Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding new Coppernose

I just stocked 1600 coppernose fingerlings in November. I bought a new aquapro feeder last week and plan on starting when the temperature gets to 60 deg.F. My question is how much should I feed with the pond being 2 acres and not aerated? This is my first post and hope to receive many ideas on the best feed and also pellet size. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Welcome, jjzavodny!

Any other fish in the pond, or is this your first stocking? If this is a virgin pond your fingerlings will have lots of natural food to eat in two acres. Your main priority with feeding at this stage is to establish a predictable schedule in order to train your fish for future growth. Quantity takes a back seat to predictability. If you observe the feed event during the first two weeks you will begin to learn how much feed the CNBG consume in a reasonable period of time, and you won't want to exceed this.

Keep in mind that the most artificial feed that a fish will eat is about 3% of body weight/day. In a perfect world, your fingerlings will have biomass as follows:

High survival may mean 1400 fish that live.

Maybe 50% at best will use the feed--maybe a lot fewer.

That's 700 fish on the feed bag.

700 fingerlings with maximum growth by next early summer maybe weigh a combined 60 pounds at some point.

3% of 60 pounds is 1.8 pounds daily.

Now keep in mind that this is probably the absolute maximum.

Now let's play devils advocate:

Weather conditions and stress leave you with 800 fish.

90% of the fish eat the abundant natural available forage.

This leaves you with 80 fish on the buffet line.

These fish are so full that they eat only 1% of body weight daily in rations.

These 80 fish may weigh a paltry 5 pounds.

This leaves you with .05 pounds of aritificial food needed daily, or less than an ounce.

As you can see, observation of feeding is your best tool to ascertain the amount of feed you want to distribute.

Bruce

Wow! Thanks Bruce. This is a virgin pond but I have a concern about the lack of weed growth and cover for the fish. I plan to stock an F1 strain of bass in May and hope that some weed growth has taken root by then. In the meantime I went to the local dump after Christmas and loaded up a lowboy trailer full of discarded christmas trees and sunk them so they would at least have something to hold to. Any other thoughts on what I could do between now and then as far as the best line of pellet or size? Thank you.

I'd prefer to see you not try to skimp on pellet quality. Find some higher protein pellets such as the Purina Aquamax product, which will have a protein content of 40% or better. Better quality food means improved nutrients for the fish and less waste. This equals better long term water quality.

I personally have to go to the supplier of Aquamax and special request a smaller pellet size for little fish like this. They'll grow like crazy by next fall and may be able to eat a 1/4 inch size pellet by then, but in the meantime you should see how small of a size the supplier can get.

You should get floating pelleted feed so you can observe the quantity consumed. And of course it's fun to watch.

Thank you Bruce. This is my 2nd day on the board and I've spent hours already reading everything that I can. Fantastic! Thanks again!

We'll be really interested to observe your progress. Keep good notes, especially in regards to your F1's. Should be a really interesting project.

Great post above Bruce! Should go in the archives.

Bruce gave good advice, but do not be discouarged about themn not feeding now, probably will not start until spring afte they grow a little and it gets warmer.

How big were the fish when stocked? Ask the supplier in lbs/1,000 if possible. To add to Bruces comments I like to see all the food gone in 5 mins or less. If lot quicker need to fed more if floating after that might be too much. This will change with temp, weather, avail natural foods, and as fish grow and find artifical food sources.

Patience...feeding or not, you shouldn't introduce predators into a virgin pond until after 9-12 months from your original stocking of forage. Most can't wait, seldom do...but phenominal growth rates are there for the taking. STOP, set up a forage buffet...not a small one, but one that has several years of meals on the table. As I built my pond and introduced fish, it was relatively easy to build & monitor my base...I enjoyed fishing with worms to check the forage size. As others here have stated, your food chain should be so well established (before stocking predators) that you can walk around the pond at night with a flashlight and readily see fish close by.

If I were you, I would get golden shiners, threadfin shad, coppernose bluegill, and readear sunfish in there to start. Do NOT put anything in that will eat them. 2 acres is a lot of water, fill it up with food, and when you introduce predators down the line, the predators will grow twice as fast, maybe 3x 4x as more.

The following Spring (2008), stock tilapia, and every predator fish you desire ! Like i said, most won't have the patience...but if you listen & learn from the knowledge around here, you'll have an excellent chance of raising elite fish. Plus, you only get ONE chance to do it right !

Eastland agree with you BUT, no reason to wait that many months if timed right. Also folks on here do not address it but have seen some ponds with so many bream they do not allow their own reproduction. This means tiny bass compete with juvy BG for same food source, not good.

Like I say always about goals and budge.
In SE (diff in other places) if a pond is built right with proper habitats, stocked/acre by this March with true 2 inch 800 bg, 200 re, threadfin shad, 2,000 FH, is fertile with suplemental feeding, then sotcked in June/July with 50 gentically superior fingerling bass I can almost gurantee 2-3 lbs bass by Oct 2008. We have gotten them over 4 lbs in low bass stockng densities. So in this case why wait.

I agree most folks do not have enough patience, and rather them take your advice than rush it and put bass in too ealry. However it also seems some folks here want to waste a year of potential growth. Now if you can not afford that many per acre stock less and wait until summer '08 and you are also set but in '09 catching 1 lb bass while other client who did above is catching 3-4 lb bass.

When I stocked on November 3, 2006, the total stocking was 1600 CNBG, 400 RE, and 25 lbs. of fatheads that I received from Todd Overton @ Overton Fisheries. Since then, with all the rain, the pond has had some overflow since it is fed by a "dry" creek. I had a concern with losing some of the fish through the overflow as of late especially since I haven't seen any activity along the banks. My guess is that the fish are dormant at the moment with water temp. being low. At least this is my hope. Is there anything to do to limit the loss of FHM from overflow? Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Try not to worry about losing fish through the overflow. Very few types of pond fish really like flowing water (Grass Carp are a rare exception). Combine that aversion with the tendency to hunker down in the Winter, and very few fish will get near the overflow and have a chance to be lost. The high fecundity of all 3 of these forage species will make up small overflow losses in no time at all.

Unless you're losing trophy Fatheads via the overflow - then it's panic time.

I'm sure with Todd Overton helping you're going to do great. He really knows his stuff. Agree with Theo that losing fish to overflow is not anything to worry about. I think the amount of fatheads you stocked is a number that allows for some losses. I also agree that grass carp pile out of a pond like clowns out of a phone booth.

Greg, you already forgot more than I'll ever know about fish...but what if I say I can raise a 5+ lb. LBM over your time period ? Why wait... I'll also add into the 2 year window 3" HSB fingerlings topping 2+ lbs, and 4" CC at 3.5lbs...heck, I'll throw 2" crappie in there too reaching 9". All this with a forage base that remains intact to support the predators listed. 1st, a feeder is a must, running mid April to October. 2nd, instead of genetically superior fingerlings, I'll stock 2 acres with 24 LMB with outstanding relative weights in the 12-15" range. 3rd, stock tilapia every Spring. It's different, but I had access to the LMB and time to cull and keep the genetic ones I wanted. If/when the crappie spawn and yoy are present, I may opt out of stocking tilapia and turning the feeder off as well. It's working, and my LMB are starting to look like footballs.

I know, I cheated