stringray food costs

[sbuse]

LOL!!! sorry man but come back next year when that Leo hits 14 inch and he /she will consume $50 bucks in food a month by himself!!!!!Well to be happy and healthy!!!Witch so what ya gotta love it....I mean just think about it for a second a 14 to 16 inch animal without tail of coarse that weighs 10 to fifteen pounds dry food between $7 and 9 Dollers a pound dead food at least $4 dollers a pound now if you calculate solely on dry OOOOOOPsssss Gosh we are at $49 bucks a week if we feed it just dry whats that Uhhhh $196 dollers a month for 1 ray

I'll still maintain that food bill as I buy bulk pellets 50lbs at a time. I also catch clean trout, suckers, pike, walleye, sunfish and bass. I fillet them up and feed them to my fish. Not to mention the thousands of pounds of gizzard shad I can get. I get those while I am fish which I do a lot of so the cost of fuel isn't even needed to be calculated in since I am going to be fishing anyway if I keep them or not. I also can walk 10min and catch them all the same foods. Like I have said there are smart ways to go about it. I feed my fish fresh fish of quality I would eat. If I would eat it it is good enough for my fish.

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[STINGRAYED]

I'll still maintain that food bill as I buy bulk pellets 50lbs at a time. I also catch clean trout, suckers, pike, walleye, sunfish and bass. I fillet them up and feed them to my fish. Not to mention the thousands of pounds of gizzard shad I can get. I get those while I am fish which I do a lot of so the cost of fuel isn't even needed to be calculated in since I am going to be fishing anyway if I keep them or not. I also can walk 10min and catch them all the same foods. Like I have said there are smart ways to go about it. I feed my fish fresh fish of quality I would eat. If I would eat it it is good enough for my fish.

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I Complety understand But ya have to be realistic also What i am and keep on saying is it is much more pricey then what you are trying to convey !!!! Also What is your time worth to you at some point you know if you do what you are talking about you would need 20 + Rays that equals a minimum of 100 pounds of food a week that is 400 pounds of food a month you got that kinda of extra time to collect that kinda weight ??????? I sure don't!!!!!

 

[sbuse]

I Complety understand But ya have to be realistic also What i am and keep on saying is it is much more pricey then what you are trying to convey !!!! Also What is your time worth to you at some point you know if you do what you are talking about you would need 20 + Rays that equals a minimum of 100 pounds of food a week that is 400 pounds of food a month you got that kinda of extra time to collect that kinda weight ??????? I sure don't!!!!!

If I kept everything and didn't selectively harvest short head red horse over greater red horse I could get several months worth of food in a few weekends. With an electric knife I can clean them lightning quick. Yes it is time but in the end your getting paid with the pups. Not to mention the wholesale food you can get.

It isn't going to be 100% free but it isn't going to take out a lot from the overall profits. Once my store is fully up and running I will be able to hire people to run it for me. That will clear up a ton of time. Around that time is when larger scale operations would begin. Also if I get a commercial fishing license I could net out the food fish and get far greater time use from my time.

Like I said there is ways to make it work and get what you need at fractions of the cost. People just don't want to do it. If I took one weekend I could potentially get, clean, prep and freeze all the food I would need for the month with a commercial license.

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[woogie0004]

thats an interesting idea im an avid fisherman and never thought about feeding any of my catch to my rays is there any risk of introducing a disease or or any other negative side effects in doing this? ive got acess to a pond i could get as many bluegill as i wanted fillete them and freeze them right now i manly feed my rays worms i go threw a dozen a day at 1.50 a dozen but as of right now i only have a 12" motoro female and a 6" marble motoro male when these guys get bigger i can see its going to cost me a lot more

 

[STINGRAYED]

If I kept everything and didn't selectively harvest short head red horse over greater red horse I could get several months worth of food in a few weekends. With an electric knife I can clean them lightning quick. Yes it is time but in the end your getting paid with the pups. Not to mention the wholesale food you can get.

It isn't going to be 100% free but it isn't going to take out a lot from the overall profits. Once my store is fully up and running I will be able to hire people to run it for me. That will clear up a ton of time. Around that time is when larger scale operations would begin. Also if I get a commercial fishing license I could net out the food fish and get far greater time use from my time.

