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Both are excellent products and Pond Boss supporters.
There is a whole lot more to this subject than people are noting.
Each fish species has its own nutritional requirements.
Each application is pond specific.
You can not compare CC , BG , LMB , RT, HSB , Crappie, YP and others for nutritional requirements. Here is a bit from a PB conv. presentation on Fish Nutrition.

The immense variety of cultured finfish species hampers efforts to simplify production industry wide. Approximately 170 taxa are currently cultured, including carnivores, herbivores, planktivores, and omnivores, each posing its own set of nutritional demands

• Fish meal has proven to be an excellent dietary protein source for finfish, leading to its description as an ‘‘ideal protein.’’ The ideal protein concept is based on the premise that if the amino acid profile of the feed mimics the whole-body amino acid profile of the animal being fed, protein utilization and growth should be maximized
• Lipids, fatty acids, and their derivatives play a role in virtually every physiological process that occurs and for this reason dietary lipid composition and content represent a massive sector of overall nutrition. Nowhere is this more true than in finfish nutrition where lipid can exceed protein in the body composition of finfish, a testament to the physiological and energetic importance of this nutrient class (Tocher2003). Aside from physiological importance, lipids are indispensable energy sources, especially for finfish, which are not well-adapted to carbohydrate utilization.
• Dietary protein and energy must be kept in proper balance because a deficiency or excess of dietary energy can reduce growth rates. Fish fed diets deficient in energy will metabolize more expensive dietary protein to meet energy requirements. Excess dietary energy can decrease protein intake and suppress growth.
• finfish do not require carbohydrates in their diet, … complex carbohydrates cannot be digested and utilized efficiently by most finfish species. A general dichotomy exists in the carbohydrate digestive ability of warmwater omnivores and herbivores versus the inability of coolwater and coldwater carnivores, which lack the appropriate function necessary for digestion of carbohydrates.
• For this reason, diets fed to these fish rarely contain more than 20% complex carbohydrate
• Conversely, warmwater omnivores or herbivores (e.g., channel catfish, tilapia, common carp, and white sturgeon) adapt well to diets containing as much as 40% dietary carbohydrate .
• Although vitamins and minerals are required in minute amounts compared with protein, lipid, and so forth, they are critically important, … Every micronutrient has a deficiency disease associated with it, the effects of which are sometimes irreversible or fatal. For a few vitamins and most minerals, excess can be equally detrimental, resulting in toxicity.

Mean fat percentage of Dorosoma spp. (24.2%) exceeded that of Lepomis spp. (15.2%) and fathead minnows (19.1%), but was less than that of mosquitofish (25.8%) and golden shiners (34.8%) . Bluegills had lower caloric contents than gizzard and threadfin shad ; preliminary data collected for the present study also showed Lepomis spp. To the lower in caloric content than the clupeids.

Although carnivorous fish species generally have a limited ability to use carbohydrates for energy, hybrid striped bass are relatively adept at it. Digestibility coefficients for the carbohydrates were generally high (83.3 to100 percent), indicating that both simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates were digested efficiently by these hybrids.

• Because fish growth often is limited by food availability, supplemental feeding is a logical tool to improve the condition of fish in small impoundments as the energy cost for bluegill to feed on pellets is small relative to the high caloric intake, which can be 4-5 times greater than those fed natural foods (Schalles and Wissing 1976).
• Substantial increases in the standing stock of bluegill in ponds that receive pellet feed have been recorded (Schmittou 1969) and, in lakes, pellet feeding has been found to increase the number of large bluegills (Nail and Powell 1975).
• These results indicate that total fish production and production of bluegill were each increased approximately 75 to 80% by supplemental feeding in 19 months after stocking (Schmittou 1967)

• Previous studies demonstrated that feed in excess of 10 pounds per acre per day in bluegill ponds was not utilized. Some accumulated and decomposed, thus depleting the supply of dissolved oxygen which resulted in fish kills (Schmittou 1967) .
• the rate of growth of sunfish can be increased by short-circuiting the food cycle, thereby producing harvestable size sunfish in a shorter period of time than would occur under natural conditions (Carnes 1966).
• The pellet size should be approximately 20-30% of the size of the fish species mouth gape. Feeding too small a pellet results in inefficient feeding because more energy is used in finding and eating more pellets. Conversely, pellets that are too large will depress feeding and, in the extreme, cause choking. Select the largest sized feed the fish will actively eat.
• Addition of supplemental pelleted feed did not contribute to the rate of growth of young shad, but did increase the growth and spawning frequency of adults.

