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davidstcldfl
04-13-2010, 03:53 AM
Hi Ernie, I don't know if you researched Purina yet (?) They do make food for tilapia.
http://www.fishchow.com/aquamaxfishdiets.htm

I don't know if it's the best or cheapest, but my dealer is an 1/8 th of a mile away.
My purina dealer will special order a bag of exactlly what I want. I order ahead of time, they just add it to their regular order.
I was told Tractor Supply is a dealer, but they won't special order.

I think the last bag I ordered was the 500, just over $30 with tax.

You should have a dealer near you. Here is a link where you can find one...
http://www.mazuri.com/usamap.htm

urbanrunoff
04-13-2010, 03:29 PM
me too i'm looking for a good online source. Obviously I only need small quantities for my 25 fingerlings.
looks like there is a purina dealer close to me, i might give it a try.

badflash
04-13-2010, 04:11 PM
I use Zeigler's. It is very good and less expensive than what is quoted above. I use Finfish Silver 3mm floating pellets and it does not cause cloudy water like Purina does. You have to watch the ingredients closely. Beleive it or not, they are allowed to use chicken feathers and count it as protein, even though it is not digestible. Got to watch those fillers.

Anyway, if you have a local feed store, ask them if they are a member of the Cooperative Feed Dealers (USA) - 800-333-0895 ext. 314. They don't stock it, but they order it and there is no charge for shipping. I just pick it up when they call me. Last order was $40 for a 44# bag. You can crush it for fry.

http://www.co-opfeed.com/pdf/FishPondSupplies.pdf

mpugh5@aol.com
04-13-2010, 05:48 PM
Badflash that is good news Ziegler's is here in Pa. there has to be somewhere around here that i can cut out the shipping and middle people when the time comes. ;)

badflash
04-13-2010, 06:26 PM
They sell right at their facility.
Their website is http://www.zeiglerfeed.com/html/

urbanrunoff
04-13-2010, 07:44 PM
thanks,
i will try and find a local store that can order zeigler.

there is a lot of movement in the "organic" fish farming industry. And i read that they are about to set standards for usda organic farmed fish. I would be curious to know what feed suppliers will be certified and if their product is going to be available to someone like me.

davidstcldfl
04-13-2010, 11:26 PM
You have to watch the ingredients closely. Beleive it or not, they are allowed to use chicken feathers and count it as protein, even though it is not digestible. Got to watch those fillers
:shock: ...Wow , thanks for pointing that out badflash !


there is a lot of movement in the "organic" fish farming industry. And i read that they are about to set standards for usda organic farmed fish. I would be curious to know what feed suppliers will be certified and if their product is going to be available to someone like me.

urbanrunoff , If you hear anymore on this, could you please let us know ? Thanks.

badflash
04-14-2010, 06:36 AM
I would avoid commercially produced organic feeds. They are going to cost more than the fish are worth, and they won't be any healthier. If you get serious, you can produce your own feed and certify how you make it. Organic certification doesn't mean what you'd think it means.

Here is an example,
Raise pigs loaded with hormones and foraging on plants loaded with pesticides. Take their manure to fertilize a pond that you are growing tilapia in. You can certify the fish as organically grown.

Take spent grain from a micro-brewery operation that uses food grade barley. Feed them to your tilapia. NOT organically certifiable.

Which fish would you rather eat?

I say document how you take care of your fish and what you feed them. People who really care about what they eat can understand that and make up their own mind.

