I hand feed one gallon of Optimal in a one+ acre pond every evening. When I feed them dry food, the gills (and bass of course) hit it hard and then the gills spit it out nearly 100% of the time. They keep cruising and do it again and again. (The bass, cats, perch, and Amur are total pigs and they just keep hitting the food repetitively)
The past 2-3 weeks I've hydrated the gallon of food and have noticed they still aggressively hit it and about 90% of the time they keep it in their mouths, and consume it, before hitting another pellet. After hydrating, I wait until the pellets swell up about 50% (before they get too mushy) just before I feed them.
The softer pellets are clearly being held on to longer (and permanently by the gills) than the hard pellets are.
