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#463154 02/02/17 11:03 PM
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I have a pond on my homestead but I work for a living so it's rare that I get to be out there when the feeder goes off to assess feeding. I know I am supposed to feed as much as they will eat in 15 minutes but this changes quite a bit in the observations I have made so how do you monitor feeding to adjust feeding times? Here in NE Tx winter I just have it going 1 second at 8:30 am for 0.9 acre pond

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Pondwish, when I feed in the winter, I like late afternoon feeding times. Right now the water's gaining 5-8 degrees during the day, and my CNBG seem to eat better in the slightly warmer water.

1 second seems about right. I rarely feed more than that in the winter.


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I have also cut my feeding back to 1 second in Harrison Co. The bg slowed after our last cold spell. I am feeding at 4:30 pm


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Wow, a big difference!! I am feeding 3 seconds 3 times in the AM and PM. Each "spray" the food is gone in one minute!! 2 acre pond that may be overstocked with cnbg right now until the lmb get going better.Water temp is 64 and never gets below 50 at its coldest. They do feed the best in the evening after a all day warm up.


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Thanks for the feedback, guys! Do you monitor feeding behavior closely and make adjustments with changes in water level, water quality, and water temperature quickly or am I overthinking this?

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Flame, my fish were feeding at 6 seconds right before that last cold spell 10 days or so back, and then we hit those cold nights with 32 degree temps and the fish slowed way back. I reduced to 2 seconds at the three feeders but the fish in 5 foot and shallower slowed down feeding so I cut them back to one second. The feeder in 10 foot water depths are still feeding fish pretty good. I am guessing the shallow water fish moved to deeper water. I have seen no floaters so that my best guess.

Pondwish, yes I monitor the feeding fish to determine food distributed, But as water warms up I have to watch out because they will eat most all the feed thrown even at 30 second feeding, and that is a lot of feed. Al( Fireishot) told me while back, I feed way more food than he does, and he has a nice pond with big fish smile So there u go lol "it depends"


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I would think the answer to that would depend on what level you are feeding at. If you are feeding to satiation, then I think it would be very important to adjust feed levels if the fish begin not cleaning up all the feed. But if you are only at half full feeding level, then adjustments would be less likely.

In your first post in this thread you talked about feeding all the fish would clean up in a time frame. Keep in mind this is the maximum recomended feed for maximum growth. I don't feed anywhere near that amount for two reasons. First, I could not afford it. The fish would eat me out of house and home. And second, I would start having grave concerns about water quality during the dog days of summer after feeding so much in the spring months.

But for people shooting for maximum growth of biomass, I would think monotoring feed levels would become much more important than someone on a more modest feed plan.

I personally back off the feed anytime I see fish being slow to come to the feed. I typically see this when air temps get in the upper 90's and the water gets hot or in the fall when it cools and approaches water temp of 50.

Last edited by snrub; 02/03/17 08:56 AM.

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In the winter of 2014, I kept close to 100 7"-8" CNBG in a 5X5' cage in my brood pond. These fish ate hardily, and fed every day there wasn't ice on the pond. The CNBG adjacent to the cage didn't eat enough of the floating pellets to even warrant daily hand feedings. When these caged CNBG were checked in the spring of 2015, they visually had not grown any more than those that were uncaged.

During the winter, I shot the water temps at the surface and 3" down in the cage where the CNBG resided. The temp was less than 1 degree different at that distance. My WAG is that the similar temps were the reason these fish ate. They did not have to rise out of their comfort zone to eat, and the crowding could have kicked the competition level up also. Just guesses though.

I can't speak for any other fish, but mine didn't seem to show any improvement from feeding until the water temp started getting closer to 60 degrees. That's why I just throw 1 second a day. It's to help keep the CNBG in the area that I want in the spring. I use my feeder as a location tool, as much as a nutrition tool.


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What were your survival rates for the CNBG in the cage overwinter. They may not have grown but I think they had better body condition (RW) compared to CNBG in the pond. However we have to allow for some natural feeding of the pond roaming BG on invertebrates and zooplankton. So RW may not have been significantly different.


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Bill, there were zero morts.

I've actually thought about trying 2 CNBG cages next winter, but I'm not sure how to feed only one cage and get accurate results. If I don't feed one cage, then I'm not letting the CNBG forage naturally to compare against the fed fish. If I can figure that part out, I'm all in on seeing how the winter feedings affects CNBG growth.


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Interesting story Al and interesting to know that many BG can stay in that size cage that long.

I've held 40 or so BG that size for a couple weeks in a 3.5' square cage with no problems so BG must get along together pretty well. CC is another story. I can keep one in there for a week but get two or three they will start dying after several days. Seem to get some sort of skin disease.

Last edited by snrub; 02/03/17 02:25 PM.

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CNBG are pretty lethargic in cold water, but I'm not sure I'd try that many caged again, and I sure wouldn't try it in the summer. These were ultimately headed to Bowie TX, so they had to be tough. Not much out there but rocks and cedars. Beautiful country, but rugged.


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To compare cage fed BG with unfed BG, I would start by just catching some BG out of the pond. Then check their RW for similar sized fish in Cage and pond. Not a perfect set of methods but a good start.


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Thanks Bill, sounds like a plan.


AL


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