Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding feeding fry ??

I had my pond stocked two days ago,the BG are so small they are almost transparent I have been putting fish food in the blinder grinding it up into a powder and feeding them in the morning and the evening
Am I just wasting time and feed?
How do I know if Im feeding to much or not enough (1500 BG, 500RES, 2000 FHM, 55 albino catfish one scoop morning and evening)?
How long does it take for them to grow and start eating regular feed AM400?

The fish farm that delivered my fish said he bought old blenders a friend gets for him at yard sales to grind up pellets for small fry like you are doing.

I used to sit on the dock and smash pellets with pliers to feed the small fish. Once they get used to your feed, they will chase a floating pellet around or peck at it till it softens enough for them to get it consumed. Sinking type pellets quickly soften and will get consumed. So you probably only need to grind the pellets for a short while till the fish are feeding good. Then they will attack the pellets till they get them consumed.

Sounds like you have some really small fry. Mine were 1 to 3".

I bring in bluegill and yellow perch fry every year to feed train them. At that size they need more protein and lipids than larger fish. IMHO if you're grinding up feed that is meant for larger fish that has less protein and lipids you are short changing your fish. I.e. Aquamax 600 has about 41 percent protein. Fry starter feed is in the 50 percent range. Can't remember exactly what the lipid comparisons are off the top of my head.

Personally if it was my pond I'd let them consume natural food items and wouldn't go to all the trouble you are. If it's a new pond and they are the only fish there should be plenty of natural feed for them.

Once they get up to 4 or 5 inches it shouldn't be difficult to get bluegill on feed if you wish.

How long does it take for them to grow to around 4 inches

I have a lot of 4" BG that had to come from last years spawn. Since my fish last year were fingerlings in March (mostly 2-3") I would guess it was late summer before they could have spawned. So my best guess is that the many 4" fish I have are about a year old. Hope that gives you an idea.

Also would appreciate any input from the experts if I am estimating incorrectly.

I feed baby fish this, it's 47% protein, 10% fat, the fish love it!

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4253

If your looking for something with more protein, Tetramin has bloodworms (freeze dried mosquito larvae), 53% protein, 2% fat.

All my forage fish have spawned this year in a forage-only pond. So I have an uncountable swarm of little things 1" and up. I've done pretty much what snrub said. I throw AquaMax out there and let them soften up the pellets by pecking away. They eat it all .. just takes an hour.
Cecil is right that fry typically get a rich diet.. if you want optimal. Purina sells a fry powder that is 50% protein and 17% fat. They also have pellets of the same stuff at 1/16", 3/64", 1/8". They all sink, if that matters. I like to see the action on the surface. You would have to have a big operation to justify buying a 50# sack of that stuff.
You've been using AQ400, which is listed at 46/16 protein/fat. Only issue is pellets are 3/32" and are 50/50 sink/float. Your nutrition content is great for young fish.. if you don't mind grinding or just letting them take an hour to eat it, you're fine. If you just stocked you don't have large predators, so they can take their time eating on the surface. Don't know how fingerlings would do with half their feed on the bottom. Since the fry foods are 100% sink, have to assume they are happy eating off the bottom too.

I like watching them too and I wonder why it sinks if the oxygen is lower on the bottom seems like the fish wouldn't want to eat down there

I think the key is you don't want to throw it in water that is deep enough to be below the thermocline where O2 would be low.

Adult FHM will find feed anywhere above the thermocline. Below, I'm not sure because it is too cold to stay there without a wetsuit and it is too hot in the summer to don a wetsuit. So I don't stay in that dark, cold water long enough to find out much. I've put on scuba gear (before I put in aeration - not much stratification in the pond now with the air running) and would lay still on the bottom, and within a minute or two a school of FHM would find me (ANYWHERE in the pond. anywhere.) and be pulling the hairs on my legs, arms and head. No feed goes to waste if large numbers of FHM are in the pond and the feed is in the upper layer of water (About 7' when I did it in my pond last summer, below 7' was cold and likely low in O2).

