Hi everyone,
I have a 25,000-30,000 liner pond with good oxygen, water flow and depth in the greater Philadelphia area. As the weather is cooling down here I wanted to ask about winter feeding for natives and other fish. Last year was the first year for the pond housing chain pickerel, pumpkinseed,blue gill, bullhead catfish, smallmouth bass, shiners and fathead minnows. I fed a few times during the winter and all seemed to do fine. The wild caught fish all adapted to pellets and frozen fish/krill, although they preferred live food. Last summer I was constantly buying minnows each week to keep up with their voracious appetite so this summer I fished everything out. I re-stocked the pond with all baby fish(2 Russian sturgeon,3 black koi, 3 channel catfish, pumpkinseed, blue gill, hybrid stripers) in hopes to train to feed mostly pellets and grab minnows when the opportunity presented itself. I've introduced a lot more vegetation in the shallow end as a safe haven for the minnows and keep the larger fish out as they grow. So far everything is working great.
Moving on to winter feeding:
I've always been told to slow and eventually stop winter feeding for common pond fish like koi and goldfish as their metabolism slows and if ingesting too much food could actually kill them. I'm well aware the sturgeon feed during the winter I'm just not sure about how how often to feed, tips to avoid the other fish eating too much during the winter etc. Do I feed the sturgeon all winter or do I stop when the temperature drops to a certain temp? Do the stripers keep feeding or no? I'm calling on all the native fish and pond keepers friends out there for your knowledge and help.
-Thanks
Mike
I have a 25,000-30,000 liner pond with good oxygen, water flow and depth in the greater Philadelphia area. As the weather is cooling down here I wanted to ask about winter feeding for natives and other fish. Last year was the first year for the pond housing chain pickerel, pumpkinseed,blue gill, bullhead catfish, smallmouth bass, shiners and fathead minnows. I fed a few times during the winter and all seemed to do fine. The wild caught fish all adapted to pellets and frozen fish/krill, although they preferred live food. Last summer I was constantly buying minnows each week to keep up with their voracious appetite so this summer I fished everything out. I re-stocked the pond with all baby fish(2 Russian sturgeon,3 black koi, 3 channel catfish, pumpkinseed, blue gill, hybrid stripers) in hopes to train to feed mostly pellets and grab minnows when the opportunity presented itself. I've introduced a lot more vegetation in the shallow end as a safe haven for the minnows and keep the larger fish out as they grow. So far everything is working great.
Moving on to winter feeding:
I've always been told to slow and eventually stop winter feeding for common pond fish like koi and goldfish as their metabolism slows and if ingesting too much food could actually kill them. I'm well aware the sturgeon feed during the winter I'm just not sure about how how often to feed, tips to avoid the other fish eating too much during the winter etc. Do I feed the sturgeon all winter or do I stop when the temperature drops to a certain temp? Do the stripers keep feeding or no? I'm calling on all the native fish and pond keepers friends out there for your knowledge and help.
-Thanks
Mike
