My fish feeding has slowed way down. Surface water temperature is 65-68 degrees.

What are the rest of you east Texans seeing?

Mine are slowing down just a very little. Water temp at 8am is 67.5 and I have not changed anything in the amount or times fed. I fed all winter last year even though I backed it way down. Water never got below 50 degrees last year. I'm just worried about this drought!! I'm over 3 foot low!!

If the. BG slow down eating then slow down feeding . Low water can be a problem .

My water temp is in the 60s. Much slower feeding!

My feeding has slowed way down also. Worried about this serious drought.

I have cut back to just one second twice a day and the fish are barely interested.

My pond is down a good 2 feet but my neighbor next door has water going through his over flow pipe. I need to take a peak and see how that is possible.

Tbar my main pond is full and we're in pretty close proximity..weird

My surface Temps are running 67 in the mid morning and the cnbg are still active in their feeding. I have cut back but still at 16 seconds per day at 8 seconds twice per day 9 am and 4:30 pm, per feeder(3) Feed is gone within a min or two. Fish are also active with feeding on yoy of Tp and TFS around the pond and I also see lmb feeding on the small cnbg that are at the feeders. Water level is down around 2 foot and the rains have been very scattered which might explain the difference in pond levels here in E Texas. Example, I have had some heavy rains here at the house the past 45 days and would not get any rains at the farm some 25 min drive to the west. Have not seen any rain at the farm since early August and that was short lived with 1/3rd inch or less. Worst drought I have seen for the fall in many years. No fall rains at the farm.

My water's hovering around 70 degrees, and my CNBG are still eating very well.

With the shorter days, I have played with the throw timers. Afternoon feedings seem to be the best for me.

Water level's dropped almost 3'.

Uhhh Guys!! I just got one inch rain in 15 minutes!! Needed about 5 more hours of that. Does look like we have a little more on the way.

My CC have slowed to almost not eating, but the BG are still eating fairly well. Supposed to freeze tonight, and be cooler for a few days. This may signal the end of feeding for this season after a couple more days. According to my logs, the last time the fish ate last year was November 16, and they had only been stocked less than two months.

We have got down around freezing the last couple nights and I also though the feeding would slow down. BG are hitting the feed hard and I did see a CC of about 3# come up to the shore line looking for feed. I was surprised at that because have not seen much of the CC for a week or two.

Since I have been building the new pond I pass by the main pond several times a day so have been trying to feed small amounts more often in the warmer part of the day instead all of it just before sundown like I usually do.

I think last year I went right up to the first of December before my water temps got to 50 and the fish lost most interest so I quit feeding.

I just got back from the farm and the CNBG are still feeding well. I have several CCs that are also coming up for food. I am feeding in the AM and evening. I expect that as the water cools this week, things will slow down.

highflyer....north texas tilapia have about 3 weeks before funerals begin?

Mark,
That sounds about right. I am monitoring the water temps often to see how that is going. Right now, those in Extratopia are hanging out closer to the bottom for now. I may have to drain that pond some to get them out.

Time will tell.

I left work early so i could see how fish were feeding. Water temp was 58 degrees, and feeding in the afternoon was still good but has slowed. I would say 70-80% of peak feeding. I have reduced the amount but I still have probably 30# in the feeder, and they are still cleaning up what I am feeding, at least in the afternoon. I'm down to 12 seconds AM, 8 seconds noon, and 32 seconds PM.

On the topic of tilapia.......in east Texas.

I went out yesterday morning(12/6) and measured surface temperatures. The water was approximately 48-50 degrees.

Walked around the entire pond and didn't see any sick, dead or bunched up tilapia.

Is it still too soon for the die off???

Tonight water temp is 59. Visibility at 15 inch. Got 6 inches of rain but pond is still 2 foot low. Came up a little over a foot. Feeding has slowed but still pretty good in the pm.I have cut feeding in half...expecting the freeze coming and colder days ahead. Everything looking normal to me compared to last year except a lot more mouths to feed!!