Most small fry (even FHM fry) hug the banks. So if feeding them what I do is throw feed along the bank out to about a depth of 3-5'. That is just a nice gentle arm throw for me as I ride or walk around the pond. I try to spread the throw so some feed goes really shallow, most of it goes 1-3' depth, and some goes out deeper.

I try to use about half sinking feed and half floating, but it depends on wind conditions. If it is windy will throw the floating only on the side of the pond where the wind will take it across the pond instead of floating it up on the bank.

I've thrown a pile of sinking purposely in about a foot of water, then just set there quietly for a long time to see what happens. FHM are the first marauders to pile on in large numbers. The small BG (1-2") will come in and eat the pellets around the edges. If a bigger BG comes in the mass of fish scatter momentarily while the BG gets some, then they are right back there. FHM swim more like a shark, somewhat continuous and when in feeding mode kind of jerky. The small BG are also in loose schools but much smaller bunches. The BG fry swim more sporadic and selectively. They will advance, look the situation over, then get some feed. The FHM just plow into everything pell-mell. Kind of reminds me the differences in some 2 year old kids. Some are more timid and calculating, waiting to see if something is going to hurt them (BG). Others just go at everything throwing caution to the wind, full tilt (FHM). The FHM are the full tilt feeders. When I had CC 4-6" fingerling's I would rarely see them. But if I waited long enough, they would clean up the feed in the deeper water, then they would sneak up into the shallow (where I could finally see them), grab a pellet, and run. Sometimes multiple passes.

I enjoy feeding the fish and observing them as much or more than catching them. I would feed the small fish just for that reason, even if it did not help them that much.

If there are adult FHM in the pond with young BG fry or fingerlings, with floating food the FHM are going to get most of it. They are voracious and aggressive. If FHM had a single tooth, we would not swim in the same BOW with them. They will gang up on the floating pellet till it is gone.

With the sinking food, what I have observed is the mass of FHM will gang up on a pellet or pile of them (on the bottom - FHM will readily eat floating or sinking). The BG are more timid and will be eating in the same area as the FHM, but will tend to stay on the periphery. They will eat in and around the FHM, but will not pile on like the FHM will and aggressively compete with each other. The small BG tend to be more timid and careful in their feeding. When they get bigger, it is different, as a person can observe one BG aggressively snap up a pellet right from in front of another. But when they are 1-2" they don't seem to have developed that aggressiveness yet. At least that is what I have observed in my fish. Of course, come to think of it, the FHM fry are not all that agressive either. So effectively, if FHM (likely adults or close to it)and BG fingerlings are stocked together, a person has agressive adults (the FHM) competing against fingerlings (the BG). Even though they might be similar size, the adult fish have developed the agressive feeding where the young fingerlings have not.

I now have a bunch of 4" fish from last years late spawn. They are definitely aggressive, and will follow every move of a vehicle or someone walking around the pond (within their territorial area I would presume, as any individual fish seems it will only travel so far).

Had to laugh. 1-3' deep.. for a chunk of my shoreline, that's about a foot out. I step off the cherry stump I like to stand on to watch, and I'm neck deep. I had some condos (chunks of pipe) on a rope down there that got hung up a few feet out. So I swam down the rope to free it. It was in some roots from that cherry tree, but was under the thermocline. Got cool down there. Guess if I had sinking feed, I wouldn't throw as far out. :P

That is some steep banks! I've got a few places where eventually I'll probably wish they were steeper. Most is about a 3 to 1 but made one shallow area for spawning (covered with limestone rock and gravel) and one area for small kids swimming (covered with limestone gravel). Well the FA has just went nuts in these shallow areas.

At least you should not have a lot of rooted weed problems very far out from the bank. That is a definite positive. I got a feeling I eventually will.

You don't have to feed your fry but it is fun to see them occasionally, that's why I use Tetramin, the flakes float, even the tiniest of fish can readily eat it and nothing goes to waste. Surprisingly it goes a long way if you're not feeding everyday. I just couldn't use up a huge bag of food and I wanted to be super careful of not putting extra nutrients in my pond by over feeding. My baby minnows are tiny tiny and won't compete with bigger minnows for nibbling on pellets.