Price for fish for feeding you pets.

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screaminleeman

screaminleeman

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 27, 2009
1,445
10
38
Westminster, MD
I have read all kinds of things here on MFK about exotic fish food being fed to the hobbiests pet fish. I have 19 tanks running and easily go through in excess of five pounds of market fish per week in feeding my aqua friends. I know this may put me at a severe disadvantage in being able to afford this type of diet for my pets as a fellow MFK'r that only has a tank or two.

My question(s) are:

What is the normal maximum $/LB that my fellow MFK'rs use as a cutt-off amount for fish food?

How many of you buy and fillet whole fish as opposed to buying already filleted frozen fish for fish food?
 
When I have to start "budgeting" my fish food expenditures I start to really look at my stock and consider "downsizeing" because at that point my personal life is getting pinched to much. I still try to find good deals on food always and try to be economical.. But I never put a price itself on feeding.. My fish have to eat. If I run out and have to spend extra $$ because I forgot to replenish my supplies when something was on sale. If I can't afford the occasional "Oops".. For example.. I get nightcrawlers for my fire eels at 2.50$ a doz from my bait shop... But if they're out, or get a poor batch in.. I will suck it up and go to petsmart and spend 4$ a doz for a week or 2. I do plan on buying whole fresh fish from my market as often as possible and filleting them myself to save $ in the future for my TSN.

I cut costs when I can.. but I adimintly avoid cutting quality.
 
MonsterMinis;4366087; said:
When I have to start "budgeting" my fish food expenditures I start to really look at my stock and consider "downsizeing" because at that point my personal life is getting pinched to much. I still try to find good deals on food always and try to be economical.. But I never put a price itself on feeding.. My fish have to eat. If I run out and have to spend extra $$ because I forgot to replenish my supplies when something was on sale. If I can't afford the occasional "Oops".. For example.. I get nightcrawlers for my fire eels at 2.50$ a doz from my bait shop... But if they're out, or get a poor batch in.. I will suck it up and go to petsmart and spend 4$ a doz for a week or 2. I do plan on buying whole fresh fish from my market as often as possible and filleting them myself to save $ in the future for my TSN.

I cut costs when I can.. but I adimintly avoid cutting quality.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%... Quality is key. For live foods, I keep earthworms and red wigglers breeding. I also have a tank of guppies/platys that get fed a high quality flake ( bulk ordered by 5lb bags ). As for pellets for my FH, Hogo and Bichirs, I only use DAINICHI (cadillac of pellets in my opinion). It's like $25 a bag, not cheap. Oh, forgot to mention I also have MTS, Ramshorn and Giant Columbian snails breeding for my 2 puffers.:D

I suppose once I setup my 180 with an aro, I'll have to look into market fish, etc...:nilly:
 
Red_Belly_Pacu;4367241; said:
I buy purnia aquamax. It has 45% protein, 10% fat and 3% fiber. It cost $40 for a 40 pound bag so it is a $1 per pound.
Click to expand...

Read the ingredients then tell me what you think...
 
geronimo69;4366126; said:
I agree 100%... Quality is key. For live foods, I keep earthworms and red wigglers breeding. I also have a tank of guppies/platys that get fed a high quality flake ( bulk ordered by 5lb bags ). As for pellets for my FH, Hogo and Bichirs, I only use DAINICHI (cadillac of pellets in my opinion). It's like $25 a bag, not cheap. Oh, forgot to mention I also have MTS, Ramshorn and Giant Columbian snails breeding for my 2 puffers.:D

I suppose once I setup my 180 with an aro, I'll have to look into market fish, etc...:nilly:
Click to expand...

Except that the quality of the ingredients in Dainichi are the same if not worse than Hikari...
 
Mine are still small, so no fresh fish yet.
Have left one store and went to another to find fresh zucchini for my pleco a few times.

My 4 dogs food budget is pretty close to mine if you don't count the nice friday night out meals. They usually end up getting some of that though too.
 
MonsterMinis;4366087; said:
When I have to start "budgeting" my fish food expenditures I start to really look at my stock and consider "downsizeing" because at that point my personal life is getting pinched to much. I still try to find good deals on food always and try to be economical.. But I never put a price itself on feeding.. My fish have to eat. If I run out and have to spend extra $$ because I forgot to replenish my supplies when something was on sale. If I can't afford the occasional "Oops".. For example.. I get nightcrawlers for my fire eels at 2.50$ a doz from my bait shop... But if they're out, or get a poor batch in.. I will suck it up and go to petsmart and spend 4$ a doz for a week or 2. I do plan on buying whole fresh fish from my market as often as possible and filleting them myself to save $ in the future for my TSN.

I cut costs when I can.. but I adimintly avoid cutting quality.
Click to expand...

I think this is an excellent idea, and it does save me a considerable amount of money for something extremely easy for me to do and provide far higher quality and greatly reduced prices.

Example: Market Tilapia sells for (Cheapest I have seen) $4.99/ LB for previously boneless and skinned fillets. At the same market the fresh whole fish sells for $2.99/ LB. The most nutritious parts of fish are the entrails and skin, so you pay two dollars per pound more for the least nutritious portions that the more nutritious portions.

My fish are still ALL young and growing towards adult and are currently consuming > 5 pounds of fish per week. The savings for just filleting fish, even at this juvenile age of my fish, is > $10/ week or > $500 / year!

The fish markets within Lexington will also cut your fish to order for you for free. You can have then fillet and skin your fish, and have the "remains" bagged separately. Muscle meat (Non-Nutritious portions) for the family and the (Nutritious portions) "Waste remainder" for fish food.

I find it (fish filleting) an extremely simple task and highly desirable of the alternative of having someone do it for me and transporting fish heads, entrails, bones and skin home.
 
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