Just as an FYI so everyone knows what I'm dealing with is that I have a 2/3 acre pond with redears. I've gotten them to feed train on Optimal. Doing well and growing great. But I wanted to share an experience....

Normally I had stuck with the rule of feeding as much feed as they will consume in ten minutes. With my redears that was only a 2 one second feedings, and I did it twice each night with 45 min in between. They fed well. For experimental purposes I set the feeder to go off every ten minutes for one second intervals. First I set it for 3 feedings. As I observed it appeared with the shorter intervals between feedings the fish feeding increased significantly. In fact when the feeder first went off they'd feed somewhat reluctantly and became more aggressive with each feeding. Then I got to the point where I had 5 feedings at night with just ten minutes in between each feeding. Again the fish fed better than they did with just 2 feedings, and still fed more aggressively with each feeding. By the fifth feeding they were going wild. At this point I thought maybe it was just the increased water temps causing the more aggressive feeding so I switched it back to 2 feedings 45 min apart. The fish immediately went back to feeding less aggressively. It's almost like each feeding attracts more fish to the area that linger until the next feeding until the fifth feeding the fish are just boiling when the feeder goes off. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?