There have been new developments in this field since the presentation.
















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Thanks ewest, that is a great amount of useful information to inject into this discussion.

Do you happen to know the approximate year of that presentation?

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Don't overthink the FCR. You can get the same FCR from Purina or Optimal just by feeding different weights of feed. The difference between 1.51 and 1.42 when fed the same weight of feed is only about 300 J/gram (approximately 3% difference in digestible energy between one and the other).


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Which brand do you feed to your fish?


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Originally Posted by Theo Gallus
Which brand do you feed to your fish?

The cheap stuff that I find at Tractor Supply, that is good enough for them. To many turtles & very large tilapia stealing from the CNBG.

My favorite forgotten long ago post that I bumbled on to about this subject:

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=423360

Notice the price. Clearly demonstrates which is the superior food.

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Picked up a couple bags of the "new" Optimal winter feed to try out as the water gets a little cooler. I'm curious if there are opinions as to when to incorporate a new feed into the pond. Currently feeding 100% floating with Optimal BG through the TH feeder. Not sure if I want to auto feed it or hand throw the winter feed.

Any of you winter feeding experts have a plan that works well in your pond?


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Originally Posted by Boondoggle
Picked up a couple bags of the "new" Optimal winter feed to try out as the water gets a little cooler. I'm curious if there are opinions as to when to incorporate a new feed into the pond. Currently feeding 100% floating with Optimal BG through the TH feeder. Not sure if I want to auto feed it or hand throw the winter feed.

Any of you winter feeding experts have a plan that works well in your pond?

TH Feeder set at 1 sec per day at noon. It throws it in the open water that the winter diffuser makes.


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3/4 to 1 1/4 ac pond LMB, SMB, PS, BG, RES, CC, YP, Bardello BG, (RBT & Blue Tilapia - seasonal).
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I've fed Purina, Optimal, Triton, and Skretting over the years, and all of them are good. Trying to figure out which is the best for each pond owner is like splitting a hair. Region, water, habitat, density, volume of food fed, etc, all make a difference.

I have 2 questions. 1) Those that have grown out multiple, and repetitive, 2# BG in their pond, please stand up. 2) Next time you pick up fish at a hatchery, or even a fish truck, ask them what they feed.


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I asked the manager of the Byron Oklahoma state fish hatchery, they feed AQ MVP.


2 Acre, Completed July 2022, CC,BG, Sept. 2022, LMB June 2023, 120 BG, 30 RES, 50 HBG all 4-6", 8 TGC 8-10", 1000 MF, Aug 2024, GSF, YBH washed in 2022.
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Originally Posted by Learninboutfish
I asked the manager of the Byron Oklahoma state fish hatchery, they feed AQ MVP.

Thanks. Is that what you feed?

I should have added one more question. Do you feed what the hatchery feeds, or what is accessible or recommended?


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Haven’t made it to 2# yet but all my original stock CNBG are over .75# in the first year.
I feed MVP. Also hand throw Skreeting to my fish and the BG won’t touch it .
No idea where they came from originally.
Fish pictured were all stocked 9/29/23 as fingerlings

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Originally Posted by FireIsHot
Originally Posted by Learninboutfish
I asked the manager of the Byron Oklahoma state fish hatchery, they feed AQ MVP.

Thanks. Is that what you feed?

I should have added one more question. Do you feed what the hatchery feeds, or what is accessible or recommended?

Yes, I feed AQ MVP. That is also where my fish came from.
I order online from Tractor Supply Company and have it delivered to my door at no charge.

I also agree with the previous statement that both are high quality feeds and should help any pond owner accomplish their goals.


2 Acre, Completed July 2022, CC,BG, Sept. 2022, LMB June 2023, 120 BG, 30 RES, 50 HBG all 4-6", 8 TGC 8-10", 1000 MF, Aug 2024, GSF, YBH washed in 2022.
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I have been at a pond where the owner fed AquaMax 500 to all his fish (Sparkplug here on the forum). Throw out AquaMax 600? They won't touch it - they are so conditioned to eating that AM500 sized pellet.

Fly fisherman know the saying "match the hatch". it's true.


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Hmmm. How would one know if the fish aren’t feeding on 100% sinking food?


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