Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations feeding my 30 gallon

watch the GSF!!!

No wonder GSF bluegills are so aggresive!

That was impressive. Thanks for sharing that.

Just a sample of how much feeding activity might be missed with just floating food. If sinking is mixed in, I'll bet the fish would grow much more. My problem is finding sinking to feed in this warm climate. I even went to Rangen feed mill early last summer, they werent even making it. They said that the plant in northwest may still be.

Great point!!! I'll film it with floating food. They still eat it but they like it more if it's only a few at a time. Too many and they lose interest. They deffinately eat the floating much more slowly.

video

K, I'll get it thisevening when I get home. They'll be nice and hungry. I'll feed a few at a time and film that then I'll do a bunch and film that so you can see how quantity effects the reaction. It's like they are leary of the surface.

Thanks Keith! That big GSF is a pig. At that rate he will be to big for the glass pond soon.

It's crazy how much he can eat then he eats bugs all night long with the same ferouciousness. I have 2 cfls right over the water and the next day you MIGHT find a few wings or junebug shells but it is amazingly clean!!!

Their preference is in this order:

#1 bugs- they trigger a feeding response very strong even after a full belly

#2 sinking pellets- they eat them fast till they start getting full but I've never had to net out the extras.

#3 floating cyclid pellets- each fish will eat a few then becomes disinterested and I have to net out the extras.

Guys,

You might want to hydrate your floating pellets to get them to sink. Just before you drop them in the tank you pinch the air out and they flutter down and don't make it to the bottom.

Be aware there is more to it then just wetting the pellets.

Here is Bill Cody's recipe I used for an article I did for our Indiana Aquaculture Newsletter.

Bill feeds only sinking hydrated pellets to his fish. He also says he gets a better response when they are softened from the hydration.

Making Moist Pellets out of Floating Feed


As many of us know, it’s easier to feed train fish on a soft moist sinking diet. It’s also easier to get fish like feed trained bass to feed in cold water in early spring using the moist pellets vs. the floaters. Bass just seem
too lethargic to actively go after the floating pellets if we have spring that just doesn’t want to warm up. But it’s important to get them feeding to ward off fungus from seining and handling.

A friend, Billy Cody of Malinta, Ohio, feed trains wild bluegills and perch in floating
cages as a hobby. He has come up with a way to createa moist sinking feed out of Purina Mills’ Floating Aquamax, Silver Cup, and Zeigler’s fish feed I thoughtmay be of interest. And it’s not just a matter of adding water. There is a technique involved. The trick is tocome up with pellets of a dough like pliable consistency that are not mushy, stick to your fingers, or are
crumbly. However too make them sink you do need to pinch the air out of them.

1 quart of pellets 1/4 “ 5DO6 Aquamax) to 7 ounces of water. Small batches: 1/2 cup of pellets to 1 Tablespoon of water. Shake pellets and water for one full minute until water is absorbed and no “gravy” remains.

Pellets should be shaken once or three times
within the next 10 to 30 minutes to keep individual pellets from sticking together.
Bill uses a container with a lid to retain moisture during
the soaking process. He allows them to soak 2 to 6 hours. You can add a mist of water later if so desiredwith a spray bottle.

Refrigerate up to 24 hours for
Aquamax, but you can get away with more time with
Silver Cup and Zeiglers. This may not work with 28 to 32 % protein levels or feed high in fat. Experimentationmay be in order.

here are two of the floating. I may have forgot my plan with a few then many but you should be able to tell the difference. They still eat it one or two at a time.

then finally, here you will see some leftover floating food 10 minutes later but I throw in some sinking and it get's dealt with.

Keith,

Thanks for taking the time to video and post these images. It is giving me some "food" for thought, so to speak.

I'm seriously considering changing to some sinking food. The only problem I have is that many of my fish don't take food off of the bottom, so I have to figure out how to assure that the food doesn't end up on the bottom, rotting.

Maybe when the feeder goes off I'll wait a while, then hand feed some sinking food.

Is Bill Cody out there? Just wondering if you had any thoughts regarding the risk of tossing out sinking food, and then ending up wasting it.

are yall able to watch those vids cuz photobucket is messed up for me right now?

I watched all of them.

Bruce it is easy to make a feeding platform to place under the feeding area. A piece of tin , small mesh net or plastic wood suspended under some floating noodles. The sinking food will stop there and they will eat it off the platform.

Stupid question on my part, but I can't quite visualize the platform. Do we have an image someone can point me to on this site?

No pic. Visualize a rectangle feeding ring 4X4 with a rope on each corner. Suspended below about 4 ft is a piece of tin with the edges turned up about 1 in. Ropes go through the tin at the corner with a knot tied in the rope below the tin bigger than the hole. Does that help ?

That helps tons. Thanks.

I'd assume that with a horizontal current in my pond that this isn't going to work for me.

look how fat this guy is right now. He's about 6 inches long and 8 inches around haha

edit- he might be 7

That big mouth and agressive disposition make it easy to see why they're fun to fish for.

I've had many days in my life where I fell back on the good ol' GSF to provide surefire fun.

That aggressive nature is why HBG are recommended for kids or put and take ponds. They are more aggressive than GSF and BG (call that hybrid vigor). It comes with a warning though. They can be easily fished out of a pond - so you have to keep track of what went in and out + natural morts.

I've never fed pond fish, but I wonder if the people who formulate fish pellets aren't focusing excessively on nutrition to the exclusion of feeding behavior. Nutrition is obviously important, but it isn't maximized if the fish don't eat as much as they should.

Seems to me that the fish food producers, and therefore pond managers, would benefit from using the vast amount of research done by those who produce fishing baits. I think something like the "real food" baits that would sink very slowly would be nice. A rubbery or "natural" soft texture might encourage finicky fish, especially while training them.

Keith, just out of curiosity have you ever tried feeding them the natural bait that you bought?

I have thought about it but haven't tried. Sounds like a new video coming soon to a forum near you. I've wondered if they will keep it down or if it is just real enough for the bite. We will see. From what Iv'e seen I bet they keep it down. I was wanting to buy the rest of the line of bait they have. They have some skinny red worms and some green worms too by the same makers. Sounds like a trip to wally world dangit;)My lunch break is now planned!!!!

Now that was on target DY.

It seems that it would be real easy to at least make a "training food". They could be extruded to look like worms or bugs, and formulated to move a little as water soaked into them. I bet someone out there could make a million bucks selling a training food, even if it was 25% more expensive than standard pellets.