Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feed question/advise

I've read the forum and know there are a bunch of different feeds I can get. I've been feeding a commercial food from Rural King with a pic of a catfish on the front of it (don't know the name). No one in the pond likes it and hardly anyone will eat it anyway and I'm tired of chopping up meat everyday and chasing after and catching grasshoppers and buying bread and digging worms. I'm going on strike and will no longer be the fish woman slave. They have worked me to the bone all summer and each fish has his/her own likes and dislikes and I don't know how it has crept up on me but I seem to be managing a restaurant with a full itemized menu and I have to remember what each fish likes and dislikes and feed accordingly. I'm done. Tomorrow I'm going to order Purina SOMETHING. I have bass, bluegill, a few redear sunfish evidently, one catfish that I know of, some snapping turtles and some snakes. The snakes and turtles can eat what I buy or tough it out. I'm not pandering to them either anymore.

Please help me make a decison on which food to order - we do have a store that sells Purina products but I haven't seen any fish food. Thanks
Cam -

Gamefish Chow because it is mixed sizes for all size fish.

+1. If your Purina dealer doesn't carry it they can order it.

Thank you both - the fish however, may not agree ;c)

I bought Gamefish Chow today and threw it out for the fish to eat. The fish weren't impressed at all. I had asked before I went to get it if it was fresh and they said yes. After I got it home and opened it though I find it's dry as a bone. I think I read on another thread this is supposed to be oily? I called the store back and they said they have a Purina catfish chow that is oily they would trade me. Should I try this? Thanks again. I'm so glad I found this forum.

No, don't trade it in. Spend some time training your fish by presenting feed same time of day, every day for a while. Some people spend months, or even a year training fish, so don't give up. You can check the freshness by looking at the date on the bag. The shelf life is approximately 3 months during the warmer time of year, and a little longer during the winter.

Good luck.

I've been feeding fish food but not regularly for a few years until this summer. They just don't like it that well (at all). They are hungry and will eat but they just don't like the commercial food that I had and was hoping the game fish would be the ticket but it's as hard and dry as the other feed I had. I guess I was hoping the Purina would taste better or something. They will gobble bread and other food like crazy. Just today I finally got my most stubborn, skinniest, bass to eat something that wasn't alive (he only has taken anything at all from me just once before). I had to trick him like you trick a 3 year old kid with a tepee sandwich but it worked... I made a video of the big trick and put it on my little pond journal today and I'm going to try to put it here. How much is one bass supposed to eat anyway? He ate six hot dogs by himself today.
<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i232.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid232.photobucket.com/albums/ee58/bassponder/Meanandleanhotdog2.flv"></embed>

whoops...

The video is proof that your fish can be trained to eat. GFC is dry not oily.

Bassponder, you are a nut. The world could use more like you.

Dang, and I just today in my journal said no one on this forum made fun of me - at least in public. lol

Hey - old ladies need hobbies too. I could be out pushing a shopping cart and watching soap operas!

Well, you made it to 18 posts before it happened. Keep it coming!

I would stop feeding the meat and live bait for a while and only offer the pellets. I have noticed that when we offer a large number of crickets/hoppers in the feeding area before giving them pellets the fish will be reluctant to eat the pellets because they are waiting for something better. I don't think it's because they are full since they will still attack any extra crickets offered. It's like filling up at the salad bar before the steak arrives. If they realize that it is pellets or nothing I think they will feed.

Also I have noticed our fish seemed the like aquamax500 better than the game fish chow we were feeding. Often when feeding the GFC the fish would take a pellet, swim below and spit it out. I have not seen them do this with aquamax. However it is twice the price of GFC.

My fish definatly like the Aquamax better. Aquamax is oily and smells pretty good. GFC is dry but also smells ok. Some of my fish seem to perfer the GFC, I think because its more boyant or the color, but the sunfish around the dock fight to get the aquamax while the GFC sits, they eventually eat it but the aquamax goes first. If I only put GFC, they eat it. Try the aquamax...heheh why not you tryed everything else.

