I thoroughly enjoy threads like this one myself. I feed pellets to our Koi, but I simply refuse to spend more per lb on fish food than I do on Prime Rib! That being said, I still manage to feed them a high quality pellet with a good nutritional profile and no color enhancement to speak of.
There is one small exception. I make my own concoction for hand feeding the fry we grow out.
I mix up batches of cooked bait shrimp (heads, shells, guts, and all), high protein pellets, whole boiled egg, bell pepper, Garlic, Onion, and any leftover cooked veggies may be on hand at the time. Add a little Orange Juice to the mix and into the food processor it goes to pulverize the whole mess into a thick paste which I then spread on cookie sheets and freeze. Once frozen I break it up into peanut brittle size chunks for ease of feeding and put it in baggies for freezer storage.
I get great growth and train them to eat from my hand at the same time, which is a nice little bonus. When we first began with this there was an infestation of small snails in the lined fry pond and by the time the fry would finish eating my hand would have baby snails crawling all over it. When I would remove my hand I would crush the snails between my fingers and drop them in the water for desert and they would tear into them like it was a huge treat. After acquiring a taste for snail meat nature took over and the snail population went to zero as the fry grew big enough to eat them. It has me thinking seriously about setting aside a small tank just to grow the damn snails in next year
.
I'm toying with another recipe that incorporates probiotics, but thats another story...
Alright... Where is Steve Hopkins to toss in some good nutrient profile info? Always a good read that makes you think...