Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Results!!

OK guys here is what I got:
I have had a stren feeder for about three months now..What I have stocked in the pond is this: Native BG, Coppernose BG, Channel Cat, Redear, Blue cat and Redbreast..Still waiting on the Bass from Greg Grimes..About a two feet in front of the feeder there are a bunch of bluegill and a few redbreast. When the feeder turns on and shoots out feed. The blue gill eat some of it at first, but they quickly stop and go back to their school. It also appears they are spitting the feed out and then eating it again...I don't quite understand this behaivor....

Now Further out in the pond the blue cats are eating the feed, they are feeding heavily on the stuff, but I see NO channels, at least I don't think I see any...I thought the channels were supposed to take to the feed before the blues!! Why don't I see any channels at the feed?? Also why does it appear that the bluegill are not feeding on these pellets? could it be the wrong feed?

Well in the aquarium store I used to work at the fish would often mouth the pellets repeatedly until they became soft enough for their liking. I guess your BG's might be doing the same. Also if there is any food left floating a few minutes after feeding it is possible that there is too much being fed and the BG's are getting their fill and then leaving the area where they feel vulnerable to predation. Hope this helps. Just my $.02.

Seems to me your panfish are getting plenty of natural feed to eat so they don't have much of an appetite for the pellets.

As far as the blues vs. the channels I'm skeptical how you can tell them apart in the water. Are you sure they are all blue cats?

It is very common for small BG to try to eat a pellet that is too large for their mouths by taking it partially in their mouth and then spitting it out. They do this I think to help reduce the size of the pellet to something they can swallow. I see it every day I observe small feeding BG.

Ceilce,
You make sense, This could be the reason for the slow response of the blue gill..I stocked the twice with bluegill.
I do know for shure thoes are blues..I can EASYLY tell them apart...I stock the Blues about 3 weeks earlier than the channels last fall. I stocked the blues in October while I stocked the channels in November....The blues were 4 to 6 inches, while the channels were 2 to 3 inches...They looked and behaved VERY different from one another when I stocked them...so I can easily tell them apart. These are indeed the blues that are eating the feed, and the channels are no where to be found...

hey someone help me out here....

The pellets could be too big for the bluegill to swallow. They have tiny mouths. Heck, I've seen schools of fatheads and small bluegills gang up on a pellet until it gone. Purina and Aquamax make a lot of pellet sizes. If these are fish that you described as rice size, they may have to grow some. My fish do the same thing until they get bigger. Then they take the whole thing. But, I have also had pellets that the fish seemed to not like. When I changed brands, they ate it better. The CC's not feeding and the blues are? The blues may have established themselves and are scaring off the CC's. Or the blues may have adapted to feed quicker than the channels.

yeah I believe the blues ARE running the channels off...
The bream I got from the state are like rice, but the ones I bought two months ago were 2 to 3 inches...these bigger fish are schooled up around the feeder but are not eating a whole lot of the feed.....
Maybe I need to get another feed..