How to Buy Aquamax

[TCLynx]

There are many varieties of Aquamax fish feeds and you can go to the Purina Mills web site to research them and then use the dealer locator to find a feed store near you that is a Purina dealer.

You will then need to call up a few of the feed stores and find out if they are willing to have a bag of your chosen type of feed put on the next truck.  Do not expect most feed stores to carry these fish feeds standard and you really don't want them too since fish feed doesn't keep well, you want it fresh.  Anyway, ask them the price and find out the schedule of when you would need to call in an order and when the truck would deliver. 

One note here, tractor supply may be a Purina dealer now but they won't special order fish feed or any other feed when I asked.

 

I've found that the price on the fish feed changes a bit from order to order (must be linked to fuel prices) and the higher the protein the higher the price.  Keep fish feed in a well sealed container and keep it cool.  Don't buy more than you will use in 6 months and I would recommend not even keeping it that long especially the really high protein stuff.

 

I have used the Aquamax Dense culture 4000 for both catfish and tilapia with good results though a smaller pellet size might be better for the tilapia which I think would be Dense culture 3000.  I have also gotten the higher protein grower 400 feed for small fingerlings before but the higher protein will put a heavier work load on the bio-filter.  The pellet size of the 400 is nice and small but the dark pellets don't seem to attract my catfish as much as the lighter colored lower protein stuff.

 

The Dense culture feeds are designed to provide balanced complete nutrition to tank raised fish while helping maintain good water quality.  Pond diets tend to be a little less complete since fish in a natural earthen pond get some of their nutrition from natural sources.  One of the cheaper (not purina) pond diet feeds I tried early on was not as good, the fish didn't like it as much, the plants didn't do as well and it seemed to cause more odor issues around my system (a glob of uneaten feed stuck in the corner of the tilapia cage just above the water line did stink up the place.)  Beware uneaten moist and rotting fish feed gives off an unbelievable stench.

[Ron Thompson]

I have also seen pellet fish feed run through a coffee grinder to make at powder for feeding fry. 

 

If there are other forum members near you, combine your needs and buy a larger bag to save money. Cosmo and I split a 50# bag. That gives us 25#'s each for $15 apiece. The 10# bag was $17, so it is  worthwhile savings even if some would get tossed out (though we use it up faster than it can go bad).

[TCLynx]

Yes, definitely combining orders would be worth while since most backyard scale systems are not big enough to be using up a 50 lb bag really quickly.

 

Now if one needs a small quantity of really high protein feed for small fry, you can get such things at Aquatic Eco Systems in like a 5 lb bag but when dealing with small fry like that, well I freeze most of the 5 lb bag and only keep a baby food jar out for day to day use.

[zero power]

I use the ziegler aqua max..  the price of feed isnt so bad but the shipping is whats gets you.

TCLynx said:

Yes, definitely combining orders would be worth while since most backyard scale systems are not big enough to be using up a 50 lb bag really quickly.

 

Now if one needs a small quantity of really high protein feed for small fry, you can get such things at Aquatic Eco Systems in like a 5 lb bag but when dealing with small fry like that, well I freeze most of the 5 lb bag and only keep a baby food jar out for day to day use.