Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Food Comparison

Could anyone tell me which food might be better for my BG & CC's? Thanks for your help.


Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude Protein, minimum 35%

Crude Fat, minimum 6%

Fiber, maximum 5%

Ash, maximum 9%

Moisture, maximum 10%





Fish Meal, Wheat, Wheat Germ, Soybean Meal, Blood Meal, Hydrolyzed Feather Meal, Stabilized Fish Oil, DiCalcium Phosphate, Lecithin, Spirulina, Salt, Vitamin A, Acetate, D-Activated Animal-Sterol (D3), Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulphite Complex, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyrioxine Hydrochloride, Thiamine, Biotin, DL Alphatocopherol (E), L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Stay-C�, source of Vitamin C), Choline Chloride, Cobalt Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Ethylenediamine Dihydroiodide, Ethoxyquin (as a preservative), Natural Colors, Added Mineral Matter not more than 2.50%

Joe what are the sizes of the pellets? Both have plenty of protein. 32% is common in catfish food and general fish food. What is you situation what are you trying to do ? What size are the fish.

ewest, the pellet size of the first food is assorted pellets ranging from 1/8" to 1/2". The larger size is not actually a pellet but an extruded stick. The second food is about 1/4" in diameter pellets. I have a pond that is about 2-1/2 acres; in the pond I have HBG,BG,RES,LMB and CC. I'am trying to grow large BG, RES and CC. I'm feeding about 25 lbs. of food a day, the BG are fat little pigs but the CC while not particularly thin are not what I was hoping them to be. I've been feeding the first food and it seems to be pretty good. I stocked my pond April 22nd of 05 and the BG and HBG from that stocking are between 1/2 lb. to slightly over 1lb. The cats range from 1-1/2 lb to 2-1/2 lbs. There are lots of small/medium BG/HBG. I'm not really a bass fiserman so the ones I've caught have been mostly by luck but they range in size from 6" to about 16". The smaller ones that I've caught have not seemed real fat but the ones over 10" are pretty chunky. I would like to increase the amount of food that I'm feeding because the fish seem like they could eat a lot more. The first food cost about double what the second food cost. Any suggestions that you have will be appreciated. Thanks, JS

I'd be going with #2. More protein and cheaper. A higher % of the ingredients are vegetable, but I don't think the BG will mind and I'm sure the CC won't.

Don't worry about those cats being smaller than you'd like. If you keep feeding, they'll keep growing and growing and ...

Does anyone else think 25# of food per day in a 2.5 acre pond is too much?

Well, I'd wanna watch water quality at that rate. And not exceed it. And make sure it's all being eaten.

Joe what is your feeding plan (times and seconds) and are you using more than one feeder?

PFF it is a lot , but if you are feeding a bunch of cats and BG they may be eating it all. That is the question -Is all the feed being eaten if not then cut back.

I would try a bag of the second and see if they eat it ok and if so then phase out one to the other over a week or so. You may try mixing the 2 at first to get them use to the change.

You should check on compensatory feeding and see if it is something you are interested in trying. Don't know about CC but BG have been shown to grow well (better) with this approach. It involves not feeding every day but instead for example 5 days on ,2 off.

With LMB and BG in the pond balance will be important and at some point you will need to harvest both or the population will reach carrying capacity and/or stunt. Also CC may not successfully reproduce with LMB around eating all the offspring.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Theo, when you mention watching the water quality, are you talking about nitrogen? The fish look very healthy and I can test for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, alkalinity, pH etc but I don't think there is a nitrogen issue. We have had and are having some really hot weather here in Central Indiana but I also aerate the pond and there doesn't seem to be any D.O. issues. Is there anything in particular that I should be watching/checking for? Again thanks for the feedback.