stucco
04-14-2010, 03:13 PM
We have been using Dick Van Patten's Limited ingredient Dry Catfood as our feed, along with scraps from the garden, SFL, duckweed, etc. I realize that it is a little more expensive- and yes even has a higher ratio of fat (the wrong kind I might add), but it is limited to two ingredients in various forms- Peas, Salmon Meal, Pea Protein, Salmon. There are NO grain prodcuts or byprodcuts in this food- so you get what you get (plus my family is all allergic to wheat- there fore I don't feed it to my fish). There is a great deal of products out there using crazy animal protiens - digestible or not- in their feed- I realize that salmon may not be an ecofriendly source of food for my fish, but it is natural- and I offset it with various veggies here. Until I find a better source of simple food, this seems to me to be the best choice. I don't eat feathers (but that Zeigler's finfishsilver includes it according to their site), and there are those who do not eat pork- which is, I believe, what is in the Purina feed along with feathers, - they would certainly be unhappy to find that there fish were eating it.
Our local waterways have tilapia and they feast on hornwort, hydrilla, and to some extent water hyacinth- I have yet to collect some since everywhere I go it seems the water has an oilslick, which I do not want to bring home. Duckweed on the other hand is an excellent grower and a healthy natural treat- if you can keep up with the fish you stock. I personally hope to be dehydrating my sfl, duckweed, veggies, flax, and chia seed etc soon for my own meal- I believe it will be closer to their natural raw food source- Untill then I am on the lookout in the ditches for a healthy stock of hornwort- but I keep my Dick Van Patten's close by. :)

badflash
04-14-2010, 08:26 PM
An informed consumer is the best customer. Keep following the money trail. You are on the right track. The cool thing about small suppliers is we can influence them. No chance for giant agribuisness. Tell 'em what you want and see what happens. We are sort of a aquaponics union. Once we get big enough, amazing things will happen.

urbanrunoff
04-14-2010, 09:35 PM
I would avoid commercially produced organic feeds. They are going to cost more than the fish are worth, and they won't be any healthier. If you get serious, you can produce your own feed and certify how you make it. Organic certification doesn't mean what you'd think it means.

Here is an example,
Raise pigs loaded with hormones and foraging on plants loaded with pesticides. Take their manure to fertilize a pond that you are growing tilapia in. You can certify the fish as organically grown.

.

I think that is exactly what they are working on, clear standards that would not allow such practices. Up until now the organic label on fish products was no guarantee.

I'm not hung up on "organic" label. but i want to make sure that what i feed my fish is not some fish scraps from a fishfram that uses contaminated manure as feed...

on a side note, it's kinda cool that Trader joe promises to offer only sustainable fish products by 2010 after the entire Traitor joe debacle, it is all slowly moving in the right direction.

urbanrunoff
04-20-2010, 07:02 AM
ernie: i might have an IN for the pizzaport tilapia. The owner's kid goes to the same school then my oldest daughter.

I just got a sample of "all natural" senior dog food (low fat) the tilapias love it. :shock:

badflash
04-20-2010, 08:01 PM
Lots of ways to deal with it. If you have a way to dry & make pellets, that is the best. Otherwise, acclimate the tilapia to the grain, then turn off the filters, feed then what they will eat, and turn the pumps back on. The stuff is messy as-is and will foul up the works if you don't turn the flow off for feeding. Tilapia learn quickly, so this is a 5 minute process if you don't over feed.

jackalope
05-28-2010, 08:30 AM
I'm going to jump in here and mention AquaFarms Fish Food as an Aquaculture Feed supplier, and yes, we sell it! We will hopefully be advertising on the DIY site soon! We have made an agreement with a mill so as to produce the most natural food for aquaculture fish as possible. These fish do not eat terrestrial animals in the wild, why would we feed them terrestial animals in captivity, except for the greed of the multi-national corporations? The fish food we sell is all natural (I'm told by our mill that you can no longer get non-GMO soybeans for animal feed anywhere in the US or Canada nowadays), and there are no steroids, no mendicants, no drugs, no hormones, no terrestrial animals in our products. This fish food is for those who intend to eat their fish, as well as for those who raise koi or some other show fish. I try not to feed my fish anything that might pass through them and into my family. It is more expensive than some of the ones mentioned, but if you want a quality feed, you have to pay more.

