Hi all,
New to the forum, though have been reading for some time.
Have a 15ft x 15ft pond I set up in April and we are now going into our first winter. We are just outside Edinburgh in Scotland, so winters are usually mild and deep freezes are extremely rare. It's been 5 years since we've last had 20 degrees F/ minus 7C.
Anyway, it's well planted, relatively shallow (32 inches - bed rock issues) and very well filtered (large pressurised filter, vortex, 750 litre (200 US gallon reed bed) and a couple of 1000 litre (225 US gallon) tanks attached to the system, one of which works quite well as a settlement tank. Anyway, end result is that despite it being soil bottomed, it's very clear. Total system volume is about 11000 litres (2900 gallons).
I have quite a lot of carp in it - mostly mirror and common carp with a handful of koi. About 20 of them, largest 24" and 6 1/2lbs and smallest 8". Average about 12" and 1.5lbs. A few koi, all small and a few random fish such as tench, roach, rudd and a sterlet.
Anyway, due to the weather turning cooler (almost freezing overnight, 8c (47F) through the day) the fish have mostly stopped taking their wheatgerm pellets. They are however readily taking maggots. The contrast is quite stark - they'll mostly ignore the pellets and jump on the maggots almost immediately. I'm keen to continue feeding when possible over winter as the angler in me can't get my head around not feeding them for months.
So, with worms and maggots being in good supply, as well as the usual wheatgerm sticks, how would you approach winter feeding?
New to the forum, though have been reading for some time.
Have a 15ft x 15ft pond I set up in April and we are now going into our first winter. We are just outside Edinburgh in Scotland, so winters are usually mild and deep freezes are extremely rare. It's been 5 years since we've last had 20 degrees F/ minus 7C.
Anyway, it's well planted, relatively shallow (32 inches - bed rock issues) and very well filtered (large pressurised filter, vortex, 750 litre (200 US gallon reed bed) and a couple of 1000 litre (225 US gallon) tanks attached to the system, one of which works quite well as a settlement tank. Anyway, end result is that despite it being soil bottomed, it's very clear. Total system volume is about 11000 litres (2900 gallons).
I have quite a lot of carp in it - mostly mirror and common carp with a handful of koi. About 20 of them, largest 24" and 6 1/2lbs and smallest 8". Average about 12" and 1.5lbs. A few koi, all small and a few random fish such as tench, roach, rudd and a sterlet.
Anyway, due to the weather turning cooler (almost freezing overnight, 8c (47F) through the day) the fish have mostly stopped taking their wheatgerm pellets. They are however readily taking maggots. The contrast is quite stark - they'll mostly ignore the pellets and jump on the maggots almost immediately. I'm keen to continue feeding when possible over winter as the angler in me can't get my head around not feeding them for months.
So, with worms and maggots being in good supply, as well as the usual wheatgerm sticks, how would you approach winter feeding?
