Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New Fish Cage Designs?

From the Wastebasket Cage Guy: In additon to what Cecil mentioned, I see advantages and disadvantages here.

1. No pellet guard or mesh around the top. This could be good in that pellets can escape the cage and be eaten by other fish. Bad due to fairly rapid loss of feed out of cage for feeding fish and they might not grow as well since pellets will not stay in cage as long and escape before the fish can fill its belly. Feeding fish create quite a bit of surface activity while feeding and tend to push pellets to the edges of the cage.

2. Auto feeders initially sound like a great idea but IMO are not the best way to go. With an auto feeder one does not know as well when fish are not eating the food. Not eating food is a very important signal feature to let the owner know something is remiss with the fish. IMO Caged fish should be observed daily and in my experiences daily feeding is adequate for good growth rates. Auto feeders tend to cause neglect of caged fish, and this leads to difficulties when fish are confined.

3. Using the finer mesh netting rather than standard cage neting IMO will not last as long nor be as durable as standard cage netting. Finer mesh netting will IMO not be as easy to clean with brushing/scrubbing as standard cage netting. Finer mesh netting will tear or can be ripped into easier by predators than standard cage netting. Standard cage netting has built-in UV light resistance and water biofouling-rot resistance.

4. Cage will need additional floatation esp after it begins to load up with algae and get a lot heavier.

Keep us posted as to how things are going with this cage project. We are interested in photos of fish at stocking and when fish are released.