Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding When to start feeding in spring (ornamental pond)

Hi all, I have an in ground ornamental pond that's about 100 gallons. I have a couple goldfish in it. I live in Western Washington and the temperatures here for the next ten days are low 50s as the high with some days being upper 50s. Every night it has been dropping into the 30s. I have not noticed any ice on the pond's surface at night before I go to bed and in the morning either. I'm wondering when would be a good time to start feeding my fish again? I don't want them to eat something they can't digest if they are still in winter mode.

bump

One a warm afternoon try a little feed and see if they eat. That will let you know how active they are.

If you can measure water temperature, you might be able to do a little less guessing.
My experience this past winter is as follows:

I have a 30 gallon aquarium in my garage with 4 goldfish that are 6" to 7" long, a green sunfish 4", two bluegills 3", and 3 bullfrog tadpoles. I've fed them Optimal BG, mealworms, and red wigglers through the winter. The water temp dropped to the low 50s for several weeks.

When the temp was that low, the goldfish continued to to feed voraciously and physically were quite active. They each gained an inch in length through the winter.

The bluegills and green sunfish looked at the food but would only mouth the red worms, not the pellets nor the mealworms. When the temps rose to 57 degrees, the bluegills started being interested in the feed and would actually swallow some of it. The green sunfish wasn't interested in feeding until the temp got above 60 degrees.

I'd feel ok about feeding goldfish when water temps were 50 degrees or more.

Ewest is right. Toss in a couple of pellets and see what happens.

Thank you for the suggestions. I think I will pick up a thermometer to measure pond temp and try putting some flakes in this afternoon and go from there.