Growth foods

john48 · #1 06-22-2008, 05:02 PM

Thanks to PeterMC,Naiad,Robert Pope.

I have some 25 fish from 6-20", I have a quite large filtration set-up made up of 6 baffle chambers, each approx. containing 50 gal. capacity, minus medium, plus a stone filter, plus a 50 gal. square pole sponge filter, and a venturi return to pond. In addition I have a summer time external tank filter with 6 layers of filter foam independently pumped to remove daily waste.
My pond is a rectangle, 16ft x 6ft6" with one third at 5ft deep and the rest 3ft deep.
I am a great believer in a varied diet, little and often, with treats such as earthworms, and believe it or not tinned sausages in brine, (Asda 23p) which I grate down and scatter in the pond, the fish love it. I have been thinking about an automatic feeder for the pond, any thoughts on this one.

PeterMC · #2 06-22-2008, 05:19 PM

John your setup sounds fantastic mate!

Same as you I feed mine a varied diet and they eat anything that goes in.

I would avoid an auto feeder, they can go wrong and throw it all in at once and do the water quality serious damage

I've heard so many horror stories with them going wrong overfeeding or not feeding at all.

I'd avoid auto feeders at all costs mate.

Would love to see some pic's of your setup mate, I'm, drooling over the sheer size of it already!

Ps. Never fed mine tinned sausages in brine, but for less then 25p I'll give it a go

Robert.Pope · #3 06-22-2008, 05:22 PM

why the rush for the growth? are you growing them on to sell? if your keeping them for your own pleasure then im sure they will grow fast with normal feeding.

naiad · #4 06-22-2008, 06:35 PM

It all sounds good except the tinned sausages in brine. Non-aquatic animal fats can be harmful to fish, and pork fat is certainly bad. Cheap sausages also contain all sorts of additives which may be harmful. If you are going to feed them foods from the supermarket, defrosted frozen peas and prawns are good. Also lettuce and cooked fish. Just watch the water quality with new foods.

It sounds expensive, but value prawns and peas are cheaper than most fish foods. I don't think it is worth using cheap food which is risking the health of the fish.

Merlin · #5 06-23-2008, 08:56 PM

Automatic feeder

Don't you want to see your fish

Ok if you are going on holiday and have no one to feed them , then maybe but then again if you feed them up well prior to a holiday, providing that the pond is well matured, ( and with a nice bit of green on the walls) the fish can go for a number of weeks without being fed.

If you go for an automatic feeder, the fish will no longer relate to you appearing at the pond side as " hey it's dinner time "

they will swim away from you

. When I feed my fish , I have a plastic container which I tap on the side of the pond , as soon as they hear that they are all up by the side of me waiting for their feed.

I must agree with Naiad sausages are a no no

If you want to give the fish a treat ( not sure what fish you have ) but I give my Koi Oranges , cut in half then turned inside out / Prawns / round lettuce ( if you have plants in the pond they tend to leave them alone if you give them lettuce once a week) . And if you realy want to treat them , soak a few pellets in water with a clove of garlic for around 30 seconds, then feed them .