The FDA has approved the following ingredients for fish food, but not for beef, mutton, pork, or other land animal feeds: Terrestrial animals with Brucellosis, hoof and mouth, BSE (Mad Cow Disease), Trichinosis, Avian flu, (and others). In other words, the cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens (and other fowl) that are being destroyed for the various diseases mentioned above, can and are being used by the big feed companies as fish feed for both show fish and edible fish. The FDA says that the diseases may/will transmit to humans if fed to terrestrial animals, but they have not yet determined that it will transmit through fish.

AquaFarms Fish Food is a premium commercial fish feed for Tilapia, Catfish, Salmon, Trout, Bass, Koi, Carp, as well as invertebrates such as Shrimp and Crayfish. AquaFarms Fish Food is a High Protein (55%) High Fat (17%) diet for Fry through Fingerling stage, and when they grow into the Young Adult stage they are fed a 40% Protein, 14% Fat Vegetarian diet. Research has shown that the adult stages do not require the higher protein, but must still have a high fat diet.

Remember, if you are planning to eat the fish you are raising, whatever you feed your fish, is going to eventually end up in your body :!:

For more information, please visit our website: See the link on our Supplier's FAQ page (http://diyaquaponics.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=99)

davidstcldfl
05-28-2010, 09:05 AM
(I'm told by our mill that you can no longer get non-GMO soybeans for animal feed anywhere in the US or Canada nowadays
Hopefully that will be changing soon.
http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/m ... ybeans.php (http://www.non-gmoreport.com/articles/mar09/farmers_planting_non-gmo_soybeans.php)

The fish food sounds interesting Jackalope......I wanted to check it out, but I'm having problems with the link you gave (?)

GreenPhoenix
05-28-2010, 10:02 AM
The question that I have to ask however is this -- if you are using non-terrestrial sources for the protein and fat in the aquaculture feeds, where are they coming from? If they are coming from fish stocks suck as herring and menhaden (and almost all others...) then in someways it is not really helping the overall problem of overfishing. Over 97% of every commercial fishery that exists in the world is over-fished to some degree. If we are over-harvesting naturally occurring fishery species simply to produce a feed for our aquaculture industry, than are we really doing anything to make our economy (world) more sustainable?

Sorry about the soap-box rant... I am not meaning to offend anyone, this is just something that I feel very strongly about.

Phoenix

badflash
05-28-2010, 10:09 AM
For the most part, fish meal is not something that is fished for, it is a by-product. Taking advantage of something that is otherwise going to a land fill is as green as it gets.

Mixing rice or wheat bran or alfalfa with a little fish meal produces a dandy tilapia feed.

GreenPhoenix
05-28-2010, 10:33 AM
Actually Badflash -- actually the Menhaden fishery in the Gulf of Mexico specifically, and many others are primarily fished just for the purpose of fish meal.... While advances have been made to reduce bycatch in many fisheries (shrimp industry for example), the measures are not universally adopted - usually due to the cost of implementation, but often also due to mis-information or ignorance. Regardless, even though BRDs (bycatch reduction devices) will reduce the amount of bycatch in a shrimp net by a factor of 9 or 10, a number of commercial shrimpers do not use them effectively. Additionally, shrimping in other countries is not as "managed" as in the US.......

I personally feel that in order to truly help the existing Natural fisheries, and to promote the beneficial aspects of aquaponics / aquaculture, we need to create sustainable methods of feed production for our animals. Vertical organization would be the best (raising the food necessary for each life stage within the same facility), but significantly more research needs to be done to make that a viable economic alternative... But in the end, that is what drives the bottom line -- expense vs. profit.

Phoenix

badflash
05-28-2010, 11:04 AM
AquaFarms Fish Food
Does this feed have anything in it like flax to boost Omega-3?

i'm not certain that Omega-3 would fix inside the fish or pass through, but if it increased the Omega-3 in the final fillet then the fish produced could be marketed as being much healthier than the competition.

Feeding high omega 3 foods to chickens and tilapia have been demonstrated to produce high omega 3 meat. Several studies have been done with Camilina sativa meal.

jackalope
05-28-2010, 06:04 PM
The fish food sounds interesting Jackalope......I wanted to check it out, but I'm having problems with the link you gave (?)

