Purina catfish food

[catbird]

Good morning to all.I ran across this yesterday at Tractor supply, called Purina Catfish 32. Is there any reason not to feed this to my Koi? Thanks in advance.

 

[mrsclem]

I did some looking on the web, seems like it might be a cheaper alternative to Koi foods. I have heard of some koi owners who feed their fish cat or dog food!

 

[JamieB]

Purina has a bad rap in pet food, lots of fillers and byproduct. Read the ingredients. If they kind of match other koi foods, give it a try. But I believe ( believe, not know for sure) that catfish are largely carnivores, where koi prefer plant based foods with some protein. I would strongly suggest you compare the ingredients to other koi foods before buying.

 

[WaterGardener]

They make a pond food as well. AquaMax 2000 and 4000 I think. It doesn't have the best ingredients but it's certainly less expensive than the better fish foods.

 

[Tula]

I'm sure it's less expensive. An important factor for me is the food not causing the water to cloud, that it's well digested by the koi......thus producing less waste.

 

[WaterGardener]

I'm definitely not a Purina fan, but I know people who use their pond food. It doesn't seem to cloud the water. As for producing more waste, I suspect it does, since in does contain corn that the fish can't digest.

 

[gimpy]

I certainly can understand buying a good brand of food, one that does not contain fillers. I don't understand why they put fillers in animal food.
I used to buy the cheapest bird food (have several bird feeders) that I could find. Then one day, I looked at my circular bird bath that sat up on a pedestal. There was a circular mound of filler bird seed (red Milo-won't buy any seed with it listed as part of the ingredients) on the ground that followed the edge of the bird bath. The birds had p--ped it out while sitting on the edge drinking water. It's a waste as far as I'm concerned.
As far as fish food, I would think that food with fillers could not be good for the water quality (if it is not digested like the red milo from above bird example; and therefore, not good for the fish.

 

[Mmathis]

@WaterGardener Interesting! I didn’t realize that fish (any particular kind, or just certain ones?) can’t digest corn!

@JamieB Cats (the feline kind) are obligate carnivores — fillers in their food, not a good thing.

@gimpy How gross! Yuck! My feeder birds won’t touch milo, so all I feed is black oil sunflower and occasionally, safflower.

It seems from the responses, that more research is necessary! This website says that some catfish only eat live-caught prey (protein), while some are scavengers, and some do include plant/fruit material in their diets. They say (though not species-specific) that catfish pellets should contain between 28% and 32% protein (again, not stating if it should be animal protein, plant protein, or if the source even matters).

What Do Catfish Eat?

Catfish species include channel cats, flathead catfish and bullheads. While some differences exist, most catfish are opportunistic feeders, and some are omnivores that include plant material in their diets along with animals. Catfish seek food anywhere along the water column, from the surface to...

sciencing.com

Koi are omnivores and need a balanced mix of protein, carbs, etc. in their diets. So yes, reading the label is a very important consideration. As is knowing as much as there is to know about the particular pets you keep!

 

[JamieB]

Nice to know I was somewhat right about catfish, but they are a vary varied species. Globally so. Having been a big fan of River Monsters with Jeremy Wade, maybe I saw mostly the ones that prefer the meaty diet! On that note, I’ll never ever have a Wells catfish! If it gets big enough to eat me, I won’t keep it as a pond friend! ( ignore my desire to someday have a very large cat, that doesn’t count!)
My experience with catfish is primarily the kind that folks eat, ( except I think plecos are a type of catfish and mine was an omnivore, it loved vegetables) so that may impact my perception.