For you guys that have tank raised some fish as in yellow perch, redears, smallmouth bass, tilapia, etc. have you ever seen a sudden marked increase in appetite for no apparent reason?

Not a bad thing of course but the perch in my basement ras suddenly act as if they can't enough to eat and can actually get me wet with their aggressive feeding on floating pellets, which has never happened before. This has been going on for a week now. They fed O.K. previous obviously as evidenced by their excellent growth for fish that are still shy of one years old but not like this.

All water parameters are the same such as water temp, PH, NH3, NO2, NH3, oxygen, etc. NO increase in water temp.

Although the room is kept fairly dim with a light on a dimmer switch, I thinking the fish can probably detect an increase in the photoperiod as the room is not closed and light does come in down the hall from a window in my taxidermy shop. Could this be the trigger?

Can anyone else relate?

Keep in mind if these 8 to 11 inch fish had gone through a chill period they probably would be ready to spawn. OTOH if the water would have been kept that cold they wouldn't have been nearly this large, and possibly wouldn't have been sexually mature for another year.

Looking forward to hearing from anyone that has or had fish in tanks that have experienced this.

I'd bet it's due to increased photoperiod.

I keep low light on my GSH 24/7 basement has no windows. The past few days it has felt like spring outside "lol 24 degrees today" but they have been eating like piranhas . Maybe they just know , it is a few degrees warmer in my fish room that could be it to.

Photo period and temp were mentioned.

Anyone else want to kick in some effecting variables?

Moon phase.

Hormonal.

Bill,

So you think it's a natural bulking up with nutrients for developing eggs and milt, spurred by hormonal changes brought on in part by the photoperiod? I've seen where perch are quite active feeders under late ice.

Apparently even without the chill period required to develop gametes there is still a natural urge to bulk up?

Cody Note: Yes Cecil your paragraph above summed it up. Hormonal increases will stimulate feeding to prepare for spawning. I think many of your RAS female YP will develop eggs and lay them this spring.

I agree with photoperiod . Temps and photoperiod do cause/effect hormones and reproduction preparation. One aspect of photoperiod/moon phase (yes they are related)that is little understood and has a large effect on animals is the magnetic aspect of the 2. This should not be effected by the closed area discussed. The magnetic effects of the sun , moon and earth on life are common.

it happened to me this year, just about the same time as last year (i'll have to double check)
i have a 4' flourescent light over the tank, it's on at least 12 hours a day, i feed in the am before work and at night before bed when i shut off the light.. i get the most action at night now, after the light goes off... but they start hitting it when the light is still on now
my windows let in some light but i have sheets of styrofoam over them..
my growbed lights are on timers for 14hours a day, so there's always a little ambient light from that as well
i think it has more to do with temps, but i think it's a bit cooler this year than last..
i've got 5 or 6 tilapia left in the pool, 5 or so bg, and about 80yp, all of them (including the 5 tilapia in my single tote system) have been feeding more aggressively for the last week or so

My indoor RES in my aquarium have actually decreased the number of FHM they are eating every day over the last week. Water temps and other water parameters all remain the same. It could be the new batch of minnows that were delivered last week at the bait shop, they are more medium sizes rather than small; photoperiod as I do have some light coming in from the stairwell and a window; or they have hit the wall as far size in the 75 gallon aquarium that I have them in. The two biggest RES in the aquarium should be at least 8-1/2" now.

Bill,

From my experience and the literature, they will develop eggs but not fully or anthing like their pond counterparts that have gone through the required chill period. I opened one up this time of year a couple of years ago and there were eggs inside, but externally the fish could pass have passed as a large male.

So perhaps the increase in hormones only goes so far without the chill period? Could not being quite one year old also be a factor? Most literature says in the wild a male can mature at one year but it usually takes two for a female to mature.

Wild perch usually grow a lot slower than our pellet fed perch, thus they may develop or mature faster.