Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My trout must think they are cats, tying to be picky about food

I recently got a 30Kg bag of barra/trout food from the place food&fish gets his, trouble is the trout are refusing to eat it. I have let them go hungry for 4-5 days but still they refuse it. Just to check I fed some of the previous supply (which is a different brand) and the water boiled so they are hungry.

Any suggestions on how to convince them the new stuff is food? I still have about 8Kg of the stuff they like but I will run out eventually.

Try mixing the old and new stuff Novaris... slowly change the proportions until it's just the new stuff....

Apart from smell... are the pellets different in their behaviour... ie. sinking/floating??

Should be more specific.... only mix a small proportion initially and see if they eat it... no sense in having 50% of the feed jsut sitting on the bottom uneaten...

How about mixing your feed. so they get use to hammering it!
beat me again! Rupe

The new feed looks quite different, it's a bit smaller and pale in color, also doesn't float as well, I did try mixing but they stopped eating both. I may have used too much, I will try again at 5% then work up.

I just got a bag of the same food 6mm and the trout are eating 1/2 kg a day

Send them to bed without desert

What type/brand of food do AP'ers use for thier trout? Buy from the store or over the internet?

Taz
The best Trout Pellets are Skretting, made right there in Tassie so should work out a bit cheaper for you than for us on the mainland.

+1 for skretting - and when you feed trout that are being fussy, stay out of sight of the tank, and fling the food into the water with as much force as you can, making it splash the surface - this sends the Trout right off.

Interesting, any reason why they go nuts?

Quachy

PS - my trout are doing real well on the sam food ff uses. I have noticed that the browns are growing much faster than some of the rainbows, some almost twice as big now!

[quote="quachy"]I have noticed that the browns are growing much faster than some of the rainbows, some almost twice as big now!

Thats strange. Usually its the Rainbows that grow much faster than the Browns. I'm pretty sure that your Browns will be older than the Rainbows as they spawn first in cooler places like Victoria.

Cause they are trout.

Fussy trout sounds like an oxymoron to me. When have trout ever been fusyy? I know that I could throw in a handful of expanded clay (don't try this at home) and they would have eat it before they knew what it was.
That is the experience I have had with trout. Third season this year for me.

I have cut open many trout with clay bellies

I have found some trout to be fussy if they are in a very different environment from where there came from.

When I have sold trout that have been in my IBC's for a while, and they have gone into a round tank that has a lower level of water (the trout can see the person more clearly) they wont eat much for weeks, unless you just make the food appear without a person being visible - ie flinging it into the water from out of sight.

Just an observation

Thanks Tman, thought I'd done my homework (google) but these guys didn't show up in any of my searches. They're down south so only a couple of hours drive each way (we go down to Hobart a bit). The sales rep recommended floating pellets over sinking ones for Trout, what are your thoughts? Also come in 3mm and 5mm, assuming everyone uses 3mm until they reach a certain size and then go up to 5mm? Trout sound like fun pets to keep. Then eat Can't wait