Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding What and when to feed a new pond?

I put a 1,000 FHM in there awhile back and they must have spawned because I see very small minnows around the grass now. I threw out a few small pieces of bread but nothing happened, tried some small dog food yesterday with no results.

Supposed to have 1,000 1-2 bluegill next week. Should I go ahead and buy regular floating fish food and throw out a half a cup in the evenings?

it will take your bg a while to find the feed and get used to taking pellets. make sure you feed the same time and place daily. im not sure how far south you are, but it may start getting too cool soon to get any response this season.

I am in extreme SE Georgia, close to the coast and the Fla line. So should I get sinking pellets or floating pellets?

Floating. You can see if the fish are eating the pellets that way. Make sure the pellets are small enough for the fish to eat easily.

Thanks esshup, you always end up giving good advice. I was planning on floating food since that is what we always used growing up.

In my area I have only located regular sized floating fish food, they all look to be the same thing. Should I look into ordering food? Plan to get a TH feeder in the spring when I get my tax returns.

OK so I did some research and it looks like Optimal BG jr is the way to go when my 1-2 BG get here. Would it be better for me to try and start feeding them as soon as I get them in the water, or should I wait for spring since it is starting to cool down?

I'd feed right away. Keep doing it until the water temps fall below 46 degrees, according to pond guru Bob Lusk.

When I started my pond a couple years ago I was Informed it was best to feed the minnows and shiners by grinding up some fish pellets into very fine meal. We found a cheap coffee grinder worked well for this.

We do the same, especially after CNBG spawns. Fry seem reluctant to leave shallow cover, so we spread the dust right around the banks that have some type of aquatic plants.

FWIW I only had a small bag of Optimal Jr to feed this fall but I can say the number of small 1.5 to 2 inch BG coming to the chow line probably tripled compared to my old fingerling chow once I started tossing Optimal in the shallows. I've stopped feeding for this year as water temp has dropped but I have a bag of Optimal BG chow waiting in the basement for next spring!

Agreed. Feed as long as the fish are eating.

Optimal Jr. is formulated for smaller fish, once they get to 4"-5" or so, try feeding the regular Optimal Bluegill food. If they switch to eating it, that tells you what they want.

My CC try to eat the Optimal Jr along with the BG, and the catfish now are from 2.5 to 4 pounds. The catfish don't come up really shallow though.