Selecting the best Purina Aquamax fish food for Bluegill

[Lynn Guillory]

Asking Bruce Condello and other Big Bluegill Members to discuss their experience with feeding bluegill Purina fish food, and specifically which Purina fish food has produced the best results. Background/Facts: In March (3 months ago) we put 6,600 coppernose bluegill fingerlings and 900 readear/shell cracker fingerlings into my 4 acre pond that I just re-built for fly fishing. Using an automatic fish feeder, we have been feeding Auqamax Dense 4000 (product 5D09) which the baby bluegill love, but just realized that Dense 4000 is designed for Omnivorous Species. But in re-reading the Purina Aqua Max Fish Diets brochure (perhaps I should have read it more carefully initially) it seems that for Carnivorous Species (bluegill and bass) that Purina recommends Aquamax 500 (product 5D05). I also went back and re-read Dr. Bruce Condello's excellent article in the May/June 2008 issue of Pond Boss which indicated that he utilized Purnia Aquamax Grower 500. So, please share your thoughts with me in this discussion " Have I been using the wrong Purina fish food"? - given the fact that Purina fish food is extremely expensive, I certainly don't want to be using the wrong food, if a better Purina variety would be more effective..........so if you have been using Purina fish food, please share your thoughts and recommendations with me.

[Lynn Guillory]

Walt,

Thanks so much for your response which contains a wealth of information. I should have mentioned, in addition to the coppernose and redear, I put in 30 lbs of fathead minnows for bass. Then two weekends ago, we put in 600 black bass fingerlings and 1,000 or so crawfish for the bass next year (and for the redear/shell crackers as well since they love crawfish). You observation may be accurate in that I may have put too many fingerlings in my pond, however, my thought was that the black bass would keep them thinned out. As for aeration, I have a 4" well that pushing 95 gallons a minute with 70 lbs of pressure and gets the water about 20 feet into the air, but we very seldom have to rely on the well, since my pond in on my Louisiana farm and we typically get about 55" inches of rain fall per year. Thanks again for taking the time to provide excellent information to me. I am really Ned and his first McGuffey Reader on learning to grow trophy bluegill. Lynn

[Bruce Condello]

Feel free to send me a PM on this site. I'm a Purina spokesman, so I don't want to seem like I'm advertising.

In my opinion its a tremendous product. Bluegill grow like crazy on it.

[Lynn Guillory]

Bruce,

So, do I understand you to say that I should change over to the Purina Aquamax Grower 500? And discontinue the Purina Aquamax Dense 4000?

Lynn

[Lynn Guillory]

Walt,

Thanks so much for the reply. I have read Bruce Condello's articles and have talked with him at the Pond Boss Conferences in Arlington, TX the last two years. I know Bob Lusk and have a lot of admiration for his knowledge and his willingness to share it with others. I have subscribed to Pond Boss for many years now. He was gracious enough to publish in the recent (May 2009) issue of Pond Boss magazine an article I wrote on the re-work of my four acre pond entitled "Beautiful Pond or Good Fishery - Could both be possible?" If you will e-mail me at [e-mail] I will send you a copy of the article by e-mail. It was a great project and I am really looking forward to seeing if I can raise both trophy bluegill and nice size bass for fly fishing. Thanks again for the good information and your willingness to share it with me.

Lynn

[10.5" RES Sharon]

I'm interested in getting an update on your CNBG. 6600 seems like a lot of fish to me for a pond your size. How big are they now?

[Lynn Guillory]

The bluegill are growing extremely well with all the Purina Aqua Max Developer 600 we are feeding them. We are feeding twice a day (8:00am and 5:00pm) from two different feeders. The bluegill are very fat and healthly, and we are fishing them with 2 wt. and 3 wt. fly rods. The food is very expensive, but is high in protein (41%) and we have been well pleased with the results, just wish it were less expensive.
We have begun renting out our cabin with fishing priviledges with anyone is traveling to Louisiana www.cabinandpond.com
I am interesting in knowing when we can discontinue feeding because of the drop in the water tempature, and would appreciate Bruce Condello or someone commenting on this question. All advice would be appreciated. I have ben told that at 55 degrees or less, it isn't necessary to feed bluegill and is actually better to discontinue feeding in the winter months? Advice and counsel is needed.