Hi koicare,

Please check the ingredients order, the ingredients such as wheat gluten, the preservatives and carbohydrates used in Omega pond food as per the link. It is obviously a brilliant food - I especially like the use of pigments from the flesh of the salmon as colour enhancers - a very interesting concept - I must look into that - but it seems to contradict everything you have said.

Kind regards,
Chris

Hi koicare,

Before you get on your high horse and let me have it with a 30,000 word reply (you are worse than I am! <grin>) - do not misunderstand me, do not mistrust me - what I am saying in my previous posting and I have been arguing with you, playing devils advocate, is that you can make a very good koi food with ingredients other than the very few you approve of.

And you can get very good results.

Kind regards,
Chris

Gerald - I gotta be honest with you.....I dunno how many people will be able to afford it....... I am hoping that you are going to say something like - this was the price for the case - which contained 6 packets each 500g - or something like that.......

Chris - I can not find the info I had on the food - and it was more than a year ago, so I do not know if anything changed.... I just recall the "Alaskan Salmon" - well at least I think I do...... I hope I have not wiped the info when I got this new piece of "intersting stuff" PC!

I will have to go back to the link.

I am giggling....
I found the email I originally sent to Loretta at OmegaSea - before they put Henk onto me........

In the email (I did not know that there was a South African representative)..... I asked for pricing and then I also asked (amongst other questions)

If some changes could be made to the food and whether (LOL) they could add in Garlic, Propolis, Beta Glucans and Neocleotides.....

.........................Like I do not ask for much.......

Then Henk emailed me with the pricing.....

To be honest I did not pick up the preservative....... neither the Gluten......... can not imagine how I missed it........ perhaps I was too focused on the Whole Alaskan Salmon.......

And to be honest I have enjoyed debating these subjects with you.
I have learned a lot.

Regards,
Chris

Yes I expect it won't be something for the majority of people. I do use Omega foods with my other fish very successfully, so I'll see if I can get some even if it's just for my koi.

If you really want to laugh...I even asked them for the %'s of Amino Acids and Vitamins and Minerals etc etc.......

Ya, you can laugh...... I do not have any information on the Nutritional Composition of "Whole Alaskan Salmon" and I wanted to know what is in the food....

Crazy Woman - huh

Well you'll be pleased to know Omega is the only place you'll find Black Cod outside Nobu in South Africa!

I doubt you can get a 20kg bag but obviously in those quantities there would be a different priceing structure.
To be honest are we not splitting hairs with this debate, are koi really that far removed from carp, should people not rather be adding natural foods to their diet, snails, earthworms, shrimp, lettuce, etc?

I have often wondered about the Nutrient Composition and Amino Acid Ratio etc for snails...... they breed like anything..... they do not appear to have any really special requirement other than water..... ie; we do not actively really feed the snails we find in our ponds.... or filters..... they seem to find their own food.....

They can grow in fresh water..... I wonder whether long term something like this would not be a suitable food for koi.....

Chris - even done any research on snails? and the process required to turn them into Koi Pellets?

It is estimated that snail is 15% protein, 2.4% fat and about 80% water. This makes snail healthy alternative food for people with high protein low fat diet requirements. Besides, snail is high in health benefiting essential fatty acids such as linoleic acids and linolenic acids. A study on a snail species in Brazil estimated that 75% of the fat in snail is unsaturated fatty acids. That is 57% polyunsaturated fatty acids, 15.5% of monounsaturated fatty acids, and 23.25% of saturated fatty acids.

Nutrional value of snail
Table: list of nutrients and their content in raw, snail. Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion. The following nutrient data is obtained from the USDA National Nutrient Standard Reference, release 19 (2006).


Nutrional value of snail

Table: list of nutrients and their content in raw, snail. Nutrient values and weights are for edible portion. The following nutrient data is obtained from the USDA National Nutrient Standard Reference, release 19 (2006).
http://www.dietaryfiberfood.com/snail-escargot.php
Above link includes a table on the nother nutrients....

Ok - I see that some snails are toxic (so far - the cone snail) - so be careful....

The snail idea sounds good.

I am surprised to see how few hobbyists culture their own Daphnia. It is so easy to culture in your backyard, even with very limited space.

All they need is algae and a bit of extra food. Before spawning time, I culture my own, but being on a farm now, I am considering to culture them in large quantities throughout the year.

All they need is a constant supply of algae which is almost free to develop. I add some cow manure and yeast on a regular basis.

You can harvest right through the year if you add light to your daphnia ponds during winter to keep the algae going. You place the harvested Daphnia in a freezer in ice buckets filled with 50% water and 50% Daphnia, and feed from there.

The nutritional content of Daphnia varies with age, and what its been eating. The protein content is usually around 50% of dry weight. Quite the opposite from Artemia, adults normally have a higher fat content than juveniles, about 20-27% for adults, and 4-6% for juveniles. Some species have been reported to have protein contents exceeding 70%.

Something to think about if you need to bump up your protein levels cheaply.

I have a receipe for Daphnia Food:

It is a teaspoon of crushed spirulina powder, a teaspoon of yeast and a teaspoon of soy flour - you mix that into 50 litres of water and feed the Daphnia the mixture every 3 days or so - just by pouring it into the dahnia tanks.... obviously use your discretion with how much you add - ie: tnak size and number of Dahnia.....

Then you get "super charged" Daphnia - when I breed Daphnia this is what I usually feed them.