Purina feed for omnivores and vegetarian aquarium fish???

Magnum Man · Aug 12, 2026

so, I grew Tilapia for a few years in big outside tanks, Purina sells a food specifically for commercial raising of Tilapia… they make a full line for the raising from fry to harvest… the smallest pellets are sinkers, with the other varying sizes being floaters… I have at least a quart size canister of each variety, and have begun feeding some to the various silver dollars I have in my pack, and they have no qualms about eating it, so I’ve started introducing it into other tanks that have non carnivore fish in them, curious if anyone else is feeding a “commercial” feed ( there are feeds for panfish farming, catfish farming )

Magnum Man · Aug 12, 2026

this was not my tilapia supplier, but this seller lists it for aquarium use as well… Aquamax is the Purina line, only available in large bags, but most sellers of commercial fry, sell smaller bags repackaged from the large bags, and there are several Aquamax formulas available to feed catfish, tilapia, trout, and game fish, including bass…

Amazon.com: Tilapia Store Tropical Fish Food, Sinking Pellets, 8 oz | AquaMax 300, 50% Protein, 16% Fat, Tilapia, Cichlids & Aquarium Fish, Aquaculture Use : Pet Supplies

www.amazon.com

Boundava · Aug 12, 2026

Hmm, went to their site and they don't have an ingredient list? Googled Purina AquaMax and they state fish meal as first ingredient (what fish?) and soybean, corn, wheat and lecitin as binders (fillers) some varieties can have chicken by product meal as well.

It may state it is nutritious and easily digestible, but if they are just calculating the food nutrition it doesn't mean the fish is actually extracting all of the nutrients as so many are land based ingredients.

I would pass as even their "fact sheets" don't list ingredients.

BTW this is the only one I found, and its the "sell sheet" for their pond food:

https://www.purinamills.com/getmedia/15ccf9cb-cb48-4ca0-866e-309f4fc91cf6/AquaMax-Pond-Fish-4000-Sell-Sheet_1.pdf?ext=.pdf

Or their site:

AquaMax® Fingerling Starter 300 Fish Feed | Purina

Purina AquaMax® Fingerling Starter 300 feed is 100% nutritionally complete for starting fish and early growth. Find more nutrition information here.

www.purinamills.com

I guess its OK if you have a pond or are raising fish en mass and not for hobby reasons.

TwoTankAmin · Aug 12, 2026

Farming fish in qualtity is way different than raising/keeping them in our tanks. I cannot imagine any fish farms using the foods that I do. Most of them raise the fish in large pond not tanks. They would have a hard time using the same foods as I do both in terms of distributing them to the fish and especially the cost of using them.
Hikari Frozen
Jehmco Frozen
Ebo Aquaristik dry foods
Kensfish flakes and sinking sticks (I buy several specific foods and then make my own mix)
Sera Vipachips and Shrimp Food

I also feed zucchini and a small amount of frozen cooked shrimp to my clown tank which also holds redline barbs which eat that as well.

GaryE · Aug 12, 2026

If you're raising foodfish, you're forcing growth. It's a bit different from what we try to do.

That said, there's no guarantee it isn't as good as many of the bulk foods out there.

Innesfan · Aug 12, 2026

Innes, 1935:

"Puppy biscuit is not a bad fish food...It only needs to be ground to suitable size. A household coffee mill is the thing."

Magnum Man · Sep 6, 2026

an interesting experiment, with my Silver Dollars… I’ve often pictured them eating the spirulina algae cookies, and comment how much they love those… I began regularly adding several of the largest aquamax pellets in with the algae cookies… taste tests have proven, all 4 silver dollars eat up the aquamax pellets, before they begin eating the algae cookies… so, on initial taste testing silverdollars of all varieties prefer the aquamax food to a high quality spirulina wafer of the same size???

GaryE · Sep 6, 2026

I can't take brand recommendations seriously. I don't care what the name is or how they sell themselves- I want ingredients. That pushes me to the brands that use actual insects for the fish I keep, as they're mostly insectivores. Soldier fly larvae? I have 2 options. General insects, I have one.
Do I care what bugs? I prefer soldier fly larvae because I've been able to look at studies of them. I've started making my own sheets of frozen soldier fly food, using a meat grinder, soldier fly larvae sold as chicken feed, and veggies. The fish accept it and do well.
If I kept herbivores, then I'd use different options. But I am a little cautious about bulk foods. They're a bit like Big Macs. You can grow on them too, but how are you going to grow? Fatty fish don't do well. The publicity for the product seems to address the issue well. That seems covered. 36% protein is high, but not as high as some flake. It's not wildly off dulse, a red algae/seaweed I use a lot with my fish. It's a common snack food around here. I'm not sure about the fat content, which may be there for commercial growth.
I can't see this food being worse than the mainstream brands out there.

One thing I don't see in the original post is fiber. That can be very important and can be low in some prepared foods. I'd want to look there. But food fish farmers of kissing gouramis feed them manure and agricultural wastes, and they grow well...