Not sure about large bags but tilapia fillets are pretty good sized
Prepared food options
- Thread starter jakessvx1
- Start date
If not large prepared bags of tilapia I am sure they would do large bags of “whitefish” fillet and mussel meat to use alongside your pellets. Cheaper still option could be a fish market as this is often cheaper than the prepared bags, they will still fillet and prepare but give better discount for buying in bulk if you become a regular and order in advance. Just need to bag it and have somewhere to freeze it then.
I'd advise to use only high quality pellets, not the ones based on wheat, beans, corn and Co. Something that costs at least $5+ per pound. From personal experience.
The cheapest and effective nutrition is baitfish, f/w or s/w, whatever you can find. Whole, head, guts and all is the best of course (fillets are just protein, no vitamins, minerals, trace elements, gut content (algae for instance), enzymes, co-factors, etc). Frozen. Usually can find at $1 per lb. Presoak in VitaChem supplement solution.
I use s/w baitfish. Some are concerned with the salt content. I can't say I've arrived at any indication that it is a problem for our f/w predatory catfish and Co. If that worried, can soak the salt out in tap water before VitaChem soak. Or find a source of f/w baitfish.
Baitfish is often found at angling shops and can be found at wholesale places at the quoted $1/lb, like herring, pilchard, shad, mullet, glass minnow, anchovy, etc. etc. etc. From retail shops the price will rise to $2/lb or more. Still better than $4/lb human grade food tilapia fillet.
The cheapest and effective nutrition is baitfish, f/w or s/w, whatever you can find. Whole, head, guts and all is the best of course (fillets are just protein, no vitamins, minerals, trace elements, gut content (algae for instance), enzymes, co-factors, etc). Frozen. Usually can find at $1 per lb. Presoak in VitaChem supplement solution.
I use s/w baitfish. Some are concerned with the salt content. I can't say I've arrived at any indication that it is a problem for our f/w predatory catfish and Co. If that worried, can soak the salt out in tap water before VitaChem soak. Or find a source of f/w baitfish.
Baitfish is often found at angling shops and can be found at wholesale places at the quoted $1/lb, like herring, pilchard, shad, mullet, glass minnow, anchovy, etc. etc. etc. From retail shops the price will rise to $2/lb or more. Still better than $4/lb human grade food tilapia fillet.
The Florida Tropical Fish Farmers Association Co-op sells a lot of commercial feeds and I believe they ship nationally. This may be a cheaper way to get a quality feed. Some people will complain that the feeds are over nutritious to push growth at the expense of long life. You can cut the feeds with cheaper feed to compensate and avoid things like fatty liver.
Food (ftffacoop.com)
Food (ftffacoop.com)
Not sure how plausible it is for you, but when I had large fish that ate a lot I used to catch fish myself and freeze them and feed those to my fish. I'm not sure about the laws in your area or if this is very practical, but in my state I could catch and keep 50 panfish a day with no size limit, so I could have myself set for a few weeks in just one afternoon of time.