It works for me ..... :lol: :lol: (actually, I forgot the 's' in fish!) THX for letting me know ;)

jackalope
05-28-2010, 06:05 PM
AquaFarms Fish Food
Does this feed have anything in it like flax to boost Omega-3?

i'm not certain that Omega-3 would fix inside the fish or pass through, but if it increased the Omega-3 in the final fillet then the fish produced could be marketed as being much healthier than the competition.

All of our ingredients are listed on our website! (I fixed the link)

jackalope
05-28-2010, 06:12 PM
The question that I have to ask however is this -- if you are using non-terrestrial sources for the protein and fat in the aquaculture feeds, where are they coming from? If they are coming from fish stocks suck as herring and menhaden (and almost all others...) then in someways it is not really helping the overall problem of overfishing. Over 97% of every commercial fishery that exists in the world is over-fished to some degree. If we are over-harvesting naturally occurring fishery species simply to produce a feed for our aquaculture industry, than are we really doing anything to make our economy (world) more sustainable?

Sorry about the soap-box rant... I am not meaning to offend anyone, this is just something that I feel very strongly about.

Phoenix

I've read both sides of this argument, and there are just as many stats that indicate that the oceans are not 'overfished' as some say. I only go with what is the best for the fish, which isn't terrestrial animals with mad cow diseases or chicken feathers with no value. I can only go with what I want to put into my stomach ;) No offense meant or intended ;)

Doc
06-09-2010, 11:34 AM
I use Zeigler's. It is very good and less expensive than what is quoted above. I use Finfish Silver 3mm floating pellets and it does not cause cloudy water like Purina does. You have to watch the ingredients closely. Beleive it or not, they are allowed to use chicken feathers and count it as protein, even though it is not digestible. Got to watch those fillers.

Anyway, if you have a local feed store, ask them if they are a member of the Cooperative Feed Dealers (USA) - 800-333-0895 ext. 314. They don't stock it, but they order it and there is no charge for shipping. I just pick it up when they call me. Last order was $40 for a 44# bag. You can crush it for fry.

http://www.co-opfeed.com/pdf/FishPondSupplies.pdf
Hey Badflash,

I'm new here, in fact I found this forum in a Google search about tilapia feed. You said above that you use Zeigler's feed and then you warned "You have to watch the ingredients closely. Believe it or not, they are allowed to use chicken feathers and count it as protein, even though it is not digestible. Got to watch those fillers." Looking at the link you gave above to Zeigler's fish food, the ingredient list shows "Hydrolyzed Feather Meal." Isn't that what you were warning us about?

Doc

badflash
06-09-2010, 03:43 PM
Yes and no. My understanding is that is a binder. Which product lists that and how far down on the ingredient list was it?

I like the Finfish Silver because it is well digested and does not color the water or cloud it.

Doc
06-09-2010, 05:25 PM
Yes and no. My understanding is that is a binder. Which product lists that and how far down on the ingredient list was it?

I like the Finfish Silver because it is well digested and does not color the water or cloud it.
Here is the ingredient list of Finfish Silver:

Ingredients: Wheat Middlings, Fish Meal, Dehulled Soybean Meal, Hydrolyzed Feather Meal, Blood Meal, Dicalcium Phosphate, Soy Lecithin, Yeast Culture, dl-Methionine, Choline Chloride, Manganese Proteinate, Zinc Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Calcium Iodate, Iron Proteinate, Cobalt Proteinate, Calcium Carbonate, Sodium Selenite, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Supplement), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin, Calcium Pantothenate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K Activity), Folic Acid, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Biotin, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C).

As you can see it is the 4th ingredient.

