Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Not recognizing food

I started feeding about 2 weeks ago, once daily with Catfish food/Fish food.
When I feed my fish there is no noticeable action in the area.
The pond is one acre and aprox. 70 years old.
How long should it take the fish to notice the food, or do I have a fish problem?

Nick, has it cooled off there? Water temps around 55-60? It may just be too cool for them to feed or that the fish, if any, are needing to become accustomed to the feed.


And, Welcome to the forum.

Yes it has definitly cooled off.The food is from tractor supply. Purnia catfish food but it does also mention other fish that will feed on it.Thanks for the info .I have been trying so hard for about 15years to get the pond where I can enjoy so good bass fishing but it is a real puzzle...

The several possible reasons fish are not interested in artificial feed.

1.) They were never feed trained or have been fed artificial feed before.

2.) They are stressed or sick.

3.) There has been a sudden water temperature change as in drop in water temp (as Rainman eluded to.)

4.) The water is too cold

5.) They've found plenty of live feed to their liking and prefer the live feed. This is more common when the fish are fed intermittently or not consistently. Or they have adapted to the natural feed for some time and a person suddenly wants to feed them the artificial feed.

6.) The feed is a cheaper less palatable feed.

7.) The feed is too big or too small in size.

8.) The fish are scattered and one needs to be patient and feed at the same place day after day until a more positive response is reached.

Nick, what species are known to be in the water, and what time of day are you feeding?

Oh yeah one more!

9. Not feeding at the right time of day as in morning or evening!

More:
10. It is unnatural for catfish to feed at the surface. CC tend to be very bottom oriented especially during the day. Thus they are hesitant to come to the surface for food unless they have been trained what it is all about. How is a wild,untrained CC supposed to know that stuff floating on the surface is okay to eat?

11. Bluegill BG and often bass behave differently and will readily eat or taste items at the surface. However those natural items are usually softer than hard pellets thus BG-LMB will often reject pellets due primarily to texture. Texture is important to fish learning to eat fish food. Fish will often initially reject hard pellets solely due to them being hard and unnatural. It is much easier to get fish to eat pellets if the pellets are softened and good flavors have been added.

12. A feeding ring helps train fish to eat pellets. The ring keeps food more in open water so it is more available and doesn't float to shore and be mostly wasted.

13. Teacher fish can help train wild fish to eat fish food. Teacher fish are usually same species of fish that are pellet trained fish from a hatchery. Teacher fish recognize floating fish food and will often lead wild fish to the pellets. Inquisitive wild fish will then sometimes 'try' the pellets. The 'trick' then is to have the pellets in optimum condition so the new fish has a good experience with the new food item.

Item 6 expanded. More expensive brands of fish foods contain flavor enhancers that are usually not present in cheaper brands of fish food. Taste is an important part of fish feeding. Fish can be trained to eat food quicker if good flavor is in the food.

I started my sunfish feeding while in a jonboat. I would row to a certain spot along the weed line. I had small sunfishes that would use the shade from my boat. I started dropping small handfuls of AM500 in. They slowly started hitting. And every day more came in and soon I had a small school. Now the water BOILS! They hit the best in the late afternoon to early evening.Dont know about AM, never tried it.