Originally Posted By: Dam'dWaters
Thanks for all the responses and suggestions. Jim, those are great points, but I'm not feeding in a controlled or limited forage environment. I've got a "free choice" environment. If they don't like it they can wait for the feeder to go off next time around smile

I think the best point made is that partially degraded Optimal is still better than a lot of crap called fish food that I could go pick up at a farm store today.


Keep this in context. On many occasions have had folks using very high end trout / salmon feeds at or beyond end of shelf life that supported less performance than a lower end feed (crap) fresh from the mill. The fish were not confined and fed only as a supplement. When both feeds are fresh, the higher feed is clearly better and maybe even so when serving as a supplement to natural forages.

Look at run dates on those feed sacks. Position on the crap scale is not always a function of brand.

Aquaculture
Cooperative Research / Extension
Lincoln University of Missouri