Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Theres a lot of protein flying around out there

FYI comment-Have a neighbor here in East
Central Ia. that has #3 one acre ponds, well established for years. He maintains them well and all have a balanced population of lmb,gills,strippers,forage fish and catfish in a healthy surface aereated clean setting. He regularly hand feeds the cafish a coffee can of pellets every other day, just to see them slobber around. Last summer, in one of the ponds, the cats wouldn't quit eating. He got up to 3/4 of a five gallon bucket and they still milled around. He suspended over the water at his feeding area a "paddle-type" bug attractor (attracts em' and knocks them down) In three days he was able to go back to his one coffee can of pellets-the cats would come, eat and go. He more than likely has an unknown preditor to prey out of whack problem, but is was interesting to see what this attractor accomplished.

Postbeetle,

Depending on how many cats and how much they weighed it sounds to me like he was underfeeding them. As they grew bigger the percentage of their total weight to feed grew bigger, but he was still feeding them the same amount.

I.E. 3 % of 25 lbs. of cats would have been .75 lbs. of feed, but when the total weight had grown to 50 lbs he needed to up that to 1.5 pounds of feed.

Bug feeders are great. I have one for bluegills.

Cecil:

Could you provide us with particulars on your bug feeder? (Make/Model, $$$, power requirements?)

Thanks