Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

With the weather cooling down I expected the fish to eat a lot less. I have tried feeding once every other day, but they don't seem hungry even with skipping a day. How often do you guys think I should throw some food in there for them?

Hi kalarr, if the fish aren't hungry then you don't need to feed them. I have bluegill too and I haven't tried feeding them in a couple of days (because they aren't eating anyway). My plan is to put some small amount of flake food in there maybe every few days, or less if they don't even eat that. Same for the koi and goldfish out there. I once had three goldfish that lived under a solid couple of inches of ice all Winter, was sure they were dead but they weren't. Still there and alive when the ice melted. Pretty amazing. If there is any algae in the FT that can help because they can graze whenever they want any food.

Ah gotcha. Thanks for the shared experiences. I'm going to gradually increase the number of days I wait to feed them a couple pellets.

Dave nailed it. Bluegill will eat during the Winter, even with cold temperatures but you won't need to feed very often.

For my batch, feeding drops off drastically at around 55 degrees in the Fall. In the Spring feeding seems to pick back up when the temp gets to 50. This is just based on my observations through last Winter.