Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding When do I increase pellet size?

Hello,
I recently stocked my 1 acre pond with 15 lbs of FHM and 1000 CNBG. The BG were in the 3-4" size when I stocked them on 3/13/18 so I have been feeding them for right at a month now using AM Grower 400. They have taken to the feed well so my question is: How long do I leave them on the small AM 400 pellet before switching to a larger size like MVP?
Thanks!

You might want to mix the two together for a while. Transition them over to the new diet.

JKS welcome to the PBF
Agree with John on the mixing idea , small fish will eat the small stuff and the larger ones will eat the larger pellets. No law against mixing it all the time if you feed where the small fish can grab a bite without getting eaten

You can increase survival of small fish by feeding over dense cover like xmas trees.

Thanks! I never considered mixing them but that's a great idea. I just wasn't sure how soon they would be ready for anything larger than the AM 400. Do you think they are ready for that at this point?

I will be facing this question later this summer and I have already ordered two sizes of feed. My assumption is that when some of the fish are big enough to "mouth" the larger feed, that is when I start mixing the two sizes. I plan to start with a lower quantity of the larger feed and work up to 100% larger feed. My fish will be from the 2-3", 3-5", and 4-6" size ranges when stocked (RES, HBG, HSB respectively). I may find that I have to mix from the beginning, but we will have to see. If all the fish were about the same size, I suspect that you could go to the pond at feeding time and hand cast some of the larger food and see if the fish are big enough to mouth it and keep it down. If a piece of food is too big, the fish will typically spit it back out, suck it back in, spit it back out...until it softens up enough to swallow it. If they are doing that, I would hold off awhile to add the larger pellets.

Purey my logic here, no experience in the matter.

Not real scientific, but I test throw fish food to find the current preferred food size. IIRC, a red plastic solo cup holds 7oz (give or take a few grams) of Cargill fish food regardless of the pellet sizes. I'll mix 2 sizes in the cup, throw the food, and then raise or lower the larger size food amount until both sizes are gone at roughly the same time.

At our dam feeder I use 3/8" pellets only. At the fish feeder up by the BG nesting areas, I use a 50/50 mix of 1/4" and 1/8" pellets.

I have not had good luck jumping 2 sizes of food with a mix. Mixing 3/8" and 1/8" hasn't worked well for me since the smaller pellets tend to settle to the bottom of the feeder, and separate the mix. 1/4" and 1/8", or 3/8" and 1/4" pellets seem to retain the mixes much better.