Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Multiple feedings, and how much?

I was wondering if there is any benefit in feeding bluegill multiple times a day vs one or two feedings? Right now, I've got a 2 acre pond, with two feeders going off twice a day for 12 seconds and I just decided to add a third feed time in the middle of the day for 3 seconds. I guess I can have up to 6 or so different feed times and was wondering if I should use those? I thought that multiple feedings would just give predators more chances to grab the fish but frankly the blue heron seem to just walk around the shallow spots of the lake even when the feeders have gone off. Currently there are no bass in the pond but they will be added this spring.

Second question: Is it possible that some of the first bluegill that I put in have spawned and now their offspring are already large enough to eat the fish pellets? Around 2 weeks ago when I refilled the feeders, I noticed that it seemed like the number of fish in the pond increased exponentially. Suddenly it didn't matter how much food I tossed out, it was consumed at a pretty fast rate. My first stocking was only 5 months ago. With that said, there is no aeration system in this pond, if the fish are consuming all of the food with in 5-6 minutes, should I just keep feeding more? I'm feeding aquamax 500.

Thanks,

David

My instinct would be to feed as much as they'll take as often as they'll take it. Just keep an eye out to make sure they're eating it. You can probably run a wifi camera off the battery on your fish feeder if the charger is big enough, and they're cheap.

In my (established pond with regular BG), I was never able to get them to take to a mid day feeding. So in the spring and fall I'll feed at dawn & dusk and in the summer and winter just at dusk.

Even without knowing how many BG you stocked 48 seconds of food a day seems like a lot
I saw something similar, didn’t matter how much I fed it seemed as though the fish would clean it up
In under 30 seconds. With that, a fish can only consume so many pellets in X amount of time.
Instead of feeding for 12 seconds try feeding for 4 seconds 3x - 5 minutes apart. Example: 7:30 / 7:35 / 7:40
That should more evenly distribute the food to more fish.
Also as stated above, I tried feeding my fish for a few seconds mid day, the first year they didn’t take to it, now in year 2 I can set the feeder off or hand throw food at any time of day and they will boil the water within a few seconds.
I say don’t over do it this early on, it can start leading to water quality issues if it’s not all getting consumed.
I’m also not sure of the correct feeding amount, it should roughly equal X amount of food per Y amount of fish per day. Something like 2-3# per acre per day if stocked correctly.
They say feed all your fish will consume in 10 minutes, like you, I could probably throw a 50# of food in and it would seem to be gone in under 10 minutes.
Experiment a little, fish food is just a supplement and not a fish’s primary source of nutrition.

Seems like I read once that 1 sec = 1/4 lb of feed from a Texas Hunter Feeder. One could test to be sure.

Anyways, 48 sec equates to 6 lbs/acre day for CentaxSaj's 2 acre pond. Since his pond is new, this is not an excessive amount and while he might have FA show up next spring the mobilization of nutrients (Nitrogen) is no more than the average 8 year old pond that has never been fed or fertilized. Here I am talking about full year mobilization. Since feeding is normally limited to the warm months, a pond being fed at this rate... especially a pond in its first year that may not otherwise be able to support more than 76 lbs/acre of BG only biomass ... has greater nutrient mobilization per day during the summer than an 8 year old pond. This greater rate of nutrient mobilization is comparable to the annual (whole year) nutrient mobilization of the average 19 year old pond. As a consequence, growth in the warmest 6 months of a pond fed 6 lbs/day of Aquamax is as much in a pond in its first year to be equivalent to the annual maintenance provided by the average 19 year old pond. In BG only, this equates to around 500 lbs per acre. This is balance between brood and YOY. The more brood ... the less YOY ... the less brood ... the more YOY (here talking the split of biomass).

The nitrogen in fish is only a minor fraction of the nitrogen mobilized required to grow or maintain them. This waste nitrogen in the form of labile organics is recycled by biological action over the next 5 years and this adds to the future year productivity. After feeding for 5 years, the feeds contribution in support of BG only biomass is about 600 lbs per year. Given a nonfed, unfertilized pond naturally accumulates nutrients and will on average support a BG only biomass at 207 lbs per acre. The final effect of 5 years of feeding 1200 lbs/year of Aquamax + natural accumulation of nutrients is a pond that could support 800 lbs/acre of BG-only (fall weights). This is equivalent to the average 38 year old pond.

It's important to distinguish that one has not aged a 5-year-old pond an additional 33 years. Only, that the nutrient mobilization is equivalent to a 38-year-old pond. If you stopped feeding in the 6th year, the pond would support around 100 more pounds/acre than a 6-year-old pond would ... around 344 lbs/acre BG only biomass. The labile mobilization effect of the prior 5 years of feeding would decline each year and in year 12 the BG only biomass supported by the pond would be very close to the average unfed, unfertilized pond. Only marginally higher. A twelve year old pond will average 382 lbs of BG-only biomass.

