Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Thanks TJ!

Thanks for the help TJ! Now my crash course on feed training SMB fingerlings starts, hopefully I get it right. Here is the training tank.



I owe you a favor!

Awesome! How many will you be working with?

Holy cow! How did I not know about this? I'm obviously out of the loup!

75 SMB, 12 YP

Me too, I didn't know this was going to happen until yesterday.

That's great! Working on the YP too?



Glad you guys made it work on such short notice.

Hey Josh, thanks for hooking us up and helping me seine! Shorty - totally my pleasure, and great to meet with you today. I'm just happy my babies made it to a home where they'll get all the adoration they deserve. Please keep me updated on their growth and habits. I have never raised fish in a RAS and am very interested on what you feed and how quickly they grow. Please get them in bed by 10 PM and not too much TV or candy. If they get fussy, a little Dean Martin Christmas will soothe them.

Hope those bonus YP do well, too. I can't believe how much room they have in that tank...you could have dropped 500 or more in there! Nice setup Steve.

We forgot to walk the main pond - the HSB and SMB were going crazy for AM LM pellets tonight - knocking them out of the water. I think I went through 5 lbs of pellets before my wife called and reminded me it was 45 past dinner. Ooops.

How much you love your fish always makes me smile TJ. And I'm very excited to hear how they do in Shorty's RAS!

A quick update TJ, both the SMB and myself are learning as we go and I haven't lost a single fish. I did put the YP in the pond, I think thier larger size might have been imtimidating the SMB.

I discovered late last week that the SMB fingerlings simply go nuts over bloodworms, so I have been mixing and soaking very small slow sinking goldfish pellets with the bloodworms as they thaw. They have been agressively eating both along with sliced up nightcrawlers coated in crushed up pellet dust. The SMB are now getting very competitive at feeding time and are no longer spooked by me moving around at the edge of the tank, they are feeding near the surface now. Hardly any of the food ever hits the bottom of the tank and what does is gone quickly. If all goes well I might have them eating just pellets within a few weeks.

Love to follow this stuff. Shorty, keep us updated.

Neat project. Updates please !

This reaks of awesome.

I love these types of projects and cages!
Evolution of ponding

So far I think I'm doing OK with this, this is my first real attempt at pellet training fingerling fish, LOL. 20+ years ago I did train a finglerling LMB to eat chunks of ham in a 10 gallon tank over the winter.

I started giving the SMB sliced up nightcrawlers last Wednesday and they just looked at it as it slowly sank to the bottom, they just refused to eat while I was standing at the edge of the tank watching. Any movement at the edge of the tank would send them to the bottom of the tank, I would leave for a while and eventually they would clean up the nightcrawler chunks off the bottom of the tank.

Then on Friday my wife picked up a small block of frozen blood worms at the pet store and they just went nuts on them. They have been feeding more aggressivly every day. I just started soaking small pellets in bloodworms yesterday and they are now eating those too, they were ingoring the same pellets I was putting in the tank just a two days ago.

I do have a bag of Aquamax 400 on order that I am still waiting on, at the moment I have been improvising until it shows up.

My biggest concern is overfeeding (uneaten food) and keeping the tank clean and the water fresh.

One thing I have learned is to only introduce a very small amount of food in the tank at feeding time, it seems to make them competitive and puts them into a feeding frenzy. When the small amount is gone I add another small amount and then keep repeating. This has also gotten them used to me moving around the tank edge.

I always try to catch a glimpse of other peoples garages and barns, etc when they post pics like this. I dont know why, but we need to just make a post of garages and barns, etc eventually.

BTW, shorty yours just moved up the awesome list with that tank of fish!

n8ly, this is actualy my workshop, it an old converted chicken coop with a very nice concrete floor and a water hydrant right outside the door.

TJ, a bunch of the SMB are already looking "chunky".

That's excellent! Training them to be gluttons! Love it!

Such a cute little smallie!

They are getting bigger.

Awesome!

Proud papa! Nicely done Steve outstanding condition and color!

Thanks!

I think it's almost time to switch them over from AM400 to AM600.

Very nice SMB !!! How long until they move ?

Ewest, I haven't decided yet. The water temps in my RAS system have stayed relatively cool out in my shop. They stayed in the mid to upper 50's for the first 6-8 weeks and have bounced around in the low to upper 60's for last 4-5 weeks. Today was only the third time I have breeched the 70 degree mark in the tank. The SMB seem to really start growing as the water gets warmer. Three weeks away maybe?

I really want to see how the do with AM 600 first. It will be short move as the pond is just 50 yards away. I have thought about moving just the biggest 10-12 SMB soon, a few more a little later staggering the stocking into the pond. My pond temps should be in the upper 70's now so I will need to be careful moving them in, a few at a time should be the best route to go. I also want to let the thousands of FHM and GSH fry grow a little bigger before I turn the SMB loose on them.