Doc

Doc
06-09-2010, 05:28 PM
Has anyone used Premium Fish Food Company's fish food. Here is the link to one of their products. What do you think of their ingredients?

http://premiumfishfood.com/zen/tilapia- ... ate-pellet (http://premiumfishfood.com/zen/tilapia-food/tilapia-intermediate-pellet)

Doc

badflash
08-19-2010, 07:44 PM
I finally got an answer on Hydrolyzed Feather Meal. Chicken feathers are cooked in steam at around 35# of pressure. This breaks down the stuff that makes the feathers undigestible.

urbanfarmer
09-04-2010, 09:52 AM
That's interesting... I guess they are finding new ways to use leftovers or byproducts from other agricultural processes and using them as salable products once processed. This is kind of what we do in aquaponics, the byproduct of one system is the input of another! :-) I like it! I hope it's safe... haha

badflash
09-04-2010, 10:43 AM
Zeigler's has a great rep. My fish thrive on it.

rfeiller
09-04-2010, 07:44 PM
what percentage of the fishes diet do you provide with your hydroponics gardens, with leftover veggies, and how much do you have to subsidize with commercial fish food?

badflash
09-05-2010, 04:41 AM
Currently it is impossible for me to say. In the AP system a large portion of their feed is green water, but I can't measure it. I feed a small handfull of feed each day to about a dozen 4" tilapia in the 600 gallon Intex pool. They look pretty fat.

davidstcldfl
09-05-2010, 05:12 AM
Hi rfeiller, I feed large duckweed to my tilapia everyday. Ocassionally, other veggies too. I wouldn't think it would be more then about 5% of their diet.
I've seen where duckweed is up to 40% protien, BUT, it must be dried. I dried some, they didn't seem to like it. If that's all they had.... they might eat it (dried).
If I had a way to make it into pellets....they might be more interested in it (?)

Brier
09-05-2010, 12:11 PM
A single duckweed plant, dried or live contains the same amount of protein. When it is dried, it is 40% protein by weight. When it is live it might only be 15% protein by weight, the rest is water. Wouldn't it stand to reason that live duckweed is in fact a higher quality feed? I know that quality pasture is better feed than the dried hay cut off of the pasture.
I suppose when it is dried, it has less bulk, and the fish could potentially consume a higher amount in a feeding. What do you guys think?

On a side note, there is a co-op in Ohio working on a new fish feed, and the mill that is producing it is less than a mile from my house. I know some of the employees there, and we get lots of free feed. For instance they call me when they have mislabeled feed, that they cannot sell, I pick it up, and feed it to the hogs. Hopefully they will make some mistakes with the fish food as well. The really cool part of the fish food is that its main ingredient is black soldier fly larva. The larva are being produced by a multimillion dollar composting facility, about an hour north of here. Looks like this is going to be some great feed, and Ohio is very proud of this accomplishment. I look forward to using it.

badflash
09-05-2010, 05:32 PM
I've been told that tilapia lose too much energy removing the water. I'd love to see that tested. I can't see that it is true as tilapia can live on green water and algae has more water than duckeed.

As to BSF-
Suggest that they remove the oil before they use it as feed. BSF are something like 50% fat, and that is too much fat for tilapia.

stucco
09-05-2010, 09:00 PM
I made several experimental foods for my tilapia out of bsfl and duckweed. The fish wouldn’t eat anything that had the larva in it.

Brier
09-05-2010, 09:10 PM
I do hope that they have these bugs worked out, and plan on offering an omnivore diet, as well as a carnivore diet. I assume that they are doing both, as Ohio does have some very large tilapia production projects.

Yeah, I an kind of with you Badflash. How can a fish, born of water have trouble removing water? Especially a predominantly vegetarian species. But then again nature had a design that was productive, but man feels the need to make it more productive. Look what we have done with our cattle. With the feedlots, we have turned them into hogs.

davidstcldfl
09-06-2010, 02:08 AM
Brier, That's great that you have a feed mill so close...and get some freebies too... :mrgreen:

I'm with you and Badflash on the duckweed. I understand the comment about more protien per weight when dried. But, why mess with nature (?), I'd rather feed it to them fresh.

