Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding How do I know when to stop feeding?

I have an automatic fish feeder on my 1/5 acre pond. I feed about 1 Coffee can of feed a day, in the evening. That is about 20 seconds on my feeder. I only have about 40 CCs and a lot of FHMs in the pond. I noticed more feed making it to shore, so I cut back to 15 seconds on the feeder. When do I shut it down for the winter, or do I? I am in SE Texas, and although it has gotten much cooler, we rarely get real cold weather. I intend to remove 15-20 of the CCs, they appear to be about 14-16" long now. I put them in as 6-8" back in early April. I have found 2 dead, after putting in 44. The CCs have really slowed on the feed, but the FHM are all over it. Do I still feed a smaller amount to feed the FHM? Or, just shut it down for the winter and let the CCs eat minnows for the winter?
As you can tell, this will be my first winter with my pond.
Thanks for the help.
BB

FWIW My CC slowed way down on the feed as the water temp dropped below 65. I feed a reduced amount and only two or three times a week now instead of everyday. I will stop feeding altogether when water temp hits 55. In my experience, they seem to eat the most when water temps are around 75 to 85 degrees.

Up here in Ontario we stopped feeding three weeks ago. Water is 55. Just wondering on when to change aerators over from deep to shallow.

Cheers Don.

FWIW I shut my aerator down last year when the water hit 55 and started the shallow winter diffuser when skim ice showed up. Seemed to work out ok as I did not lose any fish to my knowledge. I am with you though and would like to hear what the pros have to say on the subject.

Little pond is pretty cold with water temps getting down to the 40's, but they still munch on feed once in a while. Don't put much in at all, but they clean most of it up.

If there's a goodly amount of what you threw still floating after 15 minutes, cut back the amount that you are feeding. If you get to where there's still food floating with the lowest setting on the feeder, leave the battery attached to the solar panel, and just turn the feed times to all zero's.