Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations How To Feed BG and CC From The Same Feeder?

Now that I have the BG die-off problem nailed down, (murderous merganzers), my next concern is this: This Spring will be the first time I need to be concerned with feeding the 3 species in my pond, not just BG as has been the case for the past 4 years. I now have 75 LMB, bazzillions of BG and 150 6" to 8" baby channel cats. The BG feed on floating pellets just fine. (too many to not feed at this time.) The Bass will eat (thin) the BG, so I'm not concerned there, but, the CC are not feed trained, but rather wild and dumped in last Fall along with the LMB. Will the CC eventually come to the floating feed, or should I mix sinking pellets in, or what?
I feed the BG floating pellets, approx 2 lbs in the morn, and 2 lbs in the evening, and it is GONE within 5 to 8 minutes, all of it... I would really like to get a significant amount of feed to the little CC until they too can eat the BG. I would like to work towards a self-sustaining pond, other than feeding the BG, with the BG as the LMB and CC food staple. Any suggestions?

I would, personally, buy about 25 feed trained cats. The others will learn. Or, at least, some of them will learn from the others. Not all fish will come to feed.

The idea of starting with sinkers and then converting over may be a good idea. I've never tried it but those cats will also make a living off BG.

Some thoughts on feeding CC and BG:

Both species are known to take floating pelleted feed readily (given suitable water temps). Both will self-train on pellets. My CC started eating pellets almost immediately after I started feeding daily; my BG waited for over two years before they got into it. Some others have reported the exact opposite reaction, while I think most have both species eat fairly quickly.

I believe both BG and CC, like all species that are known to eat pellets, will start consuming significant amounts of floating feed when they 1) are hungry enough to have an interest in it and 2) get some pellets in their mouths and realize that it's food. This last Summer as the GShiner forage my LMB were used to eating became scarce, about a dozen of the LMB took to eating the pellets that they have previous experience with while trying to catch feeding GSH and BG.

I know BG will show each other how to eat floating pellets, and like DD suggests, CC would I am sure do the same. So if your CC don't start up on pellets next Spring when the water is above 60 deg F, adding a few CC who are used to eating pellets may take care of condition 2 above.

IME delivering useful quantities of feed to both CC and BG is aided by spreading the feed out over a larger area. This gives the BG lots of real estate to eat in NOT occupied by the larger CC. I only hand feed, so I don't know how well this philosophy might be applied with the various mechanical feeders.

DD and TG. Good and encouraging stuff! I think the plan will be adding a second feeder, one at each end of the pond. The BG self-trained within 2 days of hand feeding, and like you know, would follow me around the pond like puppy-fish pets. Now, the added second feeder (at the deeper end) will be initially mixed with sinking and floating pellets, gradually reduced to all floating, as I would love to see the CC as they grow to eating size. Also, I am highly encourage to read that the CC will, in fact, feed on the BG, as there are, and will be for many years to come, LOTS of the BG to spare. BG Die-Off is almost nil, but had to once again "stress" the merganzers with the 12ga this morn. Easy pickins' on the BG, so maybe a scare-crow dressed like me with a gun is in order...

D-C, Those CC might be eating the pellets. I didnt think mine were and all along they were mixed in with the BG. Very hard to see them when they were smaller. As they got bigger I started noticing wiskers and sure enough they were there all along. Hopefully yours are there to. G/L

It may take a while but CC will find the pellets. When they do they will suck them like a vacuum cleaner. If you have tons of fingerling bream like I do, you may not want to feed the fish. I figured the LMB would have thinned the little bream and that did not happen. The catfish didn't seem to care about them either. If I see a lot of little bream come spring, I'm not setting up the feeder-those big catfish will have all those bream to feed off of!

Joey and TF: I appreciate the advice and encouragement. The BG were 'no brainers' when it came to teaching them how to feed on pellets. By hand in the beginning, it took a whole 2 days and they followed me around the pond. The 6" CC are freshly introduced, but I am confident that if I "over-feed" just a little for a while, leaving some of the food 'just lying around', the 150+ CC will find it eventually. Question: How big do the CC have to be before they will start eating BG bream if I leave the feeder off? I mean, I have bazzillions of BG of all sizes right now.

I'm pretty sure they are eating them now. I've seen 6 " ones chasing schools of fatheads.

VERY cool! I can't wait for warmer temps when things get active out there again! I have purposely kept a large, healthy (well fed) BG population for the eventual LMB and CC that were just introduced this past Fall. As you have probably read, it is over-balanced to the BG side right now, but I think it will work out benneficially towards the LMB and CC later. Plus, BG fillets on the dinner plate around here are never scoffed at. :p