I have a feeding questions for those who hand feed. Do you notice times when the fish aren't quite as active when you feed? Say cold rainy days. Just curious.
May I suggest that the picture of the first frog might be a Spring Peeper. Either way, both the spring peeper and cricket frogs are incredibly loud on a warm nights. 10 frogs can sound like hundreds.
The second photo is definitely a leopard frog or as my wife calls them "basement frogs" because they frequent our sump in the basement.
The bottom frog is a Wood Frog (edit) leopard frog, the top one I think is a cricket frog though I have never seen one myself. Wood frogs are cool in the sense they can freeze solid in winter and thaw out in the spring perfectly fine! The first frog does not have the toe pads and is too large to be a peeper.
Couple of days ago, Mom and I went down to feed the fish, I've been giving them 1/2 cup, well they just devoured it in a few minutes. I don't know the exact time, but less than five minutes. Mom and I looked at each other and she said, go get some more. I brought back another 1/2 cup and they took a little longer, but still ate it all. I gave them a cup full tonight and it took about 10 minutes or so.
I guess I'll keep them at a cup or so for the next day or two and just see how they do. It seems like a few more fish are coming to feed. Maybe they are just catching on to the fact I'm feeding them.
Yes feeding amount is okay for initial training. As they eat the 1 cup of food faster then you can gradually increase the amount. If they eventually keep eating more, I would not feed any more than 1 gallon of pellets per day.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/21/1708:21 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
With my petal boat, I was able to check the depth of my pond. It stays about a foot deep till you get out about 15 feet from shore and slowly gets deeper. It ranges about 28 to 30 inches until you get about 40 feet out and then it gets to just over 4' and stays there for about 50 yards and slowly goes back till you get to the other end. There doesn't seem to be any drastic drop offs, but I only went straight down the middle.
I was hoping for a couple more feet, but it is what it is. I was using a tape measure so I couldn't tell how much soft muck was in the bottom, I'll try to check that next.
The good news it's not full and has plenty of room to catch more water. If we got some spring rain, I can see it holding 3-4 more feet easily.
Mom was able to see our fish today while feeding. She said due to the FA they came up real close to where she was standing on the bank in a small area that didn't have FA. She said the only fish she could see looked like BG.
She didn't see any catfish. Recon why the CC are not coming in to eat? It's been the warmest Feb on record, yesterday it was 82.
And wonder why FHM don't come up to feed? We haven't seen nar one since we put them in other than seeing a few ripples in the middle of the pond that we assume are them.
It's been 17 days since I stocked. Mom told me she saw a couple BG today near the edge of the pond and said they looked double the size we stocked. Possible?
Plus she might have been remembering the smallest of the stocked fish and the ones coming to feed may be of the largest sizes. It is unlikely that the fish were all exactly the same size to begin with.
Now you mention it Snrub, that makes a lot of sense. I didn't think about the water playing tricks. Plus we've both been anxious to see them since we turned them loose. We have them where they don't seem to be real scared of us as long as we don't move around too much on the bank. They come up pretty shallow when we feed, but not close enough to get a real clear view. If either one of us could see better, it wouldn't be a problem to see them.
I'm now feeding a Ranch Style Bean can (about 2 cups) twice a day.
I still ring bell and kick a tree stump, but it's not necessary as they are usually there waiting on me. They come right up into the shallow water about 3 foot from the bank.
It's become a family affair and we all go down to the pond at feeding time. My wife says there are definitely a few that are bigger than the rest and they have vertical stripes. She says they are an inch or 2 longer than the rest.
I know the RES were a little bigger than the BG, so I'm wondering if maybe a few of them are coming up to eat. More than likely though, a few of the BG were a little larger than the rest.
Ok, I am going to stock 40lbs of the 8-10" Tilapia next month. Yes, that's a lot for my pond. I want this FA gone and I want it gone yesterday. Plus, I am hoping for some good rod and reel fishing PDQ. [pretty darn quick] If you know what I mean.
All that said and done, between the tilapia, BG and the Res offspring will I need anything besides the 100 small catfish that's in there? The catfish were 6-8" and they have been in there almost a month.
If I do need another predator, how long should I wait after stocking the Tilapia?
farmallsc - take a couple pictures before and later after you stock the 40lb of tilapia (80 lb/ac) to document how well and how fast of a job they do at cleaning up your algae problem. Keep us updated on your project as it progresses.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/09/1711:52 AM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
Sure thing Bil. I'll get some pictures today. I'm having a hard time feeding when the wind is out of the south cause it blows it right into my feeding zone.
This is how it looks today. I have to reach out there with a long piece of pvc and create a hole to feed. I try not to disturb the bottom as I don't want the water to turn muddy before feeding.
