Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding feed training BG

Ive got almost 20 small 2-4" wild BG and am wondering about how to feed train them. Ive had them for just over a week. They are eating worms and gambustia real well but so far dont go after floating feed. I throw a few pellets in each day and they go untouched. Today i squeezed a few of the saugy pellets so they sank and the bg did peck at them. Should i be buying some sinking feed? This is in a small ornamental pond.

What kind of feed is it?

Im not sure what feed it was, I dont have the bag. I only have about a 1/2 gallon of it. So if they will take to it I will try and find some of the aquamax 500/600 or other

I'd continue on the path you are on. Per Bill Cody, making sinking pellets from soggy floating feed is an excellent way to get fish used to eating pellets. After they adjust to the sinkers, you can (gradually) switch back to just floating pellets.

The pellets should not be soggy, just damp similar to Play-Doh. Water used to soften the pellets can be flavored with numerous things that fish find palatable: ground fish, ground worms, ground snail meat, clams, shrimp, krill.

Ever try cod liver oil as a flavor enhancer? I'm not sure how it would work but would be easy to get. I'm not sure if it would make the pellets sink or float though.

with cod liver oil your fish would have excellent skin tone, a healthy vitamin D level, and good cholesterol.

This stuff is supposed to be the new super food of the decade.

I was feeding it to my chickens 20 years ago the help the pinfeathers open up sooner. It had a pretty strong smell but the chickens didn't seem to mind.

Some are starting to take the pellets a tad more but not with the same enthusiasm as with worms. I am guessing that with just worms they will not get the nutrition they need. So im going to try and stick with pellets every other day till they will really take them well. My compost pile is barren of worms at this point ..
I took a small bag of the pellets and added some anise and let them sit over night, then soaked them in water for about 15-20 min before feeding. I have a suspended tray of plants in with the fish and so far only a few will stay above the tray even when feeding. I also toss in about a dozen Gams every few days and it is amazing how much trouble the BG have in catching them. Often it takes multiple slurps to get em. I watched one the other day jump straight up out of the water as the bluegill came after him. Ill swear it was about 2 seconds until he landed back in the water.

If you are trying to get them to start taking feed I would feed every day at the same time. They will get used to the routine.

Robbor...

I agree with Brett. Put a little food in every day at the same time for a little while and they will get "trained" to come eat there. Other fish will learn from the ones that are eating pellets already. The number of fish coming to eat will increase that way.

Im still working on them. They just dont really care for the pellets yet and i have been feeding them pretty well. If i throw pellets in and they are real hungry they will dart toward them and possibly take one pellet and that is it. If i sink the saugy pellets some of the fish do eat them. If i throw some bread in they try to take my finger off with it .

Robbor...

Not sure where you are located, but when the temperatures start to drop, the fish don't come up to feed nearly as much and then not at all. This might be something you need to start in the spring.

Ya it was only 85* here today .
Fish are smart though we had a cold snap(70) 2 weeks ago and even though we went back up to almost 95 the fish all moved out and down. They know what time of year it is and that winter is comming.

I think they can also tell from the shorter days and less sunlight.