This is true but postitive phototaxic is only true for yellow perch less than 1" long. Older perch are neutral phototaxic to light. I suspect your underwater light attracted zooplankton which attracted small fish, which attracted the perch. Eventually the perch tried tasting some sinking-moving pellets and found them acceptable. Regardless it was a creative way to feed train some larger perch.
I think the light also reinforces the training...Classical conditioning....they learn that green light = food.
I'm sure you are correct on the sequence, and I was really only hoping for some YOY perch to maybe get trained. And knew there was a chance a few larger perch might eat too.
I've pelleted trained all sorts of wild native fish in a big fish tank I used to have. Largemouth, Smallmouth, Gar, darters, Logperch, Bluegill, Longear, Yellow Perch, Greenies, and who knows how many others. The Gar were probably most impressive, they were YOY and would choke down 1/4" pellets 2-3 at a time...the tips of their jaws would be spread as wide as they were long to fit the pellets past their gullet....they'd also be just as happy eating goldfish as they would pellets.
