Just want to state my facts as I have personally experienced them since using the recipe for Lisa's fish food. My pond is in it's fifth year. I started with six 5 inch koi and two shubunkins. The only thing I fed my fish during the first four years were Cheerios, watermelon, canteloupe, zuchinni and Tetra Pond food sticks. Five of my fish did not seem to grow and their coloring was bland, however the white ogon butterfly was always a little bit larger than the other five. The orange coloring on the other fish looked like a light peach and the black coloring was gray. Last spring I purchased six more koi that were five inches long. Same as the koi I started with five years ago. This year I started making my own fish food using Lisa's (goodkarma's) recipe and I can't believe what has happened. The five year olds are larger and their coloring is very vibrant, the koi I bought last year have caught up to the older larger fish (five year olds). All of the other fish are also this size. These younger fish were only about seven inches long this spring. I would guess they are now approximately 18 inches long, or longer. Here is a picture to show you exactly what I mean. The large white fish to the left of the photo is my 5 year old white ogon butterfly, the fish in the center right behind the white ogon is also 5 years old (orange and black ginrin) and the fish on the right is the 2 year old I bought last spring (white with black down the middle of its back). If you compare them, they are all the same size (the small brat in the middle is a shubunkin). If you look closely in the top of the pic you can see some of the fry that were born in the pond this spring. They are now about 4-5 inches long. I supplement the homemade fish food with Hikari Gold which they are refusing to eat since I have been making Lisa's food. Another good thing with this food is that it is a sinking food. Koi are naturally bottom feeders. The only purpose for floating fish food is to enable you to see your fish when they come to the surface to eat. As I said the facts speak for themselves. Jenny

McKool, Mazuri Premium lists their ingredients on their website for any of the feed stocks (see URL below...you will have to navigate out to the specific product; the web page is set up somewhat funny and doesn't let you jump right to a link). As to the corn issue..read the article(s) I attached (I forget which one talks about the corn issue). While it is written by a person affiliated with Mazuri I believe that they have the credentials to know what they are talking about. The only time I've seen comments about "corn" in the feed is on the high-end Koi websites but those folks will stick up their noses unless the food is imported from Japan. Not seen any data from any veterinarian or fish nutritionist or published scientific paper that indicates that corn is a problem ... doesn't mean it doesn't exist but I have my own suspicions about the validity of the argument. Hope this helps. ---David

Questions regarding that, is newspaper okay for bedding or is corrugated cardboard that much better? Is colored ink newsprint okay nowadays? As for establishing a stable population, I figure I won't be pulling any out for bait until June, so they have four months "to get it on!" I just wish it was a little warmer. [quote=Wormee]For me.. I've been using 3x 10 gal roughneck Rubbermaid tubs that each seem to have filled out to approx 2.5 - 3lbs of worms each.. (approx 2000 euros).[/quote] Just checking, do you mean 2000 per tub or combined 2000 in ~ 8 lb? I ask because I'm trying to figure how much container volume or area I need at this point... My current starting population is somewhere between 7-9 lb of worms. For now, they are split among three of the 18 gallon bins and one long bin, call it 42 gallons. I either need to get more bins or make a big FT. I'm still thinking a big insulated one like a vb48, but it could well be that regular box/bins are better suited for my use. If that is the case, I'll need to make some racks. Currently they seem fine in horse manure and leaves with moist shredded newspaper and cardboard on the bottom and top, lids off, light on. It's 52F down there. The problem with the 7-9 lb of worms is I'm not certain they are all euros. That has to do with the way I procured them. I had ordered 5 lb euros from one place and received at most 3 lb of either spindly euros or wigglers plus a whole lot of peat moss in a green bag from a different company. I tried to contact the company I web-ordered from, and received no response. It seemed very fishy. After contacting my CC company about this, I got in touch with the company on the bag that shipped the worms. They offered to re-ship the order. This second batch of worms, also in a green bag, were from a different shipping location, and contained substantially larger individuals with a lot less peat moss filler in the green bag. Probably a little over 4 lb of actual lively meat. After this hassle, I have more worms than I thought I would have to start out with, so will need more space and food. And I'll probably keep the two groups separate at least for a while. I may even run a number of single pair pots to confirm if they are...um compatible, lol.

I made fish and chips on Sunday, and I used a recipe similar to Ann's, except that it has egg in it, and I dredged the fish in seasoned flour before dipping it into the batter. It probably came out too thick for Ann's taste, but Kevin and I liked it. When making the chips, I cut the potatoes into 1/2" (or slightly smaller) strips and stored them in ice water for a couple of hours. Then I deep fried them at 350 degrees for 3-4 minutes, drained them on paper towels, and left them to cool while I prepared the fish. After I was finished cooking the fish, I refried the potatoes at 375 degrees for about 7 minutes, and they came out better than any other fried potatoes I had ever made before. I had been aware of the twice cooked method for years but had never gotten around to frying any myself because I feel like I get enough fried potatoes when I go out. However, these were so much better than what I get in restaurants that I will make them again fairly soon. Also, I was suprised at how much cheaper russet potatoes were than the potatoes I usually buy. I ate the potatoes with a fork, as I did the fish, which was some kind of "rock" fish from Canada. I also made tartar sauce and a soy/mirin dipping sauce for tempura turnips that I did not get around to cooking. I plan to cook the turnips tonight and also make some crab hush puppies, which will be a new experiment for me. Lars