Skretting Fish Feed

Borby

I have been looking for a decent sinking pellet feed for my SP, I was hoping someone knew how I could locate some in the Perth region. Going by the Skretting web page it looks highly commercial but definitely very suitable for getting fish from tank to table however in terms of quantity purchased and I am only after a few kg's.

RupertofOZ

Try BYAP.. at Jandakot... I'm sure they'll be able to help you out....

Borby

Always my first port of call Rup... But they don't stock the sinking pellets. Unless they are hiding something or would get some in

faye

We only do the floating feed and for good reason. The sinking pellets sink to the bottom and can foul the water if left there. You would be amazed how many people have no idea what is going on in the bottom of the fish tank and yet continue to feed the fish, or shall we say throw feed in. It is one of the measures that we introduced to minimise things going wrong and all our fish take the floating pellets. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. We deal with a lot of beginners new to aquaponics and have fielded many, many phonecalls from people all over Australia when things have gone wrong. Many issues have arosen from high stocking densities and too much feed being added to a new system. We developed a strategy to minimise mistakes and call them the "Golden Rules" which has acted as a guide to what to do when starting and running a new system. Our aim was to arm our customers with the information that would provide them with troublefree running and ensure that they can raise their fish to maturity. We know it works because people come back telling us of their successes, not to mention that we are running our systems showing that it works.

JeffJL

So my question is why would you want sinking pellets for your SP. Surely if sinking pellets were the go for SP then BYAP would sell them.

Borby

My SP are a lot more vigorous in their feeding when it sinks (after I have crushed it up). I initially started crushing the 3mm pellets when they were only small and seemed to have developed a strong preference to it. As mentioned in a previous post I did stop crushing over summer and now they are double in size however as it is now cooler I barely see them (plus I have a dark coloured tank). I have started crushing again and they can now be seen again darting around attacking the food as opposed to rarely seeing the food get touched when uncrushed and left on surface. The food does eventually disappear over the morning and in time for the afternoon feed however I like to see some things happening! Feeding is around a tablespoon for 30 silvers and water levels are good. It is merely a process of making things a bit more interactive give the timid nature of the SP.

I was thus after sinking pellets as I am over having to crush the food each time.

Maybe I just have to get over it and expect not to see them unless the weather is over 35 degrees?

DunderOZ

If you soak the floating pellets, they will sink when you place them in the FT

That's what I do when raising brown trout. It works just fine. When they are older, I teach them to take the food off the surface.

Hope this helps

chillidude

faye wrote:

We only do the floating feed and for good reason. The sinking pellets sink to the bottom and can foul the water if left there. You would be amazed how many people have no idea what is going on in the bottom of the fish tank and yet continue to feed the fish, or shall we say throw feed in. It is one of the measures that we introduced to minimise things going wrong and all our fish take the floating pellets. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. We deal with a lot of beginners new to aquaponics and have fielded many, many phonecalls from people all over Australia when things have gone wrong.

Absolutely Faye - I don't see a need for sinking pellets. I've got catfish that have learned to come to the surface for floating pellets (not bad for a bottom feeder). Certainly never had any problem with the SPs eating floaters.

The one and only problem I've had with my system was caused by crushing pellets for small SPs and the buildup on the bottom of the tank crashed the pH. I was crushing the pellets as they were 5mm and only tiny SPs and I was too much of a tight arse to go and by some 3mm.

Simo

I use Skretting Nova ME sinking pellets fo my SP as they definately seem to prefer it when it sinks and mine will actually eat it off the bottom of the tank, but my tank bottom is very clean and the water clear so I can see if there is a build up of uneaten food as this will definately cause problems as Faye stated.

The place I get it from only sells by the bag (about 20 - 25kg I think) and I freeze it in 4Kg batches.

Might just be easier to train the fish onto the floating :dontknow:

mantis

My silvers love the floating skrettings and like Chilli said, my tandanus cats also graze the surface for them. Some days the fish are just off the food and you wouldnt want the sunk pellets rotting on the bottom

nih

Or try here:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290693327243

mantis

nih wrote:

Or try here:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290693327243

Jeez thats a good ripoff, I should try that myself. Vacum pack just enough to go in a 3kg post pack and put and ridiculous price on it
Pay a big price for sinking rotting feed
I give up

nih

mantis wrote:

nih wrote:

Or try here:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290693327243

Jeez thats a good ripoff, I should try that myself. Vacum pack just enough to go in a 3kg post pack and put and ridiculous price on it
Pay a big price for sinking rotting feed
I give up

I think you'll find that if you're after small quantitys that price is about the average you will pay. Sure you can go buy a 25Kg bag and try and use it all before it goes off if you want.

The original poster asked where they could get only a couple of kg of sinking feed and I provided a suggestion.

dbird

I am chasing some for my redfin as they flatly refuse to take pellets off the top but wait till they are just off the bottom .They will take them off the bottom as well .The idea is to just throw a few in at a time and when they start to slow up you stop.

Lyndon346

dbird wrote:

I am chasing some for my redfin as they flatly refuse to take pellets off the top but wait till they are just off the bottom .They will take them off the bottom as well .The idea is to just throw a few in at a time and when they start to slow up you stop.

I have them eating the 3mm sinking skretting pellets (from Ebay), tried floating and they wouldn't take it, even after soaking them and getting the to sink they still would not take them, I think because they swell up and a larger this way.

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