Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Small LMB Gape and Proper forage size

I meant daily.

But lets just use the average temp of 70F. Lets first consider the weight of BG an LMB needs to eat in order to maintain its weight (provide for metabolism expenditures of energy). At 70F an LMB needs to consume 1.56% of its body weight every day. So for a 13.5 lb SW LMB needs .015*13.5*16=3.24 oz of BG every day to meet metabolic demands and not gain anything. It can consume 1 fish to get that 3.24 or 2 or even 3 or more BG. There will be range of sizes that are consumed in real case scenarios. If the 13.5 LMB fails to consume 3.24 oz of BG it will metabolize its own body to supply the energy and lose weight that day. OTOH, if it exceeds consumption of 3.24 oz of BG, it will convert some of the excess energy to its body mass and gain weight that day. I really appreciate the question because it makes sense to answer the question of what is normal for an LMB to consume 70F. Does it eat one fish every 3 days? or possibly 2 or 3 day? At 70F, a 13.5" LMB might supply all of its metabolic needs for 3 days by consuming a single BG weighing 9.75 oz (something like an 8.85" BG). This is less than 1/3 the length of the 28" fish. Should we expect an LMB this large to eat no more than 1 fish every 3 days? If this is normal wouldn't this be the most frequent size consumed?

I suggested 5" but there isn't a goldilocks length that only works. LMB consume prey of all consumable sizes. The 5" BG at SW is 0.69% of the body weight of the 13.5 LMB. Probably less than optimum but it is not far from optimum. 3 of them would be 2.07% of body weight and thus would exceed the 1.56% required for maintenance .... and so ... the 28" LMB at 13.5 lbs can grow on that ration. When I run the numbers at 70F, over 28 days the gain would be .88 lb (an FCR of 8.68).


Sure it can. But I will add this. It will much less frequently consume a 7" BG than a 5". 5" BG will be its bread and butter and if it had to consume 7" BG exclusively it may not consume enough energy to maintain it's weight.