Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Deciding To Feed

Greetings Gentlemen,

Yesterday I posted a question about growth evaluation of my fish and recieved some great replies (I do love this forum). It would appear that my growth rates are solid for a pond without a feeding regime. Feeding is a topic I am very interested in and I hope to learn the pros and cons of establishing a feeding regime for my pond. Said pond is 1/3 acre and was stocked a little on the light side as per MDC 50% rate recommendations. The goal of the pond is produce an ample amount of eating size BG. The following questions are but a few of many that I have:

1) Would my fish benefit and can I increase my population (via stocking or otherwise)?

2) How much (lbs) should I feed per session and how often?

3) What kind of growth can I expect with a feeding regime especially starting this late in the growing season?

4) What are some of the hazzards of feeding?

There is no question that you can have notably more pounds of fish in your pond if you feed. How those pounds are distributed is largely up to your management strategy and tactics; in 1/3 acre it should not be hard to steer in the direction you want.

Since the BG you stocked last year are spawning sized now, additional stocking may well not necessary. I don't recall seeing the numbers of BG/RES/LMB you stocked in the prior thread; could you post them here for review?

Feed as much feed as your fish will eat in 10-15 minutes. Since you are concentrating on the BG, multiple feedings a day would be a help (BG have rather small stomachs compared to, say, CC). Twice a day is a big help and some Southern PMs have gone as high as 4.

I think you still have plenty of feeding season left this year - perhaps 5-6 months worth. We had a survey a while back on how much different members fed per acre per month, and 50 lbs/acre/month was a pretty common figure. So if you started with a 50 lbs bag, that would go a long ways toward this year's fish feed supply.

I would expect well fed BG of your current size to gain 1" to 2" in length during the rest of the year, but also to be in noticeably better condition (i.e. beefed up). How well you BG will take to food in the short term depends on the relative amounts of BG and (natural) BG food present- the hungrier they are, the sooner they will start eating pellets and (likely) the more they will eat.

Once they have spawned and the pond is full of fat, hungry BG, your harvesting totals will be higher than otherwise would be possible.

The biggest downside to feeding IMHO is the increased need to be vigilant of your water quality, both from a processed food by product viewpoint and also due to the larger mass of fish you will have on the pond. Do you now or are you planning to aerate?

Thanks for the most informative response Theo. The original stocking numbers were in accordance with the MDC guidelines for this county. The state has reasoned, because of the lack of soil fertlity in the Ozarks, that a 50% stocking rate be used. For my pond this meant 60 BG, 20 RE, 16 LM (all 2"-3") and 2 lb of FHM. These numbers have haunted me as I feel they were too light. In any case, the pond is not aerated and, unfortunately, I will be unable to do so in the near future or perhaps ever. Will this be a problem? The pond seems to flush somewhat in the Spring.

Let's see - that's 180 BG/acre, 60 RES/acre, and 48 LMB/acre. That's sufficient to populate the pond, but I wonder how hungry the BG will be this year (I had 200 BG and 200 HBG in an acre and didn't get any significant feeding from them for a couple of years - a very long time wrt other PMs' experiences).

You could add some more adult BG to grow and fatten up if you want to move up your harvest schedule.

I don't think you will have many worries about water quality until the pond fills up with biomass in 1-2 years. Pay close attention to your water levels, visibility, and (any) ice cover (duration) through the different seasons until then. This info will help predict what troubles you might have to watch for.

Is there the potential for a lot of leaves or other organic matter to regularly enter the pond?

The pond is located deep in a wooded area and could catch some leaves/pine needles. Other organic material would be minimal. I am afraid the water is slightly tannic (sp?) and the present visibilty is about 18". What number of BG would you recommend? How about RE?

You could probably triple the BG IF you are going to harvest some of these "original plus" stockers. IMO you are light on LMB for a big BG pond, but with only 1/3 acre and a BG harvest-heavy strategy it is quite probably manageable. Don't add them unless you are going to fish it a lot; if you weren't going to fish much, I would suggest more LMB.

More RES would be OK but they won't be eating any pellets in all likelihood unless you train them. I would probably double the number just for genetic diversity.

I personally am a big fan of lighter than normal stocking numbers. Particularly for more northern ponds. If your BG and RES are spawning, you are going to have plenty of little BG and RES swimming around. Particularly since you have stocked a lighter number of LMB than normal as well.

not sure of goals but not sure I agree with more lmb. only a 4.5:1 right now. Being up north with less spawning that seems like the bass could wipeout the bluegill. Of course way too many bass and not enough forage if you plan on harvesting bass or want to grow larger bass for the table.

I agree you have plenty of time to feed. ALso it willmake a huge diff in a pond this size.