Bassponder, I don't think you are crazy but I read your posts to my wife and our bellies and jaws are still hurting from laughing so hard. I wish my wife took so good of care of me as you do your fish. (I just read this to my wife and now I am in trouble, she just mumbled something about going outside and getting me some grasshoppers.)
How large is your pond? I know the feeling of the effects of a bad drought, this is the first year in several we have had a normal rain fall.
About the feed. My spoiled tom cat loves it when I feed him tuna and salmon and sniffs and sticks his tail up in the air and walks away when he is returned to dry cat food, but when he gets hungry enough he will eat it. (And that's good because when you can eat real good tasting food all the time you get fat like me) I think the other posts are right don't feed them other things for a while and eventually they will eat the dry stuff.
NEDOC on this site has started feeding a Purina largemought food to his fish. He said it took a long time for the lmb to take it but they have started now, and they weren't trained as babies to eat it. You may want to search for a string of posts with aquax largemouth bass food in it.
You must be such a nice lady. Most peoples partial solution to feeding your catfish and turtles would be to shoot the turtles and let the catfish eat them. That is what I do. As far as the snakes I leave the non-poisonous ones alone, but even though I dont intervene I think the catfish on their own pretty uses the same solution on them if they arent too big. In fact I would think Mr. Meanandlean would find a small snake as a tasety snack.
Good to have you here, keep the posts coming!
Best luck,
Bill
Bill, make sure she coats those grasshoppers in chocolate and you won't notice a thing... Shoot - if my sweet, patient, kind, loving, etc., etc.,
hubby knew what I was slipping out of the freezer to feed to my fish (his hard earned hunted venison and turkey sometimes) - nah I just took some that was freezer burned... well sorta ;).
To answer the question on size. My pond is under an acre - probably between 3/4 to one.
On the turtles. I have caught some of the snapping turtles and relocated them and I'll probably move more of them. I have to be real quiet and sneak to catch them and it's pretty hard because I use a hand net and lay it down in the water and stay REAL still until one comes for food. While you are waiting of course there are always several bugs crawling up your back and down your underwear, a mosquito landing on your eyelid, a horsefly biting your ankle and a few drops of sweat dripping down your face and into your burning eyes just to test your mettle. I put the food in the net and when he gets in then I raise the net. You have to have a LOT of stealth and patience for that. Treachery is something you learn well in old age however so I'm usually successful...
On the snakes: I think I only have one catfish in the pond and it's not very large. I don't have any real small snakes that I can see and the smallest I've seen is about 2 1/2 feet. Meanandlean the bass would snatch a small snake in an instant as the worms I have fed him are up to ten inches which is probably why I don't see any small snakes in my pond. I think a pond side funeral service may be in order for my little snake Hotdog however as today I found small prints all around his cement block house. The water has dropped even lower and the blocks aren't even in water any more. He wasn't around today. I think the racoons got him last night
I hope not poor little guy.
What about a solution on the aeration problem? I think it will be really, critical this year as I don't have that much water. I thought about even putting in the paddle boat but I'm afraid to stir things up at all. I have no idea where I can get a paddle wheel aerator? Isn't that the only kind that actually puts air into the pond rather than just moving the water around?
Thanks so much everyone for not kicking me outta here YET.
Cam
