I have commented many times in the past about how my fish would continue feeding strongly until the water temperature dropped below the 40F mark, despite most people suggesting not to feed them after the temperature had dropped below 50F. Well with the Winter storms that have been blowing through the last couple weeks, I have made a very interesting observation...
For those who don't know me, over the past 4 years I kept a small pond comprised of two pre-formed liners which fed one into the other. The total capacity was only somewhere around 250 gallons. This Spring I moved my fish, tore everything up, and dug out a completely new (much larger) pond which feeds through a stream into a second small pond. Total capacity of this new setup is somewhere around 1400 gallons.
I still have all of my original fish (two of which were purchased the week I built my first pond), and the new large pond sits exactly where the old pond was located, so there is no reason to think that these fish would change their feeding habits... and yet they very obviously have. When the first snow rolled in before Halloween, the water temperature dropped into the 40's and the fish settled into the bottom. Nothing unusual there. Except that when the storm had passed and the sun came out, the fish started swimming around again, but they have refused to eat any food I've tried dropping in for them. In past years, even though the water temperature did not change, the fish would continue eating on sunny days until the water temperature dropped below 40-42 degrees. Last year, because of the weird weather, my fish continued to eat well into January.
This is quite a significant change in behavior. My fish have held to the same patterns for the previous four years. They have many of the same types of plants in the water (although I have added a few new types). They have the same water quality and the same conditions of sunlight. They were fed the same type of food (and unfortunately I was not able to feed them the wheat-germ food more than a couple times before they went dormant due to expecting them to continue eating for at least another month). And of course I have kept my pumps running as in previous years. The only significant changes are that the pond is larger and deeper.
In all the discussions I've read about Winter/Spring feeding, I have never seen the size of the pond mentioned as a factor in the fish's feeding habits, although others have mentioned their own observed differences in their fish. Of course its not every day that people are able to upgrade their fish to a significantly larger pond. And logically this seems backwards to me -- I would expect fish to be more likely to feed at lower temperatures in a larger pond because they are able to warm up in the depths. Any thoughts on what may be going on here?
For those who don't know me, over the past 4 years I kept a small pond comprised of two pre-formed liners which fed one into the other. The total capacity was only somewhere around 250 gallons. This Spring I moved my fish, tore everything up, and dug out a completely new (much larger) pond which feeds through a stream into a second small pond. Total capacity of this new setup is somewhere around 1400 gallons.
I still have all of my original fish (two of which were purchased the week I built my first pond), and the new large pond sits exactly where the old pond was located, so there is no reason to think that these fish would change their feeding habits... and yet they very obviously have. When the first snow rolled in before Halloween, the water temperature dropped into the 40's and the fish settled into the bottom. Nothing unusual there. Except that when the storm had passed and the sun came out, the fish started swimming around again, but they have refused to eat any food I've tried dropping in for them. In past years, even though the water temperature did not change, the fish would continue eating on sunny days until the water temperature dropped below 40-42 degrees. Last year, because of the weird weather, my fish continued to eat well into January.
This is quite a significant change in behavior. My fish have held to the same patterns for the previous four years. They have many of the same types of plants in the water (although I have added a few new types). They have the same water quality and the same conditions of sunlight. They were fed the same type of food (and unfortunately I was not able to feed them the wheat-germ food more than a couple times before they went dormant due to expecting them to continue eating for at least another month). And of course I have kept my pumps running as in previous years. The only significant changes are that the pond is larger and deeper.
In all the discussions I've read about Winter/Spring feeding, I have never seen the size of the pond mentioned as a factor in the fish's feeding habits, although others have mentioned their own observed differences in their fish. Of course its not every day that people are able to upgrade their fish to a significantly larger pond. And logically this seems backwards to me -- I would expect fish to be more likely to feed at lower temperatures in a larger pond because they are able to warm up in the depths. Any thoughts on what may be going on here?