Thoughts. What is the goal of compensatory feeding? ewest says ..."on compensatory feeding or growth. It involves a comparison of feeding methods and growth, for example ,,,, feeding every day a certain amount vs feeding the same amount but skipping a day. So lets say you feed one pound of feed a day for a week or 7 lbs (total). Using compensatory feeding you would feed 2 lbs one day and the next day 0 - same amount over a week but spread out."
Thoughts. Weekly on the days where extra feed is added for instance 2 lbs one day with the regular 5day - one pound additions, WHO actually gets most of the extra pellets of the 2 lbs? Is it the usual main pellet feeding fish(hogs) or is the main surplus of pellets of the 2 lbs eaten by the more numbers of the less aggressive perimeter fish who usually do not get their belly full?? The main 'pellet hogs' can only eat so much in a short period of the 2 lb feeding so this leaves some of the extra pellets for those fish that tend to get crowded out on the 1 pound feeding days. In the feeding test/trials the overall fish poundage may increase due to compensatory feeding,,,,, but does this actually favor extra growth of the pellet hogs? IMO the pellet hogs at the end of the compensatory test have been shorted food for 1 day per week but the less aggressive fish get added food on those days when 2 lbs are fed. The end results could have more total fish weight gain but I think it might not make bigger pellet hogs? What is our goal for feeding pellets? Total weight gain and community fish gain or is the goal growth and weight gain of mostly the pellet hogs as mostly aggressive trophy types of fish? At this point I still believe, "every day a fish does not eat is a day it does not grow" - Bob Lusk. This needs more research and who actually benefits most. Pellet feeding overall grows more pounds of fish. But I think compensatory feeding has its biggest benefit for the food market fish growers and not so much a benefit for the regular sport fish pond meisters.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/27/21 01:05 PM.