Here's a link to a great article on duckweed. It's pretty long, it does go over test studys/results of using it as feed for fish of course, but also cattle, chickens and ducks. They even mention human consumption.

http://www.fao.org/Ag/AGAInfo/resources ... DW/Dw2.htm (http://www.fao.org/Ag/AGAInfo/resources/documents/DW/Dw2.htm)

It really is, a quite amazing little plant.

badflash
09-06-2010, 07:42 AM
Great article and good news about the frsh use. I will seed my pool with duckweed today to shade the pool and kill off the green water.

Brier
09-06-2010, 07:46 AM
Wow, that is the duckweed bible! Great article, but I don't have time to read it all this morning.
It seems agriculture as an industry has spent a great deal of time trying to reinvent the wheel.

jackalope
09-06-2010, 08:03 PM
Great article, there is also a smaller version that is called 'Wolffia' that is called 'water-meal' in Asia ..... they actually dry it and grind it for flour .... some while ago, I saw a site that talked about it, and they made a muffin from it (combined with flour), but were too skeered to take a taste of it, since they had harvested it from their fish pond ........ unbelievable!. I'm hoping that one of these summer days, that I will get some from badflash, but first I've got to get some better weather ;)

badflash
09-07-2010, 06:21 PM
Wolfia is hard to keep. It is so tiny that everything eats it and it ends up getting sucked into the AP and is lost. It needs still water to do well. I find the larger duckweeds much better. There isn't a big difference in nutrician.

Jackalope-
Just say the word and I'll send you a mess. The local ponds here are loaded until it cools off, which could be any day.

Root Doctor
09-19-2010, 10:24 AM
I'm feeding tilapia exclusively on food we raise on site, namely algae, zooplankton and insect larvae. Not all algae is so high in fat and yet, within the phytoplankton there are many organisms which fish like more than algae. So algae to feed fish as a supplement, like duckweed but with small microscopic organisms that feed on the algae as primary feed.

Problem with duckweed is that while it is a good food and great for wastewater remediation, it is hard to get much nitrogen per feeding. It has a very low nitrogen percentage.

You can see some of our videos on algae as a fish food at our algosolar website or google videos on tilapia feed and algae.

badflash
09-19-2010, 04:53 PM
Duckweed is about 40% protien. How could that be low in nitrogen?

davidstcldfl
09-20-2010, 05:16 AM
Hi Root Doctor...welcome to the forum... :D

You said duckweed is low in nitrogen....compared to....?
I'm remembering reading...it's just over 6 % nitrogen.
Of course, the water it was grown in and what type of duckweed....makes a differeance on the make up.

jackalope
09-21-2010, 10:13 PM
Welcome to the forum, glad to have you here! Questions are always welcome, don't be too skeeered to ask, we don't bite (well, maybe one or two of us, but not all of us :lol: :lol: ) We love questions, and we especially love photos ;) Please be sure to put where you live in your profile so we know what part of the country/hemisphere/planet you are in ..... someone who lives nearby may be able to help you out personally as well.

We have a great FAQ (http://diyaquaponics.com/forum/faq.php) button for navigating the website controls, etc. at the top of the page, next to the "Members" button, please check it out if you haven't already done so.
We also have another FAQ (http://diyaquaponics.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=93) section which contains many of the hints and tips that have been collected along the way ..........

Before posting any URLs or emails, please take a look at the Forum Rules (http://diyaquaponics.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=103) .....
If you see something that you would like added to these FAQs, please let a moderator or admin know, and we'll discuss it and possibly add it to the list!

