Pond fish: feed or not feed?

Farm ponds are a fun place to spend a few hours any time of the year. And everyone loves catching big, healthy fish. So what is the best way to grow fish to trophy size in a controlled environment?

Growing trophy fish really isn’t rocket science and can be fairly easily controlled and planned to grow out farm-raised fish in a hurry. But what is the best way to do this, and at what cost?

It all starts at the microorganism level with phytoplankton and a pH balanced system followed by seasonal nutritional supplements.

A well fertilized pond will produce bouquets of phytoplankton, benefitting all fish in the food chain.

Pond managers can skip a step and instead of fueling the phytoplankton blooms, they can feed fish high-protein fish pellets and grow the forage and predator fish on a much higher scale. Out of every type of domestically farmed animal, fish have the highest conversion ratio from food to body mass. While not quite one to one, it is very close. Fish can convert 1.2 pounds of high protein food into one pound of body mass as compared to a 5:1 or a 6:1 ratio for cattle and other domesticated livestock.

So, if pond managers want to rapidly grow their fish to trophy sizes, high protein pellets are the way to go. But this presents significant drawbacks. First of all, both the prey and predator fishes will eat the protein pellets together. Sure, the predators will still eat some of the prey fishes when their natural instincts kick in, but they will often rely on these protein pellets for their entire daily nutritional intake when consistently available and in large quantities. Fish will become dependent on these protein pellets and often will cause issues for both the predator and prey relationships in the pond. The prey fishes will grow very fast and will get too large for predators to be able to eat them. But as long as the predators are eating the pellets every day, then they have nothing to worry about.

Or maybe not. In ponds with routine heavy feedings, both the predator and prey fishes must be removed on a routine and annual basis to make sure the ponds can allow for annual fecundity. An overpopulated pond can also be susceptible to oxygen depletion from unnatural nutrient blooms as well.

Pond owners must remove fish when they are fed on a consistent basis, but this can be another problem. One of the greatest negative aspects of pellet-fed fish is the lack of interest from both predators and large prey fishes to strike a fishing lure. These fish will get very accustomed to eating the small brown pellets and will not want anything else. This really isn’t an issue for aquaculture facilities where fish are being raised in captivity for market, but for a landowner wanting to rip some lips after a hard day at work, this can be a tragedy. There isn’t much use for large fish if they can’t be caught on hook and line. Sure, anglers can hook small pellets on a hook and catch them, but is that really what a pond owner wants to do? Probably not.

So, supplementing ponds with high-protein feed on a daily basis may not always be the best option. It all depends on the objectives of the pond owner, and it also makes a difference on what types of fish are in the ponds too. In some specific cases, high-protein feed can and should be used at the right time and with some specific fishery relationships.

For instance, juvenile hybrid striped bass added to an existing pond that already has a thriving predator-prey dynamic. The juvenile hybrid striped bass are fingerling sized already and they are accustomed to eating pellets. They can be fed to grow them to predator size in a hurry but for only one season. Afterwards, these predator fishes must learn to chase fish and eat through their instinctive behaviors. Juvenile hybrid striped bass also don’t reproduce, therefore, they will live for four to five years until they die or become the star of Friday’s fish day.

Whether to feed or not to feed may just be the pressing question, but supplemental food can be used even in a balanced system in the right situations. Pond managers just need to make sure they aren’t providing fish with their primary food source coming from the Purina mill. A natural predator-prey balance will not only grow quality fish, but these fish will also already be accustomed to chasing natural forage and eating foods that will oddly resemble one of the many fishing lures filed away in the tackle box.