Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Feeding change

In my 1 acre pond I been feeding twice a day for 7 seconds each and fish been really hammering it, figured a little over 50lb a month since May in that pond. Noticed last few days after the feeder fires most fish are waiting for like 5-10 minutes to feed? Have other people noticed this? It's kinda like they are waiting and letting it soak and soften up because I see them waiting, maybe because they are already full and easier to digest the new AM500?. I have 300+ HBG caged and they have not changed there feed pattern at all. Just curious if others have seen this.

Thanks

Iceman

What is the water temp? Is the cage in the shade? I have seen fish do that at one feeder and not at another feeder 150 yards away. So it depends. Many factors at work.

I noticed a full moon this morning. Do HBG go through the spawning rituals on full moons like BG? If so, could that cause a slow-down in feeding?

No the caged fish have no problems in eating, it's the ones in the 1 acre pond that seem to have a problem. I was wondering if they were waiting for the AM500 to soften up since they look like there ready to bust anyhow.

Iceman

I feed 500 and 600 mixed. If some of my fish (bluegill) waited 5 or 10 minutes as you describe they would starve. The water seems to explode the second the feeders go off. There is not much food left in just a few minutes. I don't think they worry about softness of the food.

This time of year there is an abundance of natural food in the water, my guess is your pond fish had already gorged themselves at the buffet table before the pellets were put out. Any signs of a mayfly hatch or something else they could have filled up on?

No fly hatch but plenty of YOY in the pond,I do have some AM 400 mixed with the AM500. Last week when the feeder fired it was like a bomb went off. Last night after about a 5-10 minute soak it looked like piranhas in the pond. They feed well but they are waiting for some reason. Saturday I will check the morning feed time at 6:40am and see how that does to the 7pm evening time feed.

Iceman

My HBG have really slowed down their feeding activity also, but they usually do this time of year......there's just too much forage (YOY) in the water. They should be back to normal in a few days.

If you think the fish are waiting for the food to soften up, why not try hand feeding with some AQ that you pre-soaked? If they take it right away then you'll know.

On a related note, I feed the HBG pond with dry pellets, but in the other ponds I always hydrate the feed first. I always considered the goal of feeding was to get the food into the target fish....anything I can do to increase their uptake will be beneficial, and I noticed that feeding dry usually meant that the CC ate most of it while the BG were too busy spitting out the hard pellets. Feeding hydrated feed solves this problem for me. I'm sure my native BG would learn to eat dry feed, after all the HBG did, but it takes time to wean them off, and a day without feed is a day without optimum growth in my book. If it takes hydrated feed to get them to eat, then that's what I'll do.

And yes, this only works if you hand feed.

Excellent point on the full moon!! See if it happens again at the end of the mth as we have 2 full moons this mth (Blue Moon). That alone could explain the situation. Caged fish can't go through that ritual but all the free ones can.

I hope this is the case as not too many fish at all were feeding on Saturday for me. I would like to think they are full from all the fry available. Just before we left I noticed 100's if not 1000's of fry at the surface of the pond. I wish I would have had some sort of net to catch them as I would have liked to got some close up pictures for the experts to tell me what they were. It was hard tell what they were since they were only 1/4 - 1 inch long.