Thanks ewest. That makes sense. The RES do seem to like to hide out of the light.
Keep in mind my observations are from a person that has almost no experience with aquaculture or fresh water fish. That said, sometimes new eyes see things others may have missed. With that in mind I will give an observation that I noticed tonight.
Before I started getting interested in RES. BG. LMB and FHM my wife did most of the work with whatever aquarium fish we have had over the years. Mostly goldfish with the occasional batch of wild fish we would keep over the summer when our kids were small for them to observe. So not a lot of experience with observing fresh water fish or taking care of them in captivity.
MY RES have been eating well. They always seemed hungry and would take crushed up floating pellets. Problem is they only seemed interested in what was moving and what they caught while it was sinking. There was feed noticeably accumulating on the bottom. They went off feed and I suspected the water quality had become poor because of the excess feed in the tank.
Wife suggested we suck up the feed off the bottom with a mesh over the shop vac hose. Said it works slick and what she uses in her inside and outside goldfish pond/containers. Ok. Let's give it a try. Like I said, she has attended to all this stuff in the past and me with little experience. Important safety tip. When a newbie (me) is helping for the first time, be sure the hose to the vac is installed in the correct "sucking" inlet and NOT the "blowing outlet. When she said "turn it on" bad things happened.
An hour later the fish aquarium was completely cleaned, moved to an area of the house that does not have carpet on the floor, and I am sure what must have been temporarily traumatized RES and BG seemed happy and were swimming about. Their appetite came back today.
During the somewhat tense move of the aquarium we decided to relocate an odd FHM that a few months before had ended up in her inside goldfish pot. The RES (3") and even the very small BG (1 1/4 - 2") did not seem to eat much off the bottom. My previous experience with FHM in the aquarium and my observations of them in the pond told me they were not particular where the feed was located. Maybe the one medium size FHM would help keep the bottom clean. We put the single FHM in with the RES and BG.
Finally the observation. I'm getting there. Fed the fish early morning. They were hungry. Like usual the RES ate well the feed that was dropping while ignoring what rested on the bottom. The BG also ate good on the dropping feed and the largest one also picked a little on the bottom. But the FHM, not being so particular, ate anything in sight. In doing so he would often pick up a piece to big to consume. Biting off a chunk or spitting it out, one of the RES then seen the feed "move" and took it.
So I am thinking, maybe I need to put some more FHM in with the RES as "trainer fish". I had also noticed before that if the fin action of one RES caused a feed morsel to move another RES would often see it and take the previously ignored feed. As you said your RES ate off the tin, I knew it was only a matter of training to get my RES to eat stationary feed off the bottom of the aquarium. Maybe FHM will aid in that training?
I need to see if I can catch a few more out of the pond, put them in with the other (lonely) FHMN, and see if it helps. Maybe if noting else, it will keep the feed cleaned up off the bottom so it does not foul the water.
Any one else have other suggestions for training? With only four RES in the aquarium (with most in the ponds) this is merely a learning/observation situation for me. Not of any real significance concerning my pond. But never know, I might have a need to train some more for some reason in the future.
Sorry for the long rant for a rather simple observation.
snrub
