Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Optimal Fish Food shutdown

Hello! New here, lurked for a while. I have used Aquamax MVP for a little bit but over the past year started using optimal fish food. I was sad to find out yesterday they are shutting down. No explanation was given. I enjoyed thier feed, does anyone else have other brands that are just as good to try? So I can switch between MVP etc.

Thank yall so much.

Dang

Well that is a total bummer for news! Time to start up some research on brands of food to see what I can get locally.

I spoke at length with Mark about situation. Prayers for any who lost their income. May God bless all involved and their Families.

My sympathy to those who are dependent on it.

I've had no issues ordering MVP through Tractor Supply Company free shipping to my house, tax exempt if you qualify.

Sad, but as we get older, we consistently see that nothing lasts forever.

I must of been one of their last customers as I just got my order delivered to me last week. Their food really made a difference in my bluegills. I used to use Zeigler when I commercially raised tropical fish. I can get their food locally for about $54.00 for 44 pound bag. I guess I will try that. It's a 40% protein feed.

Yeah I placed an order also but don’t think I’ll get it. I’ll have to go back to Aquamax mvp. Does anyone else here know of any good sources of feed for blue gill etc? I like supporting the little guy.

I can add something here.. Let's keep our eye's open. The fat lady has not taken the stage...yet.

I done some field Trials with Aquamax 500 on BG, and there is absolutely zero wrong with that. FCR was real good.

I'm sorry to hear this, for all of us and for them!

Wow I just got a bag last friday. Any idea of why they are shutting down? I really hate to hear this, I feed 2 ponds daily with their food and the growth rate was tremendous. What is the best food that is like Optimal Blue gill? I have used Purina Aquamax but it is about 30 dollars a bag more expensive here and it is a pain to get it. Great thing about Optimal is that they ship it to your door! Free! If I had know they were closing I would have ordered 6 bags.

I’ll probably go back to Aquamax

I just order Purina Aquamax 500, it floats and seems to be close to the same pellet size and the price was 20 dollars a bag cheaper, than the Purina aquamax 400 grower that I tried before.

If you feed regularly you can save 5% on Purina feed by setting up a subscription with Tractor Supply. Free shipping and tax exempt if you qualify.

I was still using Cargill feed but... with shipping they have about priced themselves out also!!

Be patient, story isn’t close to being written. All will be well - just need time.

We sell Cargill Triton at Overton Fisheries in 1/8in and 1/4in both 45% protein at $50 per bag if you pick it up (I haven't seen anywhere cheaper for same quality), shipping is high if you ship by the bag its $100 total per bag straight from the mill. I can ship pallets(40) and half pallets shipping evens itself out a little better in Bulk.

If you want to have your business here on the forum, call the PB office. This is strike 2 for the same problem. You know how it works in baseball, same here.

From the Boss:

Quite often, we'll see a new member (or existing members) selling their wares or services.
We only allow that of our approved advertisers. We are careful to make sure our advertisers are quality and meet our expectations.
If you have a product or service you'd like to promote on the forum, please send an email to info@pondboss.com and get permission before you promote or add information to your signature line or add a link to your website.
We'll protect our paying advertisers and people we know.
For our approved advertisers, you guys already know how to play.

If someone breaks this rule the moderators will delete all links and references to your business.

In addition, some members solicit business via PM's (private message). These are not authorized, either. If you receive a PM from someone trying to solicit you, please do your due diligence. First, make sure they are on the Pond Boss "approved" list. That's this link, the Pond Boss resource guide. http://www.pondboss.com/resource_guide.asp
We vet all those people in the Resource Guide and have a high level of confidence of their capabilities. Also, banner ads at the top of the forum page have met with our approval.

If you are solicited by ANYONE who isn't on that list, please send us an email at info@pondboss.com and let us know. We want to police this site and make sure reputable people are soliciting.

I have no idea what the reasons for the Optimal closing were, but a free shipping policy catches up with a lot of on line sellers. They justify it for a few years as a customer acquisition cost and pencil whip the accounting, but eventually cash flow issues become very real...It will be interesting to see how AI shapes internet selling strategies in the next 10 years.

I've been out of the loop for awhile. Just now hearing about this. Hopefully they'll be able to right the ship and resume production soon.

If not, there's a Purina dealer about five miles from here that I've done business with for years. I just got off the phone with them.
They're telling me eight days lead time to get any Purina aquaculture product to their dock. I can live with that if Optimal doesn't come back.

I got the Purina Aquamaxx sport fish and the pellets are way smaller than Optimal Blue Gill, and it makes them hard to throw very far. Any suggestions of getting a bigger pellet from Purina that will throw better? I really hope Optimal comes back I could really throw it

I began using Optimal last season in my pond. Previously, I tried Purina Aquamax Sport Fish MVP with great results. I switched to Optimal because they delivered right to my door. I will be going back to the Purina MVP even though I have to drive to a feed store to pick it up. I actually liked the MVP better as it has both floating and sinking pellets and has a mix of larger and smaller pellets. My fish inhaled it. I also used the Optimal hand throw for my catfish. Anybody know of a large hand throw type pellet since Optimal is no longer in business? Thanks.

At the moment there are no available 1" pellets, but hopefully there will be soon.