Fish food test

["Ed Pon" <edpon@hotmail.com>]

In the Society News Column of the November 97 issue of Aquarium Fish 
Magazine Chuck Davis writes about some studies being conducted at the 
University of Hawaii.  The studies were of "comparisons between the 
growth rates, costs per pound and composition of various available 
commmercial fish foods".  The studies were suprevised by Dr. Clyde S. 
Tamaru of the School of Ocean, Earth Science and Technology, Aquaculture 
Development Program at the University of Hawaii and Dr. Harry Ako of the 
Department of Environmental Biochemistry, College of Tropical 
Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii.

Chuck Davis wrote: "The study appropriately points out that most general 
fish foods are sufficient to maintain fish, but they are not designed to 
achieve maximum growth or for breeding purposes.  So, a comparison of 
foods designed for the home aquarium and those used by commercial 
aquaculture enterprises is a valuable tool".

Chuck Davis also wrote: "Another interesting result was the growth rate 
of the angelfish n the study group--all the fish started at about 0.3 
gram, but fish fed flake foods grew to just over .5 gram, while 
commercial-fed fish reached 1.0 grams."

and Chuck Davis also wrote: "All of the information available from the 
work at the University of Hawaii, Sea Grant Extension Service, will 
fascinate, educate and, I hope, offer you a working knowledge of fish 
nutritional studies.  If you would like more information on this 
subject, I suggest you contact Ray Kosaka at Discus of Hawai, 3024 
Puhala Rise, Honolulu, HI 96822, or call (808)988-3521.  Ray suggests 
that other clubs and societies look for similar programs at colleges and 
universities in their areas."

I've long suspected that commercial fish food manufacturers may supply a 
superior product to hobby fish food manufacturers because the poundage 
and survival rate of the fish is very important to commercial 
aquaculture operations.  I think many of the people in my club thought I 
was just being cheap when I bought a 50 lb bag of trout chow to feed my 
fish.  By the way, I located some Salmon starter and expect 50 lbs of it 
to be delivered later this week or next week.  That should feed quite a 
bit of fry.

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