Scott thanks for the vid. How long would your fish eat like that (rate) if you gave them all the feed they would eat ?

Guys this is where goals and the resources (pond , fertility , cost and harvest rate) one is working with come into play. MRHELLO this should help you understand why your question is so hard to answer. Watch Scott's vid in view of the comments below.

For example with 4 feeders out (different locations) plus some hand feeding my fish would eat like that (rate) at that time of year for 10+ mins 4 or 5 times a day. That would be at least 25X what I feed now (50+ min vs 3+- min) and the cost would be out the roof. Plus we don't have enough people fishing to harvest that much. Water quality would degrade and populations would explode. That is why it really does "all depend". On your pond that approach (not that you are using that that approach - ad libitum feeding) might work well but on mine not so. We use true supplemental feeding that is only a very small portion of the food source. With feeding being such a small part of their diet the difference in GFC and AM is minimal. Many studies show 32 % is plenty for BG. The more the fish rely on feed the more important its contents become (assuming the food used is sufficient for the species). The differenc is goals � some ponds have to be run at a high rate to meet growth and fishing goals while in others that would not match the owner's goals but do harm.

If someone wants to try that they should read these links from the archives by Bruce + first.


http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=92440#Post92440

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=19169#Post19169



Last edited by ewest; 01/25/11 11:45 AM.