The one fish I just got to eat in the past couple of days hasn't eaten anything at all from me all summer long or ever for that matter although he shows up almost every day. Except for one bass and some bluegill none of the others have ever eaten any of the commercial food in three years that I've been watching and only this summer have I just started to feed meat and bread and throw some hoppers in that I can catch from the banks. So I guess in three years they'd rather eat nothing (well they eat other fish I guess) than eat that feed and that one poor skinny bass that is such a poor hunter would rather starve to death than eat what he sees me throw out every day - until 2 days ago.

I don't care how much the aquamax costs - it can't cost more than meat - especially when you add up what the venison and wild turkey I feed them a lot ends up costing in the end. Is Aquamax a Purina product also and if not would I be able to order it from any feed store or just certain suppliers?

Thanks for answering!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Never mind. I found it. I'll call and get it ordered tomorrow. I guess I'll order the 500? Medium size?

Just so you know....anything smaller than 500 is a slow sinking feed. Some of the 400 will stay afloat just because they are so small that the surface tension of the water keeps them up for awhile.

Bruce thanks again. I bet I'm driving you all nuts and now I've put a link to this forum on my little journal page there might be more nuts trickling in - you poor guys. Now I guess I'm confused. I want the feed to stay up there as long as possible right or not? So which would be the best choice for mostly bluegill and some bass?

You're definitely NOT driving us nuts.

I'd start with the 500. That's what I feed my bluegill. Bluegill of all sizes will utilize it, however once you train them you can shift to the 600 because it's more efficient for the fish. Way more calories per swipe.

Oh yeah? Just you wait... I haven't jumped over to the aeration section yet and started pestering but was just over there reading things that you wrote. I'll get over there eventually then you'll be sorry.

And I do have another piece of property that has NO pond... Oh I have a place for a HUGE pond over there! Heh heh just think of all the questions I could ask if I decided to do that! Why I could put a regular lake over there! lol

You know I spilled about 5 lbs of that fish feed I got from Rural King in the driveway about a week ago and thought the night critters would clean it up. Not even the skunks and racoons and possums will eat it. As far as I can see not even a mouse has been near it. No wonder the fish won't eat it...

And while I'm in the feed section. Could I ever put enough fathead minnows in my pond to have a self replacing colony? I put about $30 worth only in a couple months ago but I don't think they lasted long. I seem to have a lot of baby bluegill but I still have a skinny bass. Are there some bass that are just lousy hunters?

Thanks again

Bassponder, if you'll put in an automatic feeder it will dramatically increasee the "fish feeding learning curve".
Use Purina AQMX as suggested and increase to 600 pellet size as Bruce reacommneds.

Your fish will be waiting at the dinner table when time for feeder to go off...

Changes in fish populations based on natural morts (deaths from all sources other than humans/fishing) and reproduction can take a while. From the limited info I would guess that your BG have been eating the food (you can't see it much of the time) and their feeding/eating (improved condition) has increased their spawn - thus the "lots of small/baby BG" but the LMB condition does not reflect the increased forage base yet as the BG are still small (less than 3in). A very important Bill Cody point that is not considered enough - feeding with out maintaining population balance by removal often results in higher biomass of small hungry fish not a population of bigger better conditioned fish.

Thanks. I guess I need to give you more info then: I didn't know what was in my pond until this year when it cleared and I'm guessing it cleared because of the lack of rain so it wasn't heavily fertilized from the runoff? Now I can see in the shallow end (which is REAL shallow this year) so am able to get a better idea of just who is down there lurking. Until this year I didn't even feed regularly enough to even make a difference (1 time a week maybe a handful and never in winter)and even until the last few months I bet I only threw out about 1-2 cups of feed a day (which mostly floated forever). Even now I only throw out about a cup or two and if half gets eaten by fish I'd be surprised although a couple snapping turtles seem pleased. I can look straight down at the fish and see them all clearly so I know what they are doing and eating. The one skinny bass is about one inch longer than a cement block and I've watched him hunt for hours at a time - he's just terrible at it. He can be surrounded by bluegill of all sizes, strike every which way and still not catch a thing. The other bass catch!

