Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Cottonseed for Fry and Small Minnows

I have an opportunity to pick up some 40% Cottonseed Cubes at a good price this week. I can also get some 34% Range Cubes or 32% catfish food at a better price than normal.

Would any of these be significantly better than the others to feed the smaller fry and minnows.

I've been riding around the edges tossing in generic 32% catfish food and they seem to eat it pretty well. If the 40% cottonseed Cubes would be healthy for them, I may pick some up and give it a try.

Thanks.

As a kid we used pieces of cottonseed board for baiting minnow traps. I can't find them now but have fed my FH's cottonseed meal. They eat it as do the tadpoles. I have no idea if it is good for them.

What is your water quality like? Cottonseed can act as a fertilizer. Not sure what range cubes are made of. If the fry are BG , LMB , HSB then a fish meal/oil based fish food is much better. If they are grazing fish like tilapia , GShiners and FH then plant based proteins are ok.

We used cottonseed meal for fertilizing and our yoy forage definitely ate it.

I don't have any experience with the cottonseed cubes. Are you feeding large CC? I would hazard a guess that larger CCs could eat the cubes, but not much else.

the cottonseed cake and range cubes(alfalfa, added nutrients, molasses) will feed the minnows; as Ewest said, the fish food will better suit the BG. If you have CC, the cake and range cubes are good chum.

Thanks for all the replies.

I think my water could use some fertilizer, but I really don't want to get into fertilizing 8+ acres yet. I think I'll try some cottonseed cubes and see how the fish like them.

I've also got 5 bags of Aquamax 500 that my local Purina dealer finally got in today. I'm excited to see how much better the fish eat the Aquamax than the 32% catfish food I've been feeding.

I just added 400 4 - 6 inch CC last week. I struggled with that decision since I'm mainly interested in LMB, but I like to eat catfish, so I put them in. Once they get to 4+ pounds, we'll harvest them for the table.

Let us know how things work out.

twolakes if interested in bass you better pull those cats before they reach 4 lbs. They are great to eat as 3/4- 2 lb size anyway. Once 2 lbs or so much more predator like. Until then mainly fish food, so 400 not a bad number but if you let 350 get to 4 lbs your bass growth will suffer I promise.

Greg,

Thanks for the info. I was afraid adding the catfish wasn't a great idea. It's too late now, so I suppose I'll start catching them next year when they reach the 1.5 to 2 pound range as you suggest.