From 2008, with food safety concerns and fluctuating farm-made feed quality, there is now an increasing trend towards the use of commercial pellets. The unit cost of farm-made feeds is cheaper but these feeds have FCRs of 2.8-3.0:1 and cause greater water quality deterioration. The feed conversion ratio of P. hypophthalmus fed commercial pellets is typically 1.7-19:1. Larger-scale producers in Viet Nam only use commercial pellets, while medium-scale grow-out producers typically usually use commercial pellets for the first month and the last month of the ongrowing period and farm-made feeds for the middle four months. This technique reduces the cost of each kilogram of fish produced despite the higher FCRs of farm-made feeds. Depending on rearing intensity feed represents 65-85 percent of ongrowing costs