Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations vanishing yellow perch

To get YP and other non-pellet trained fish to eat pellets in a cage, it takes some concerted effort. For first timers this can be frustruating and often not very unsuccessful. Pellet training in a cage is not as simple as tossing pellets into a cage. Often it is much quicker, easier and often more successful to just buy the fish already pellet trained, even if it costs a little more in time and money. This is especially true for beginners. In the end it will actually save time as you wont spend time training the fish to eat pellets which can be time consuming if done correctly, which results in a high success rate - IMO and experience. There are previous topics here about various ways to train fish to eat pellets. IMO the training technique for fish in a cage is different than pellet training fish in a pond because pond fish can still get natural foods but caged fish cannot. Caged fish are also under added stressors which makes it more important to get good food intake to maintain health. I don't think there is an Common Q&A archive subject sheet for this topic.

Bassically feed training involves first getting contained fish to eat some sort of damp natural food such as rehydrated krill, chopped worms, fish, crayfish, shrimp, clams, etc. Once they are eating the damp natural food then the best proceedure in my experience is gradually introducing damp fish pellets (high protein 40%+) with the wet natural foods, then gradually reducing natural items and increasing the damp pellets. This process usually takes 7-14 days for me. When fish are eating the damp pellets gradually make pellets drier and drier until they are completly dry. So you see, the process is sort of involved and buying pellet trained fingerlings is usually easier and much quicker unless one cannot find pellet trained fish. One important facet is to get the fish eating some sort of food asap once they are in a cage which is a pretty stressful enviornment for them. You do not want them to become sick or with fungus while in the cage then mortality and losses are usually very high. Again - buying pellet trained stockers is usaully the better way to proceed when putting fish in a cage. Even with pellet trained stockers they sometimes do not readily accept pellets and this depends of the source or supplier which is usually VERY important.