Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Cross breeding RES & CNBG in a tank

I had a break through with the RES yesterday. I was still struggling to get them to consistently eat pellet feed. Worms, meal worms, crickets were no problem....but only the sporadic Aquamax pellet. As an experiment, I softened a few pellets and rolled them into meal worm shape, then let them air dry. I only had a few but the large RES inhaled them as soon as they started sinking. I guess the old fishing wisdom about matching the hatch is accurate! So I went about trying to find a way to efficiently making more "worm pellets". Now don't laugh at me, but my daughter's playdough extruder was just the ticket! . I extruder 3 plates worth and then oven dried them at 200 degrees for about 1 hour. I am hoping they will allow a transition to normal pellets soon. They usually stay on the surface for about 10 seconds and then start a slow wobbly sink. The larger RES has already taken a few from the surface and she ate 6 or 8 pellets in a row this morning.

One additional benefit of the extruder is if I need pellets in heart or star shapes, no problem!