Commercial fish nutrition can be categorized into – 1) floating, and 2) sinking pellets. Both of these feeds can yield reasonable growth. But some fish like better floating feed, while others desire sinking feed. Now, which fish feed pellets are better?
Before even going through this write-up, let us understand something clearly that neither can be considered totally superior to the others. The choice of usage basically is determined by the kind of fish you have.
The floating feed is more costly to purchase and also more expensive for feed millers to produce. These pellets need to go through an extrusion procedure at the time of processing. This unit of a feed mill is pricey to establish and operate than a typical pelleting segment.
Floating pellets are generally utilized in bigger underlings, brood fish, and others. These float on the surface of the water body and the fish must reach the surface for consumption purposes. The advantage is that this allows you to see your fish every day, which, in turn, aids in checking their health and energy levels. Likewise, you can regulate the quantity of feed requirement for each day and this definitely helps to escape feed wastage and pond pollution complications.
The floating feed has a greater feed efficacy. As it is treated under high temperature and high pressure, the starch in the feed is prepared; fat is easier for ingestion and absorption, and fiber structure and cell wall are demolished and moderated. Also, other damaging stuff in raw material are finished off. Therefore, floating fish feed can increase feed scrumptiousness and digestion absorbing proportion.
Whereas sinking feed pellets are more cost-effective. Sinking feed will typically have water steadiness of up to an hour. Then it will slowly descend and settle on the bottom of the pond, if not consumed. As the components of the pellets are hard-pressed together it is difficult for the fish to selectively eat the components they like to. Sinking feed is adjusted to mechanical feeding and can be managed largely without decline. These are occasionally utilized in winter when the fish do not frequently come up to the surface. Again by pelleting certain feeds, it can be avoided to damage some components which do not agree to the extrusion procedure.
Floating feed manufacturing primarily goes via the following steps –
Firstly, the ingredients involved in feed production are crushed more excellently by the hammer mill. This makes it more digestible.
Secondly, powdered components are mixed in a specified quantity by feed mixer.
Thirdly, come extrusion. There are two kinds of feed machines for extrusion – dry type fish feed machine and wet kind fish feed machine. For feed making, dry type feed extruder is endorsed, owing to fit price and steady performance. Again, wet type fish feed machine is more appropriate for large scale manufacturing and individuals who have greater necessities for feed pellet performance.
Fourthly, feed pellets from the pellet production machine require decreasing high moistness and temperature. Pellet desiccating by fish feed dryer is essential.
Whereas, sinking feed pellets manufacturing procedure –
Fish feed extruder is the key production tool for extruding and sinking feed. Feed constituents like starch and crushed raw materials are mixed with an assured quantity of water and steam meticulously directed to the extruder. Determined by the extrusion screw, the temperature surges, the extrusion chamber pressure enhances and the raw material develops. The raw materials under great temperature and under extraordinary pressure are extruded from the mold. Then the pressure is reduced promptly and under the impact of pressure change, the moisture in raw materials evaporates swiftly to make raw materials expand. Simultaneously, the feeds are sliced into appropriate size by the knife of the extruder.
The above are the differences between the floating and sinking fish feed and the fish farmers can choose according to the fish breed and prevailing weather condition.
