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In almost every post I want to increase forage. This is to ask some questions from the learned pros on the "added Value" of putting a underwater light to attract zooplankton, photoplankton etc... I have seen my BG sit and eat at the underwater light -all night-. The video below how they'll do it, they come and get a mouthful bumping the light and a cloud of food comes off it just at the end of the video.

[ hey admins can you get the YouTube video to work - I've tried 15 different combos... none work...

Click the link, suggest you watch the video in 1080p to see all the critters! -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2siUUjtFl8

It's embedded right below this]


The unit works really well, once I figured out which way the photosensitive switch needed to be positioned...

So this is what happened. I made the design and they are in a plan I drew up and acquired the parts for....


Once I had the parts I brought them into the bench to see if the theory would works... so I wired it, went thru the switches to turn it on...

"Watson Come Here!!"



Now this light puts out 1,000 lumen 360 degrees, supposedly drawing 10 watts DC. I tried to right size the solar panel and battery, to run almost all night from a daily charge. The actual fish management theory is that the light will attract all manner of critters, zooplankton, phytoplankton, invertebrates and best of all - vertebrates, to eat the entire ladder! Well, I assembled it last June, set it all up and waited for darkness.

Stand alone, Night to Dawn, Solar powered Fish feeder (Mark-I), Voltage controlled, manual off switch.


Night fell and I was astounded at the amount of light it gave off. As you can see in the reflection it's still mid-dusk. You can see a bluegill lit up about 10' thru the water...


It took about a week, but once the fish figured out there was a dense cloud of 'food' they would move in and just sit and munch - I put the snorkel and mask on and dived in.

Incredible, I didn't know the pond had fresh water shrimp, but they were zipping by my mask, fully visible in the light (which means the fish can see an eat them). I dorked up and overwrote the video I took, but it was great. Needless to say, it worked from June until I turned it off (manual) during this last bow season. One the dock light facing the water did is attack bugs but then at night those bugs would seek out your blood. With this underwater light, it seems much better, no aerial bugs (But that's another thread).;)

The underwater light under the dock at pitch dark and the illumination from the light. Honestly - I swim at night and this is just so worth it, just for this, this big beautiful bloom of green light! When you're out swimming in pitch dark, night sky, you can see the light on your legs , underwater, from 20'.
You can see the previous dock light on the outer left edge of the dock. Those came off in Oct and won't be going back on there.


The real question is there any research if this will add to the target fish body weight gain or am I just changing when they would eat the forage already in the pond?

Thanks.