BTW, we have a special section for off-topic conversations called "The Sump" (http://diyaquaponics.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=102) to hopefully avoid crapping threads and keeping things on topic ;)

Once again, WELCOME TO THE FORUM :!: :!:

grimsteph
01-21-2011, 09:13 PM
Has anyone used Premium Fish Food Company's fish food. Here is the link to one of their products. What do you think of their ingredients?

http://premiumfishfood.com/zen/tilapia- ... ate-pellet (http://premiumfishfood.com/zen/tilapia-food/tilapia-intermediate-pellet)

Doc

Hi Doc,

That is where we got food from. It seems like it is very high quality. We would like to produce our own food when we get a little bigger, but I'm pleased with using this for now. I want to try and make food out of ground alfalfa, black soldier fly and duckweed as the main ingredients. I wish we could afford a pellet making machine, but even the cheapest ones we could find were at least three thousand or more. It would take a lot of food to make that money back.

urbanfarmer
01-22-2011, 06:35 PM
That just seems ridiculously expensive. Check your local feed store. They definitely have better prices (less than 25% of what that costs). They often can special order feed if you are looking for something more specific (and they don't usually charge anything extra to do it).

badflash
01-23-2011, 08:17 AM
If you have a local feed store ask them about the co-op list. Many belong to the co-op and can order quality fish food far cheaper than you think. You won't be paying shipping either. Look for a low fat feed with about 30% protein. Catfish food is not good for tilapia. You also want a floating feed. That way you know when they've eaten it.

If you pay more than $1 a pound it is not sustainable business wise.

grimsteph
01-25-2011, 11:54 PM
That just seems ridiculously expensive. Check your local feed store. They definitely have better prices (less than 25% of what that costs). They often can special order feed if you are looking for something more specific (and they don't usually charge anything extra to do it).

Most of that cheap local feed store stuff is full of nasty things I wouldn't want in my system, and it usually lacks important vitamin content. I also use a lot less of the food because it is higher protein and has less filler ingredients. I've been extremely happy with it. I have also used AquaFarms food, and it was very good as well.

badflash
01-26-2011, 06:33 PM
That is why you use the coop. not what they stock in the store. I've been using Zeigler's Finfish silver. It has more protein than I need for adults, but it works for all ages. Finfish Bronze is best for tilapia, but it isn't in the coop catalog yet.
http://www.co-opfeed.com/pdf/FishPondSupplies.pdf

urbanfarmer
01-26-2011, 10:00 PM
That is why you use the coop. not what they stock in the store. I've been using Zeigler's Finfish silver. It has more protein than I need for adults, but it works for all ages. Finfish Bronze is best for tilapia, but it isn't in the coop catalog yet.
http://www.co-opfeed.com/pdf/FishPondSupplies.pdf
Whoops, I know you have told me before, but I completely forgot to check my local store! Thanks, I will have to check next time I am up there!

DJDEANER
05-31-2011, 11:06 AM
Hi im looking for some information on what to feed Talapia if im starting my own aquaponic system. I am looking to eat this fish almost every day but dont want to have mercury and pcb in the fish due to the amount of fish im gona be eating. Is there any fish food on the market that is actually pcb and mercury and heavy metal free?? Im also thinking of starting to grow duck weed but i fear I dont have enough room to make a big enough supply for the fish so im looking for a purchaced alternative. But again i stress it must be 100% pcb and heavy metal free cause I literally plan on eating this every single day forever. Any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Dean

keith_r
05-31-2011, 11:33 AM
duckweed is ok for a fish food supplement but you still want to use a regular commercial fish food.. tilapia will be ok with i think 32 to 36% protein, which is what most catfish food is..
silvercup is a pretty big "brand" name in ohio, purina makes fish food as well - check your local feed mill, you should be able to get 50lbs of good quality feed for around $35, i've read a few studies that show that tilapia have anywhere from a 1.2:1 to 1.5:1 food conversion ratio.. but you need a good food for them.. consider duckweed/veg scraps/bugs as a supplement to a quality fish food

urbanfarmer
05-31-2011, 12:13 PM
Tilapia will take several months longer to reach the same size on 35% protein vs. 45% protein. There are many studies out there with more exact numbers for you, but if you are in no rush to grow your fish, the cheaper food with good supplementation is a good route.

cedarswamp
05-31-2011, 12:33 PM
"I am looking to eat this fish almost every day"

Try that for a few weeks, forever is a mighty long time