The funeral homes better get ready for a bunch of north texas tilapia burials over the next few days....

low tonight 34, low tomorrow night 28!

It's been fun fellas...thanks for your 2016 service in my ponds.

LOL........That pic is great!

Tbar, I'll get out at some point today and let you know about the tilapia. I still have a few tilapia caged in <5' of water, so they should tell the tale.

Water surface temp yesterday at mid day was 57 @ my place and so I looked to see if I had any slow moving Tp but saw none. I am wondering how the diffusers will effect the pond this winter when it comes to water temps? I sure hope temps this winter do not reach in the low 40's, I like my TFS

Surface temp was 44 degrees this morning, and I reached in the cage and pulled this tilapia out by hand. Todd Overton had told me one time(paraphrasing) that the first freeze makes Mozambique tilapia stupid, and the next freeze whacks them. This fish was definitely in the stupid stage, so I would assume that my LMB are gorging right now. My LMB hand feeding is now officially over, and the rest were bagged and frozen for LMB Hors d'oeuvres later this winter.

Here on my puddle, I'm comfortable saying if tilapia aren't toast today, they will be by morning. About a third of my caged tilapia had already bit the dust. All sank, none floated.

Afterthought. Me and the goats hand fed my CNBG last night, and all the CNBG had already moved out to deeper water, and were feeding extremely lightly. I'll cut off my shallow water feeder, and cut my dam feeder to one late afternoon throw of 1 second later today.

Al, I thought it took a day or so before the fish float, is that right? Last year I had so many Tp in the pond, mostly due to low lmb numbers, so this year I did half of what Todd suggested, I added 30 or 35 lbs. Oh, Todd was reluctant with recommendations on me adding Tp that first yr, prior to me adding the fingerling lmb but he said it was ok to add 5 lbs and that grew to many, many Tp. The Cormorants and the Bald Eagle found a pond full of slow moving Tp and this also hurt my other fish, so I backed off this year, now I am wondering if I will see any Tp floating this year. I did see some Tp beds this past yr so I know I had some spawns but not sure how many times or how many were produced.

Another note, I watched fish feeding midday yesterday out in the middle of the pond where the diffusers are located. I am guessing it was the HSB feeding on forage of TFS or other forage fish. And some of that activity could have been some of those Texas Legacy LMB feeding also.

Tracy, I've been doing the tilapia deal for 5-6 years now, and have never had a floater. I do have buddy that was a ranch foreman down by Eustace, and his boss stocked tilapia only one year, and they ALL died at once and floated after an extremely hard freeze. He said it looked like somebody had treated the pond with tilapia rotenone. The owner never stocked them again.

I guess I'm not sure how all this happens, and how the temperature's rate of change affects all this for fish. I do know that other creatures do float after several days, and it's most likely due to accumulated internal gases. Don't ask me how I know, it's icky.

I have an army of turtles that are going to become obese.........

Nice......thanks for the info!

A pair of Osprey are feeding on tilapia this am. They must have gotten the memo, because it's been a few months since we've seen any.

I walked around my pond yesterday to see if there were any dead tilapia. I couldn't find a fin, tail, head, nothing. There was plenty of hog sign so maybe the pigs were the clean up crew.

My floating pier(attached to the shore) was loaded with poop piles. Poop had so many fish scales in it and made it hard for me to be certain what or who's poopen on my pier. Scales look like larger sized TP scales to me. Guessing poop belongs to coons but I am not a poop expert when I see so many fish scales in it. I have never seen that much large sized scaly poop. It could also be GBH poop. Looked to me like fish going In one place and out the next with the bird or animal taking few steps in between eating and pooping. pretty sure this is taking place at night.

speaking of poop...

I found this near the cabin last weekend...

anybody have a guess on what left this "gift" behind?

scat ID:

http://icwdm.org/inspection/scat.aspx

Maybe raccoon?

coon

Both coons and coyotes are omnivores. No telling what it is.

Buzzards were lined up on the far bank today. Think they are cleaning up the leftovers.