Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Strange how fish get so well trained with a particular feed type that they won't feed any other way.

I used to use sinking pellets in the early days, then swapped over to floating pellets when I found a cheap source of bulk feed. Now my silver perch, murray cod and black bream that had been raised on a sinking diet refused to come up to the surface for the floating pellets. I was worried that they weren't getting enough to eat, but they survived ok even though I never saw them eat anything. I guess the pellets would eventually begin sinking and they would catch them on the way down.

When I bought some barramundi fingerlings for the large system, I decided to throw a couple of barra into the tank with the other mixed fish. Now the Barra had been raised on a diet of floating pellets, so when I threw the feed into the mixed tank, they came to the surface as they always had, and the others seemed to miss out.. Over a week or two I noticed that the silver perch and black bream were starting to come to the surface as well when I threw the feed in, they had been learning from the couple of barramundi, that if you came up to the surface you'd get a feed...

So after maybe 6 months of never seeing any of the fish eat the pellets from the surface of the water within a couple of weeks they were all feeding at the surface, they just needed to see how it was done..

I guess this is an important aspect for people to remember when buying fish, ask what type of feed the fish are used to eating, sinking or floating, it can make a big difference.

Does the floaty food get water logged after some time, then sink?

Thanks for that Joel,
Your post has answered a question/worry for me.
My little fellers appear not to be feeding , although they are looking good. The feed I am using which is "native Pellets" really small ones, mostly sink and some of the floaters only float for a very short time... I have become a bit worried not seeing any of them feed, so I will ring the hatchery tomorrow and ask the question.
They must be getting something because it is almost two weeks now that I have had them. (jade perch)

The food eventually sinks b2barker, but you can never see if the fish are eating it, or whether the feed sinks unseen by the fish at the edge of the tank..

Mmmm, let us know if they were fed on a different diet Murray, did you get the feed from them? Generally they will have feed available at the hatchery, the feed that you fish are used to eating.

As it turns out I am using the same food, native pelets, and I have been crushing them up as they do at the hatchery. I believe that the Jade Perch must be eating even though I am not observing them doing so.
They are doing well.
Murray