So early feeding doesn't age a pond considerably. It is possible to feed to meet a particular production goal and maintain at that level with a process of declining feed inputs with age. Where the pond's age and accumulated nutrients are capable of supporting that goal, feeding can be curtailed at that time. While feeding does not age a pond considerably, it does mobilize nutrients at levels comparable to older ponds. So the effects of nutrient mobilization are equivalent. For example, support of macrophytes that can absorb nutrients from water (like FA and naiad) and also effects on night-time DO draw down.

Jps - so what you are saying is this gentleman stocked his 2 acre pond 5 months ago with BG and is feeding
350# of food a month with no predation? At a 1.5/1 food to flesh conversion ratio he would be adding 235# of fish weight per month. Highly unlikely

Actually no, I didn't say that. I was just saying that 6 lbs feed per acre day ... while it is large amount of feed ... it's not too much for his brand new pond. It would however be too much for yours (I think you would agree with that ... unless you would like to prove me wrong?)

The number of the estimated feed from April 1 through October 31st was 1284 lbs of feed so the FCR I'd anticipate isn't 1.5 but rather around 2.5. I wouldn't expect anywhere close to that FCR next year because a bunch of the feed would just go to maintaining the biomass.

Just endorsing the use of feed to support a higher standing weight of fish and easing it back each year to maintain the same level of production. That's how I would do it ... anyway.

Sorry for not responding sooner. For the record, while 12 seconds sounds like a lot, my feeders are definitely not tossing out a 1/4lb per second. I did measure a 10 second throw a while back and only got a little over a 1lb of food (really need to start logging and writing this stuff down somewhere). Unfortunately, what I have noticed is that the first second tosses out quite a bit, while subsequent seconds are far less. My feeders are unfortunately tossing a decent amount of food in very shallow water where only minnows can get to it. They are still eating all of it and the number of minnows that hang out under the feeders is about 20x everywhere else in the pond. If there is a decent breeze it will blow the food out into the deeper water where the bluegills will get it. I think this makes up about 1/10th of the food being tossed. Not sure what to do about this, especially when they lake is low like it is now from our drought. I did spread out the total feeding over 3 feeding times (same total number of seconds). I am concerned if I do more feeding times throughout the day that I just make it easier for predators to catch the fish, or at least they will notice there are fish in the pond. This year is wrapping up, so I'm not going to increase the feed times any higher, but it sounds like maybe for at least half of next year I could feed up to a maximum of 6lbs per day (provided the fish are eating all of it) then back that way down following years as fish load from bass and BG start to stress the pond? Right now I do not have any FA problems. At one point I had a very small patch of FA but that was about a month after the pond filled up, pretty sure it was related to other things washing into the pond.

Follow up question: We are finally getting our first noticeable cold front where our high temps will only be around 72 degrees. This is only going to last a few days until we rise back up into the 80s. At what time should I start pulling back on the feed for the winter? Is there a water temp that I should be looking for to completely cut the feed off? Last year we had highs in the 80s all the way through November into December. Since the goal is to keep these bluegill growing and spawning I don't want to back the feed off until I know it's not doing any good.

Thanks,
David

To the follow up question,

In my experience this past season, it's all about the fish. Yes, water temperature is the key, but if you observe the fish they'll tell you if they want to eat or not. Of course, here in South MS we also wear shorts for Christmas sometimes.....:)

50 to 55 F water temp. is a commonly use point of reducing/stopping feeding. Watch the fish and they will let you know. I think you will see fish cutting back eating as temps drop below 65 F. But some feeding can occur through winter on warming days. It depends on your fish. HSB , YP and cool water fish will eat at lower temps than LMB and BG.

Wow thats a lot of feed, i feed mine everyother day once a day and they are thick and fat. My CC look awesome and my sunfish are happy. My pond also has lots of minnows, frogs, snakes, turtles, insects. I say cut yiur feeding way way back and check the results in a few months.

Ha, well for an update we had a cold front come through and the fish just turned off. I adjusted the times way down. Still doing 3 feed times a day but cut everything back to only 3-4 seconds. Will monitor when I can and continue to cut back if needed. We are warming back up but over all it does look like our temps are trending lower this fall than last.

You could even cut it back to 1 second until you notice them feeding again. If the temps keep trending down and you don't see any feed response, empty out the feeder and leave the solar panel attached, just turn the feed times to off until the water warms up in the Spring.

A little off topic, but close enough that I still decided to post:

When the feeder does run out of feed, is it still advantageous to keep it running even if it's not slinging food? Or is it better to cut all feedings to OFF and let it sit idle?

I just think it's more wear and tear on the motors and bearings.

Yeah, it's just wear and tear on your equipment.

It's also bad for lifepo4 batteries (if you have one---you should!) to be charged when the temps are below freezing (most small ones don't have a low-temp automatic cutoff).