Commercial Fish Food is Expensive!

[Acolin]

With no aquariums anymore, I bought three foods to spoil my red Siamese Fighting Fish in his 2.5 gallon bowl. I spent $20 on Omega One Freeze Dried Bloodworms, Aqueon Shrimp Pellets and Omega One Freeze Dried Tubiflex Worms. I serve the pellets in a pepper grinder to feed him dust-size particles. He does not like flake foods unless I skip a few meals. The male Betta Splendens eats bloodworms from my fingers.

These three foods average $9.80 per ounce. They are 48% protein and 6% fat. These commercially prepared fish foods average about TEN times more than the good fresh fish for human consumption. These three average an amazing $117.65 per pound. Although inconvenient to serve such small portions, I would be much better off feeding a frozen blend of fresh, uncooked and untreated fish and vegetables.

Several years ago, I examined 14 popular flake, frozen and freeze-dried foods for my articles for Freshwater and Marine Aquarium magazine (now Aquarium Fish Monthly, see The Fish Channel.com). I found the LOWEST cost sources of protein and fat content:

"¢ 40-pound bag of feed store catfish pellets "“ most economical commercially prepared fish meal
"¢ Raw frozen fish "“ from grocery; LOWEST cost protein and fat
"¢ Even Salmon, which its colorful pigments, at $12 per pound is much cheaper than commercial fish foods

In a clean pepper grinder, I reduced the shrimp pellets into small bits and powder. I blended the pellet powder and uncooked fish fillets with washed, dark, leafy greens. I placed the liquid into either the small cubes of the plastic Ocean Nutrition trays or a flat sheet in a quart-size Ziploc baggie. I froze the tray or the sheet.

 

[Acolin]

Of course eight ounces for one cute little red fish the size of finger, with eyes and stomach as small as the clicking button on a pen, might easily last more than a year!

 

[CrazyEyes]

I myself buy food but am definitely going to start making my own real soon.

 

[hobbzz]

I buy. I'm afraid of making my own and it turning into soup. I have a lot of small fish that need small pieces, and 3 large tangs that need large pieces, which is another reason I buy. I might try making my own some day.

 

[Acolin]

so far, 75% of us buy only commercial fish foods!

 

[asbauto]

I actually use both, I by ocean nutrition prime reef and nori then make my own meaty preparation which I think the fish like a lot more than store bought foods (dry or frozen). I have found a quality bait store can help with the cost of making your own food also

 

[Acolin]

smart man

 

[Acolin]

272 views, only a few posts!

SHRIMP PELLETS 17 TO 54 times LESS EXPENSIVE
At 36% protein, the Aqueon Shrimp Pellets have less protein, but they cost almost 10 times less per ounce than Omega One Freeze Dried Bloodworms (55%) and Omega One Freeze Dried Tubiflex Worms (54%). Not the same with the fat content. The Pellets have 6%, while Bloodworms are only 3% and the Tubiflex have 9%. Still the MUCH lower cost of the Pellets makes the price of the protein per ounce 17 to 54 times more expensive than the Pellet protein! It makes the fat content of the two other foods 17-18 times more expensive.

 

[Acolin]

Feeding is the fun part of fish-keeping. One of the greatest areas of advancement in the best indoor hobby of fish and habitat keeping is the creation and supply of tropical fish foods. Inspired by high fish food prices, manufacturers continue to bring new fish foods to the sales counter. Many new foods are more of the same old thing. But a few offer something special that make they worth adding a treats to balance out a diet of low cost fish meal:

Vibragro – for its marine PIGMENTS, doesn’t seem to be available anymore
Frozen brine –the most ECONOMICAL commercially prepared frozen fish food for protein and fat
Cyclop-eeze – very high in both protein and fat, with orange marine PIGMENTS
Angel Formula – frozen source of minute amounts of SPONGE
Shrimp pellets – most ECONOMICAL commercially prepared fish pellets
Raw frozen fish – from grocery; lowest cost protein and fat
Spirulina – ALGAE
Nori sheets – from Asian food market, inexpensive source of ALGAE

 

[Acolin]

The .46 ounce container of Bloodworms costs about $260 per pound! Compare that to Walmart’s frozen Tilapia Fillets, which at 11.96 for four pounds. It also provides about 53% protein and very little fat (7%) and is about 21 times cheaper per pound.

 

[Acolin]

GO FOR THE PINK DINNER
Wild caught Walmart Pink Salmon Fillets has the pink pigment, which helps color up fish. The fresh, uncooked, in a freezer bag, NOT a can, fillets are $14.98 for 56 ounces. While their protein is only 45%, and fat is just 8%, the cost of that protein and fat is 10 to 30 less expensive than the FD Bloodworms, because the fillets are only $3.21 per pound! Buy fish for dinner. Feed some of it uncooked to your fish. Blend it with shrimp or catfish pellets and leafy greens. Pour it into ice cube trays. Make your own low cost and healthy food.

 

[Acolin]

ADD THOSE PELLETS
That Fish Place has 32 oz. Wardley’s Shrimp Pellets, made of shrimp meal, ground wheat, fish meal and animal fat preserved with BHA. Feed stores have big bags of catfish pellets for even less. At less than $6 per pound, it is 30% protein and 3% fat. Although almost TWICE the price per ounce of frozen fresh fish fillets, the shrimp pellets line up at $.46 to $.62 per ounce, about 15 to 35 TIMES cheaper for fish food. An ounce of protein in the Bloodworms is almost $12, or $260 per pound.

 

[Acolin]

FEED BAG
Of course, the value champ has to the 50 pound bag of ground up catfish fish meal sold at feed stores. With 30% protein and 8% fat, the bulk purchase is only 45 cents per pound! An ounce of protein in catfish feed costs only a penny. Now you know why ground up fishmeal is in all the commercial fish foods you buy.

Nobody is saying you should replace quality with quantity. I still love unique and valuable foods that provide important ingredients I can’t get anywhere else. Foods such as Vibragro, Cyclop-eeze, Angel Formula, Spirulina and sushi Nori sheets, are wonderful treats that SHOULD be included in most ornamental pet fish diets. Many fish, in fact, such as reef pickers and Tangs, need some of their ingredients as part of their staple diet.

But, let’s face it. Almost everything on the planet eats almost everything else – if it can. With a few exceptions. Most of your fish eat other fish and animals. While the highest protein foods, like Bloodworms, can be fed as treats, the bulk of your pet fish diet can come from sources, like ground up fish meal, that are 10 to 20 times less expensive. A quality food like the Angel Formula was about $1 per ounce. Yet, if you blend HALF your food with catfish pellets, you cut your food costs in about in half. Make your blend a 2-to-1 ratio and your costs drops to about $4 per pound, or 1/3 of simply feeding only commercially prepared fish foods.