Like I said there is ways to make it work and get what you need at fractions of the cost. People just don't want to do it. If I took one weekend I could potentially get, clean, prep and freeze all the food I would need for the month with a commercial license.

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Dood everthing you are talking about cost money and alot of it Employees boats to fish comercially fuel Nets ETC!!! So how are rays gonna be cheaper from you again???????Have you ever owned and actually operated your own company????

 

[sbuse]

Dood everthing you are talking about cost money and alot of it Employees boats to fish comercially fuel Nets ETC!!! So how are rays gonna be cheaper from you again???????Have you ever owned and actually operated your own company????

Yes I am actually running my own LFS right now. I will have vendor status on this forum soon.

I already have the boats and the nets are cheap.

Now if you look at what I said as a whole it would be cheaper to do it that way then other ways. I could just as easily use what I have and be within the laws and still mass collect the fish without even going the commercial netting route. I only presented that as an option.

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[STINGRAYED]

Yes I am actually running my own LFS right now. I will have vendor status on this forum soon.

I already have the boats and the nets are cheap.

Now if you look at what I said as a whole it would be cheaper to do it that way then other ways. I could just as easily use what I have and be within the laws and still mass collect the fish without even going the commercial netting route. I only presented that as an option.

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Well i look forward to seeing this happen!!!!

 

[DB junkie]

Maybe fish are more healthy up where you're at but we aren't supposed to eat much wild caught fish down here due to mercury content.....

Over 2 lbs per day here. $200-$250/month on food.

$300 electric, $80 water.

My rays aren't very big either.

Don't even want to touch base on equipment costs. Hell I bet I'm over $2K just in water pumps.

 

[sbuse]

Well i look forward to seeing this happen!!!!

I am doing it in smaller amounts right now. I can't put my website on here due to restrictions given to me until I have my vendor section.

Maybe fish are more healthy up where you're at but we aren't supposed to eat much wild caught fish down here due to mercury content.....

Over 2 lbs per day here. $200-$250/month on food.

$300 electric, $80 water.

My rays aren't very big either.

Don't even want to touch base on equipment costs. Hell I bet I'm over $2K just in water pumps.

Mercury is more toward large preds. The smaller fish it is unlimited numbers. I catch a lot of stocked trouts for food fish so they don't have time to get the mercury content. Suckers and other rough fish don't get the same high doses of mercury as the preds that eat them do. They have some but not close to the levels as others. That doesn't count private ponds.

Also 90% of the smelt and shrimp people feed are wild so what is the difference? They have a blue styro try and some plastic wrap on them. Some shrimp is farmed I know but a large portion of the cheaper fresh fish are wild caught.

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[DB junkie]

The fish I feed is farm raised.

I still would not trust the source of any WC stuff in with thousands in livestock.

Just doesn't seem to be worth the risk to me as a hobbyist. We pride ourselves in taking great care of our stock and offering them the best we can. I don't trust the farmers or the crap they spray on their crops enough to trust it stays out of the water, and in turn out of the fish living in this water. Maybe I'm just taking the wrong angle on this, but if I'm busting my knuckles everyday to fund buying a fancy ray that costs $1000 I'm not even going to feed it crawlers I pick up in my own yard, cause I'd be scared of what the neighbors may or may not have done to the ground.

Paranoid??? Maybe. Lots of money in fish??? Yup. Some irreplaceable? In my opinion yes. Is the juice worth the squeeze? Nope. IF you can afford nice rays you should be able to afford keeping them without cutting corners or adding risks. I thought the whole point in keeping rays was reducing risks? Keeping rays is definitely stressful enough without having to account for more unknowns.

Isn't the whole point in paying more money for CB because of a reduced risk? Maybe people would actually pay more money for piece of mind? Less stress, less headache is worth more to people with money then a cheaper ray. Maybe rather then finding cheaper ways to make rays cheaper, maybe look at the fact that the people buying rays might not want cheaper rays, they might want a more sound investment.

Also seems to me that ray people are "clicky". Might have an easier time building your empire by promoting feeding the best foods possible instead of the cheapest ones possible. People want quality, NOT cheap quantity.

Like that saying goes...... Good is not cheap, and cheap is not good.