Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding Question

I just (last week) stocked 850 CNBG and 150 RE to my 3/4 ac new pond constructed here in NE Texas in December of last year. My TH feeder will arrive next week and I plan to begin feeding AM400. My question is: how much AM, and how often should I be feeding? I did introduce 2000 FHM in both January and February. I don't plan to introduce predatory fish (HSB) until a little later this year. Be gentle, now.....I'm a newbie. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

Depends on your goals. Here is a video where Bob covers feeding. Starts talking about feeding 1:26.

http://youtu.be/TN8k-LOOCts

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the URL, allmadness.....My goal is to simply have a nice place for my fly-fishing friends and grandkids to catch some trophy bluegill.

Cool - so sounds like you want to feed all the feed they can eat once a day maybe? Only other thing I could add about trophy BG is you want small LMB nothing over I think 16 inches they say. That way the LMB doesn't eat your big BG. Hope an expert can assist more.

Good luck with it.

Woodcrafter - I assume you put in 2-3 inch CNBG and RES. If so, the CNBG will probably not yet be ready for pellets. Until they get a little bigger, they will probably feed on water-borne plankton and other pond critters. Generally, RES will never take commercial feed. They'll be happy eating things already in the pond. They are very important to keeping grub and snail populations down, which will keep your bluegill and bass from getting infected with white grubs, yellow grubs, and black spot grubs.

Although you will have a great feeder, it will probably be best to just throw a handful of feed in once a day, a few days per week, and probably an hour or so before sunset. See if anything is coming up for the food. If the bluegill are small, you may notice they sample the food, and then spit it out. That is normal until they get a little bigger. Once you find that the food is getting eaten quickly, then you can begin to use the mechanical feeder. This could be a few months away, so don't get discouraged.

It sounds like you are on a great path to success. I know it takes a lot of will power not to want to stock everything at once. But be patient before putting the HSB in. You don't want them eating all your other hard earned work. Are you planning on putting in large mouth bass? I ask, because, I'm not sure the HSB can keep the bluegill population in check, especially when you are between stockings of HSB. If you find that your bluegill are stunting, you may need to add largemouth bass to help the HSB in keeping the bluegill population to where they are growing to trophy size.

Regards,
Ken

Ron, have you thought about stocking fingerling HSB to grow out with the CNBG?
This is the only chance you will have to stock inexpensive HSB. They will be 8-10 inches by fall and will have a head start on controling BG over population that Ken is concerned about.

I don't believe you will have an over population problem if heavy HSB stocking - if so you can add one female pure Florida LMB in the future and your bases will be covered...
For your stated goals of a fun CNBG pond, I would not stock any reproductive LMB.

I agree with Ken on the feeding - I would not feed early on in order to feed train the fingerling HSB on FHM and CNBG.
IMO, you want CNBG to be primary forage for the HSB and have a fabulous fly fishing pond for both trophy HSB and CNBG on the fly.

Have fun,
George

UpDate....
Ron has advised he is borderline PH for HSB and would have to lime which he doesn't want to do.

I suggested a few female LMB to stock next spring to control over population of CNBG.
He could grow trophy Florida LMB with limited numbers feeding on CNBG and tilapia .... any suggestions on numbers?

So what is borderline PH for HSB???

thx

I haven't seen the numbers but going strictly by Ron's geographic/geological location, which may be a bit presumtive?
He is transitionl Texas Piney Woods which is noted for acidic soils but close enough to Post Oak Savannah to be OK.
Ron has time on his side to make predator choice since he has stocked forage base.
I recommend he let his FHM/CNBG fill up his pond while he researhces water quality.

Alkalinity of >40 would be good for HSB. We have managed to do ok at 25+-. Try to find a source that has low alkalinity in their hatchery ponds. Todd and Greg have both provided HSB that did ok in ours. They need to be properly transitioned/acclimated to the pond water.