How to identify the quality of fish feed? These practical tips are a must-know

The quality of pelleted feed for fish is closely related to farming profitability and should be given great attention. Its quality is mainly judged by five aspects: "look, smell, twist, soak, and chew," introduced as follows:

First, look. Pelleted feed for fish is made by uniformly mixing and pelletizing several main raw materials such as fishmeal, soybean meal, cottonseed meal, rapeseed meal, wheat middlings, and meat-and-bone meal in a certain proportion. If there is more fishmeal and soybean meal, the feed color is slightly yellow; when there is more miscellaneous meal, the feed color is dark red; when there is more wheat middlings, the feed color is slightly grayish white, and so on.

Second, smell. Pelleted fish feed is made by mixing various raw materials and then steam-conditioning and cooking them. After the raw materials are cooked, they give off a distinctive aroma. Grab a handful of feed just out of the bag and hold it in front of your nose to smell it, and you can detect whether there is a musty, bitter, or scorched odor.

Third, twist. Fish feed must go through multiple rounds of handling from production to feeding, which objectively requires a certain mechanical strength. Generally, it is enough if it does not break after being twisted a few times with the fingers. If it breaks as soon as it is twisted, it shows that the feed hardness is insufficient, the powdering rate during handling is relatively high, and feed waste is easily caused; if the hardness is too great, the palatability is relatively poor, which affects the feed's absorption in the digestive tract and easily causes enteritis in fish.

Fourth, soak. Put the feed into water and soak it. On the one hand, this can check whether the feed's physical properties can meet the needs of the fish digestive tract; on the other hand, it can also analyze the approximate composition of the raw materials. The method is to grab a handful of feed and put it into water, then observe the time it takes for the feed to disperse. Generally, the feed completely disperses after 3 minutes to 5 minutes.

Fifth, chew. Although fish swallow feed when eating, the taste is the main factor affecting their feeding behavior. Through the touch and taste of our oral cavity, we can feel the hardness of the pellets and whether there is any off odor, whether the feed has deteriorated, and whether the feed is mixed with impurities (such as sand grains and soil), and so on.