Chow and I think is supposed to be Cargill's comparable product only the Purina GFC is only 32%.

BG and CC are my target species for the feed. Don't know if any LMB or RES are getting any. FHM also eat.

Also consider Rangen. They have a broad range of Aquaculture foods, and the better products use fish protein. They are headquartered I think in Utah, but I go to their plant in Angleton, TX, south of Houston. Rangen.com