Hi All

I heard last week from my koi dealer that the importers of Aqua Master does not have any growth, premium or staple left in South Africa and they wont be importing any until December. As far as i understand they only have Wheatgerm left. I have mailed the importer directly to get the info directly from the source. I also notice that the webste www.aquamasterkoifood.com is offline...

Now for me personally not having Aqua Master is a bit of a setback as that is the main food that i raise my koi on.


Wayne

I got some feedback today. Luckily the shortage is not going to be for so long as i've been told.

From Dennis (Sandton Aquatics)

Quote:

Dear Wayne, Due to the fact that Sandton Aquatic now has new owners, there has been a delay in the ordering of Aqua Master. This has now been resolved and are next shipment should arrive within the next 4-5 weeks. Sorry for the inconvenience. Regards Dennis.

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Aag Man!

Druk toe jou neus en koop AquaNitro

Ja Wayne, moet nie so "set in your mind" wees nie:lol:

Local is nie altyd lekka nie - ek sal klein bietjies shogun gebruik maar geen Aqua Nutro nie. Dit stink en die waste is ver teveel. Ek het selfs vir hulle ge email daar oor en hulle het nie eers gerespond nie....

Ek gebruik Aqua Master, Ichiban en Shogun. Dit werk lekker!

Price wise for Aqua master, Ichiban, Shogun and Aqua Nitro?

What is the best value for money?

Cam0 that is something you need to figure out for yourself - as no one will agree on this subject.

Price wise Aqua Nutro is the cheapest followed by Shogun, Ichiban and then Aqua Master. I do not say that cheap is bad.

Here in the western cape the following people use Aqua Master:

Johan Jacobs
Ernst Van Dyk
Quinton Jones
Drikus Van Dijk
Wayne Barker (Me)
Louis Crous
Magmoed Slamang
Eugen Binnedel

If you go and look at those names you will see that all of them are KoiShowing people...

Johan and Ernst have been feeding Aqua Master for very long times and have got very good results with it. - Both have won Grand champion awards in the western cape and southern cape. Ernst has recently switched over to Hikari.

I find that Aqua Master is good for growth and Shogun helps them to put on bulk. I mix it ata ratio of 80 / 20.

Koi Foods don’t produce Koi Champions. It is all genetic!

Keeping Koi in a good condition, you should view its environment as a complete unit.
Taking in account, temperatures, water quality, stress levels, pond volume against fish stocks, etc.

Fresher food is always better, as with time the strength and value regarding ingredients would lose its feeding elements to its performance. Most of the claims regarding ingredient percentage claim on a food package of imported food are in fact much lower by the time you feed it to your Koi.

So for me, local is better in this case, but it will never change an R5- Koi into a Supreme Grand Champion!

I think,

A koi Champions = 50% Genetic + 30% Water quality + 20% Quality of food.

Hi Guys

Just to stir things a bit more. Even my cheap fish eat a proper meal
Most of them stay ugly but the latest 7 seems to be smiling more than the boss who must buy the food



More about Saki Hikari:

The rapid, bacterial decomposition of the koi's waste caused by the "Hikari Germ" drastically reduces buildup in the filter media thereby reducing the frequency of regularly scheduled maintenance. Overall improvement of the water clarity and condition are side benefits of this process

Hi to everyone -
an interesting debate .....may I hurl a cat amongst the pigeons (does that sound right?)

Firstly:

wayneb wrote:

Cam0 that is something you need to figure out for yourself - as no one will agree on this subject. Price wise Aqua Nutro is the cheapest followed by Shogun, Ichiban and then Aqua Master. I do not say that cheap is bad.

It is very important to compare apples with apples. When comparing the price of any koi food with another koi food the same foods should be compared to each other.

As manufacturer of Shogun I make only one food. It is a 40% protein food and the detailed nutritional analysis by independent laboratories are available. When comparing the price of my food with the price of any other food please compare the equivalent products to each other. It is very easy to make a koi food with 26 -30% protein and not guarantee the amino acid profile. It is very easy to make a koi food with corn gluten or chicken meal as a protein source. It works out very much cheaper.

So when I recently quoted a dealer up here in Gauteng a price on Shogun and he said to me that it did not compete with the food he brought into the country - he had a cheap koi food and is selling vast quantities. I diplomatically pointed out to him that food is around 16% protein and 64% carbohydrate (no where near his packaging's claim of 38% protein) whereas Shogun is 40% protein and we make every 4 - 6 weeks he lost interst in the conversation.

With regards less waste from koi foods - I suppose this will always be a point of debate - but I recall what the the lady who was the consulting nutritionist to Shogun when we first started in 1995. She is consultant to the Government on animals feeds and we had access to the Waltham nutritional data base.

A very down to earth person we were discussing a koi food that was imported from the UK at that time and they claimed this food was 98% digestible.

One has to pause for a moment and think about the implications of this. Does an animal want 98% of what it eats to be digestible - I think not.

All koi foods have a ratio of protein to carbohydrate. The protein is the source of animo acids and the carbohydrate is the energy source. Discarding the small percentage of vitamin and mineral premixes and discarding the binders, colorants (to make the pellets red or green), anti-molds etc -you will always have a ratio of protein to carbohydrate to make up the 100% of the formulation mix.

As the protein level increases so the carbohydrate level decreases. Carbohydrate sources are much cheaper than protein sources. So you can make cheaper koi foods by using more carbohydrate than protein.

So do you want more carbohydrate to be digested and absorbed or do you want more protein?

But back to the nutritionist - she said a very pertinent thing about the digestibility of animal feeds - it is very important to get the gut moving in animals (as in humans) hence the 3 - 4% fibre in koi foods is very important. She also said that if it is not a large poo is it not a good one.

I would like to go into some other statements made here and on the referred websites but then it gets long and boring .... however, at the beginning of the year there was an internet debate between Shogun, Hikari (here in SA and Japan) and Tetra regarding wheatgerm koi foods. Very interesting. The internet correspondence has been collated into an article for KOISA and they are going to publish it soon.

Keep the questions coming - this is a most interesting part of koi keeping.

And remember the best koi food is the one that works for you ...

Regards,
Chris