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Ponderable Reflections with Rick
Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, 5:45 p.m. EST
Teach Owners to Feed Their Fish, Not Their Ponds
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By Rick Bartel
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| Warn pond owners not to feed their fish when they are hungry themselves. | One of the largest sources of potentially harmful water quality issues results from an over-abundance of pond fish food. End-users tend to feed pond fish far more food than they actually need to sustain nutritional balance and optimal health.
All the excess floating food particles eventually saturate with water and sink to the bottom of the pond. At the pond bottom, the food particles dissolve or breakdown, create excess nutrients and become a catalyst for a variety of water quality issues.
This first was brought to my attention by Gary Jones of the National Association of Pond Professionals and Mars Fish Care. Gary cited several situations that resulted in an over-abundance of fish food in several ponds ultimately causing severe water quality issues.
Even though tests conducted over the years have established certain times and situations where over-feeding most likely occurs, I wanted to get my own picture of this interesting fact. I guided the Savio Water Feature Institute in conducting our own series of experiments that shed interesting light on pond owners' fish-feeding habits. Our results mirrored those conducted by others.
In these tests and experiments, 132 ponds were observed in 17 different states. The most significant issue with over-feeding came with the time of day pond owners fed their fish. If the pond owners had not eaten themselves and were hungry during the fish-feeding sessions, they tended to give the fish nearly three times the necessary food amounts than when the owners already are and were not hungry.
Just as experts say to never shop for groceries when hungry because people tend to buy more than they need or intended to purchase, retailers must warn pond fish owners not to feed their fish when hungry. The rule of thumb successfully used for many years is to let pond fish eat all they can within a five-minute window. If food remains after the five minutes, the fish were over-fed. If owners reduce the amount of excess food they throw into the pond, it drastically can reduce water quality.
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