Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding 5D06 and Yellow Perch

Switching brands does make a difference in feeding activity of pellet eating YP as Cecil suggests. JoeG doesn't say what he was feeding previously. Gape of a 9" YP is right at 1" (25-27mm) so the pellets are definately small enough for 9" perch to readily eat. Perch eating a slightly larger pellet will definately not eat them as fast, nor as many as smaller AM-5D05. Hydrating the higher protein pellets definately does cause a increase in aggressive feeding activity of the YP. Hydrated 5D06 pellets can easily be eaten by 5"-6" YP. My YP do it all the time. ONe rule of thumb for proper size of pellet to feed to a fish is to use a pellet the size of the fish's eye diameter.

One note about AM pellets especially the 5D06 which I buy regularly. The size and color of the pellets will vary sometimes significatntly between the various production batches. The batches also absorb water differently. I've learned from Dr. Mark Griffin that several factors at the factory contribute to this variability. A couple of the most common variables are raw products and time between cleaning of the extruders. The current batch of 5D06 (Mar30101) that I have is opposite size of what JoeG is seeing. My curent 5D06 are on the small side of 1/4"=6x7mm, whereas my previous batch of 5D06 was larger and similar size that JoeG mentions above 0.315.