Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Fish Food Primer

I believe there is a optimum fish food for each fish species "group" for us pond owners, not necessarily each individual fish species. i.e. one food is best for BG, another food is best for Pumpkinseeds, etc. While there might be food available for each species in a monoculture, that is not what we have in our ponds.

Is a bass different than a BG in it's nutritional needs for optimal growth and longevity? I believe so. I don't believe that there is enough of a difference between LMB and SMB to warrant a different food in a pond setting. Even if there was, how does a pond owner get the correct food into the correct species of fish if both species of fish are in the pond, and they are approximately the same size?

In a pond setting, where there isn't a monoculture of fish, getting the correct fish food formula into the stomachs of the correct fish is the quandary.

I could see fish food for pond owners broken down into a couple of "groups".

Fry/fingerling food. BUT how to get it to them in a pond setting; in a place where they won't be hammered by the predators in the pond? Will enough of the pond owners buy the food to make it commercially viable to produce? Since fry/fingerling fish need a different formula, i.e. a "hotter" food, it requires different ingredients, and that makes the food more expensive to produce. Will pond owners be willing to dig deeper into their pockets to buy the food?

Sunfish food. For the "sunfish" in the pond, that are used either as primary goal of the pond owner "I want to grow a 3 pound Bluegill" or as forage fish for the LMB in the pond where the pond owners goals is to grow trophy LMB.

Bass food For the largemouth bass in the pond, a food to give them more food without having to expend a lot of energy chasing down live fish in the pond. Would it work as a food for other species of bass in the pond? I think so. Especially for SMB or spotted bass. Would it work for HSB? I think so, but I am not sure because I don't know what the physiological differences are (nutrition wise) between LMB/SMB and HSB.

Then you have the quandary of just supplementally feeding the fish in the pond, or making the decision to feed enough food to make it the primary food source of the fish in the pond. If that route is taken, then I believe the pond owner has to either have fish species that have minimal or no recruitment, or make a concerted effort to remove the majority of YOY in the pond to keep the biomass in check.

I think the food for fish in ponds is more representative of food formulated for aquarium fish vs. aquaculture fish. In aquariums you want fish to be in that tank for more than 9-18 months, where in an aquaculture setting the fish get to meet Mr. Fillet Knife in a relatively short amount of time.