ewest, I have a Stren feeder. I have it set up for two feeding sessions a day. At 7:30 am the feeder goes off for 10 seconds, at 7:45 am it goes off for another 10 seconds and at 8:00 am it goes of again for another 10 seconds. In the evening starting at 7:50 pm it repeats the same 15 minute cycle with an on time of ten seconds. All of the food is consumed within 5 minutes and the fish are eagerly waiting the next feeding. I have manually tripped the feeder various times during the day but the fish don't eat as well. I don't know if this is because I've trained them to eat in the morning and evening or if it�s a natural time for them to feed. In my first post I mentioned wanting to feed the fish more, they seem like their starving; I consistently catch CC on rubber jigs when I'm fishing for the BG. Is it possible that the first food doesn't have enough nutrition in it causing the fish to want more food? I have already got some of the second food and they grub it the same as the first food. As far as compensatory feeding, on occasion the feeder will run out of food and I won't refill it for a day but I don't let it go for two days. Also I only have one feeder but I just recently ordered a Fat Cat feeder from Greg Grimes and it should be coming Monday. My plan for it is to put it on the opposite side of my pond. Sorry for the long post and thanks again, JS.

Joe sounds like you are on the right path. One thing to note about BG is they can only eat a little at a time but eat often. They also don't generally travel far to eat. Common practice is to have one feeder per 3 acres. If the pond is spread out that might not be enough to cover the area. Think about moving 2 of the feedings. Move the middle am and pm feedings. Add one in the am at 6 am and one in pm at 6. So it is as follows :
am -- 6 , 7:30 and 8 , pm -- 6 ,7:50 and 8:30. With 2 feeders you have even more options. I would start the second one slow - like 2 seconds on the same schedule and cut back by 2 seconds on the first feeder and see what happens.

As noted you can raise the carrying capacity to high by massive feeding and cause water quality problems. Read up on that here. Ten pounds per acre per day is a lot unless you are running an aquaculture operation and that requires a lot of know how to do without causing problems. Here is a recent post by Greg about feeding.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=000196;p=2#000020

Joe, I wasn't even thinking that technical. Like Ewest says, 10 lbs/acre/day is the upper recommended limit. That's pumping a lot of nutrients into the pond via the fish. If all you readings look good, the fish look good, and the secchi depth stays 18" or greater (ooh - and you don't get a huge growth of chara or submerged plants or ???) - I'd say you're keeping an eye on everything and it looks ok.

Bruce Condello once posted one of his earliest pondmeistering efforts. He had a very dense stocking of HSB and fed them like crazy. His story went something like "I had a world-class HSB fishery for three years, then there was a fishkill and they all died." This is the kind of situation you want to avoid.

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the advice. I read the post by Greg and that sounds pretty good. It's interesting, I've noticed that most of my BG stay pretty close to the feeder. Another reason that I got another feeder was so that they would hopefully spread out to where I put the other feeder. I've got lots of cover on the opposite side of the pond from the first feeder but I only catch about 1 fish to 5 of what I catch by the existing feeder (Duh!)So everyone thinks that the second food would be better? I hope so, it will save me a fortune.

the purina bag says 3-4 pounds per hundred pounds of fish, so if you have 600 pounds of catfish then 25 pounds isnt that far off and is still at the 10pounds per acre maximum mentioned above.

whats that 8$/day, less if its the dogfood? no carbohydrate mentioned . suppose it is $/pound of protein and #2 wins that race.

what is the fish weight carrying capacity? with and without aeration for 2.5 acre central texas and or indiana pond? interesting that both were 2.5 ac and feeding 25 pounds was mentioned for both locations...

purina varied feed recomendation with water temperature and thats what gg points out...i put about 6 pounds per day out by hand, I have feeder on order, to my 2.5 ac pond so i am way less than you guys now

is it all WAPG? wild ass pond guess. i like the recomendation of give em what they want for 15 minutes. but is that 15 minutes riding 4 wheelers over the hill or 15 minutes watching the feeding while talking?

i would love to see the bluegill hitting on 12 pounds of the good stuff. the cc take over at my feeding but it is fun to see a big red bull bg coming to get it.