[kevin]

Guys

After posting last night under the Spirulina heading thought I would add my further thoughts on the above subject which I know is not new to this forum but further food for thought-pun intended!!

Firstly, I am new to this hobby since 18 months, prior that an angler for 35 years and whilst that may not corrulate, I have as a hobbyist fished for Carp since the early 80's when High nitritional value foods were used to catch them. Point being HNV type foods are lacing in this hobby.

Therefore, when I came into this hobby firstly I was astonished at the cost of Koi food and secondly how reliant keepers were on pellets. I have looked into most of the poluar brands and soon as the word koi is on the packing the price seems to treble on which are largely wheat flour based ingredients.

Whilst in Japan recently I realised how inexpensive a certain popular food was, yet the perception to many here in the UK is that the more you pay the better the food.Now dont get me worng, I know there are shipping costs, wholesaler profit margins, VAT, dealer margins etc but fact is the most food is made up of inexpenive ingredients, which is not to say they need to be expensive to be any good but there are superior ingredients we can feed as a suppement to what is laregly a poor diet on its own.

I dont wish to make this post too long but would like some thoughts from others on here as I beleive a balanced diet of various foods is what our fish require and I have formulated a paste significantly superior to high street varieties based on fishmeals, crustacean, seaweed,wheatgerm,liver powder,milk proteins and other ingredients which incorporated in the right amounts provides a supplement that I feel is lacking in pellets, together with treats such as cockles,mussels,pearl barley etc.

Remember...a balanced diet, pellets are not this no matter how expensive they are.

Regards

Kevin