I don't get around very well and right now I probably spend an average of 3-4 hours a day back there sitting under my umbrella looking down into the pond so I do get to observe a LOT and I have to tell you that whoever said ponds are tranquil is someone that doesn't spend much time at one as my pond is about as tranquil as Grand Central Station.

Until I started feeding a caught grasshopper or two, I didn't have much action at all. Then the pond started clearing a bit and I got encouraged enough to start experimenting a bit and I did find food they would eat (just not commercial food). They will eat some bread and meat and I will be trying the Aquamax.

Now I see I have many bluegill from about 10 inchers to tiny little ones that just look like eyes with tails and every size in between. I have bass that range from babies up to about my largest is one and a half the length of a cement building block and a lot are about the length of a cement building block or a little bigger. Only one looks real thin (but he doesn't anymore).

I don't know how many fish I'm supposed to have but I'd like to take some of the real big bluegill out as I suppose that's about as big as they get and they are ready for harvest. Now if I can just get my family to believe they need to stand BACK from the bank when they cast they might be able to catch them. No one seems to believe that my fish SPOOK big time and they will disappear in an instant if they see someone cast out there.

I did have a funny looking fishing bird for awhile out there this summer and I'm sure he got his fill but he would beat feet whenever I arrived. Took me forever to find out what he was because he wasn't maturely feathered so wasn't black.

I think I'm going to lose all my fish when the weather changes anyway as I almost have no pond left except the big giant hole and that probably doesn't have oxygen. The pond is about 17 feet in the deepest part when it's full but now who knows. I have no elec source back there anyway. I think my pond is down about 3 feet and I'm feeding in just inches of water in the shallow part now. There were some larger catfish that used to live in there when I bought the place but each year I noticed a few dead at the end of the summer and I saw one that I thought was eating off the top and acting funny about that time (gasping for air I guess). I didn't know why until this year when I started taking an interest. I even thought of putting in the paddleboat and paddling around but I'm afraid to stir up the water at all.

Bassponder, I used to feed my fish bread but it got messy with moldy bread and bags everywhere. Several times in the past I tried fish food and the fish wouldn't eat it. Eventually I put some feed in a bucket and soaked it for about 15 minutes (don't put too much water or the food will become one solid mass) then fed it to my fish. And what do you know the fish started eating it once it had softened up. You might try that trick to get the fish feed trained.

Bassponder, I don't think you are crazy but I read your posts to my wife and our bellies and jaws are still hurting from laughing so hard. I wish my wife took so good of care of me as you do your fish. (I just read this to my wife and now I am in trouble, she just mumbled something about going outside and getting me some grasshoppers.)

How large is your pond? I know the feeling of the effects of a bad drought, this is the first year in several we have had a normal rain fall.

About the feed. My spoiled tom cat loves it when I feed him tuna and salmon and sniffs and sticks his tail up in the air and walks away when he is returned to dry cat food, but when he gets hungry enough he will eat it. (And that's good because when you can eat real good tasting food all the time you get fat like me) I think the other posts are right don't feed them other things for a while and eventually they will eat the dry stuff.

NEDOC on this site has started feeding a Purina largemought food to his fish. He said it took a long time for the lmb to take it but they have started now, and they weren't trained as babies to eat it. You may want to search for a string of posts with aquax largemouth bass food in it.

You must be such a nice lady. Most peoples partial solution to feeding your catfish and turtles would be to shoot the turtles and let the catfish eat them. That is what I do. As far as the snakes I leave the non-poisonous ones alone, but even though I dont intervene I think the catfish on their own pretty uses the same solution on them if they arent too big. In fact I would think Mr. Meanandlean would find a small snake as a tasety snack.

Good to have you here, keep the posts coming!

Best luck,

Bill