Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations feeding my 30 gallon

Value added.

They swallow them. video is better at night but here ya go:

These are by the same company. They're call Crappie Creatures. I think having "legs" might make the bait even more appealing.


What also might be good is if they were shaped so that they drifted down like a leaf or a feather does, kind of sideways back and forth. I bet that would drive 'em nuts.

i want crappie creatures!!!

Keith, it occurred to me that the Foodsource "mealworms" might have an adverse effect on your fish. After all, they were designed to be "fed" to fish that don't normally survive. One of the baits I had tested yesterday was still in the cup of water I had put it in. It had almost doubled in size, but it was still very firm. I have doubts that they will break down in your fishes bellies, and that could be a huge problem for them.

I sure hope our experiment doesn't result in the loss of your fish!

I wonder if some type of laxative food would help. IIRC earthworms have that effect. Before I do any more damage I should say that I don't actually know if a laxative would help or hurt the situation.

I thought about this befor hand and for the greater good decided to move forward as it was deemed important to pondland security. Caught a big bass on a berkly gulp shap today. Same type thing. I'm kinda getting into this but will probably feed real food from now on:)

Keith, GW and others. I learned about Pond Boss today during a meeting with a well-respected pond management company in Alabama. Found the forum on the website and found this thread about FoodSource lures, which are made by my company.

FoodSource lures ARE safe for fish to eat. Auburn University proved that fish actually grow in size feeding on FoodSource lures. They are high in protein and other nutrients, and are 100% food.

We have some video from Auburn's tests at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gFW-sgMGiU and commentary from one of Auburn's fisheries professors at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id5-_h-LFns.

We would love to hear feedback and look forward to learning more about PB.

I've had the best luck with the little white grubs that were shown in my video. The little red worms like wriglers don't get bit in my pond. I need to get some more of those white ones!!! Good to hear it's 100% fish food and safe for them. Good product! Do you guys have any the look like minnows? I guess I should watch the vid before I ask questions.....

Thanks for the info EdRogers.

EdRogers, did you happen to read the idea about creating game fish feed using a formula similar to FoodSource? One of the issues in feeding pond fish is to train them to take the feed.

I have very little experience feeding pond fish but here are some impressions; Floating food has the advantage of staying up where the fish can see it, but it tends to be dispersed by the wind and can end up along the banks, out of range of larger fish. Fish may also be more shy about coming to the surface than hitting food as it sinks. Sinking pellets aren't effected by wind, but if not eaten in a short period it ends up on the bottom where it may not be eaten. This is wasteful and might also effect water quality. These are guesses and I encourage people with more practical knowledge to add comments.

FoodSource baits mimic the feel, taste and scent of natural forage to entice fish to strike and eat it. I assume fish pellets are made to have an attractive scent and flavor, but the hard round pellets are noticeably different than the fishes natural forage. I think that a fish food with the nutrition and flavor of pellets and the texture and shape of FoodSource baits would be popular. Cost is probably the main issue in formulating such a product.

If a FoodSource type feed was designed to sink I would think that the goal would be to make it happen very slowly. Besides shaping it to mimic natural forage you could also consider the "action" it created while dropping through the water. If the feed could be formed to descend in a spiral pattern two things might be accomplished. First, it would lengthen the time it took for the food to reach the bottom. Second it would give the food a more natural action that might be more successful in attracting game fish. Another design that might work would be one that drops like a feather falling through the air.

Something else I haven't seen addressed in pellet food is color. I may be wrong, but I haven't seen brightly colored feed. This is interesting considering the extreme amount of attention that color is given in fishing lures. At one time I was training a small group of Warmouth to take pellets and it wasn't happening very quickly at all. They would come to the surface to take live food but they rarely ate the pellets. One day I threw in some fluorescent soft baits and they hammered it immediately.

Color/shape/texture, wouldn't be an issue once fish are conditioned to take feed, but it may make training them easier. Once pond owners see fish regularly taking feed they might assume that all or most of the fish population has been feed trained, but maybe that isn't always the case. Perhaps a significant percentage of their fish don't ever become conditioned to the pellets. If that's the case then a FoodSource type feed might have a niche. As I mentioned above, cost would seem to be the limiting factor.

That's a pretty good assessment of floating vs. sinking food, GW.

GW, thank you for the great analysis. One of the reasons we were meeting with the pond management company was to discuss ideas about a FoodSource-enhanced fish feed.

Although FoodSource is nutritious (lots of protein, 7 of the 8 essential amino acids, calcium, phosphorous), we weren't at this time thinking of it as a stand-alone fish feed.

Instead, we envision using FoodSource as a coating to make pelletized fish feed -- especially medicated fish -- more palatable and water stable. Adding color would be a plus, too -- great idea.

The FoodSource-enhanced feed would work, we think, with floating and sinking feed.

This is definitely an area we're interested in.

Ed

Keith, do you have that video on YouTube? We'd love to make it a "favorite" on the FoodSource channel at YouTube.

"... Do you guys have any the look like minnows?"

Yes, we have lots of different shapes, including minnows.

In re-reading this thread, I realized I wasn't fully appreciating the distinction between training feed and regular feed. Using FoodSource as a training/transitional feed was something Dr. Rusty Wright (Auburn fisheries) mentioned a few years ago. Palatability (mouth feel; taste) was the focus back then as I recall, but movement and color are important considerations, too. This discussion is very enlightening. Thank you.

It will be interesting to see what FoodSource might come up with. Here at Pond Boss you have access to plenty of pond owners who might be willing to help you test a product under a variety of conditions. I would when our ponds are completed.

That's great to know. I'm sure that's something we'll want to do when we have prototypes available.