Feeding calculator
These numbers are typed in. Trace your pond once and every calculator uses its measured volume and depths.
Measure my pondHow it works
Feed only what the fish eat in ten minutes, once a day at the same time and place. Cut back when they stop rising to the feed or when oxygen is low at dawn.
rate: under 50 F none, 50 to 60 F 0.5%, 60 to 70 F 1%, 70 to 85 F 2.5%, over 85 F 1%
The rate is a percent of body weight per day for a floating pellet, from the Auburn University and Kentucky State University extension feeding guides. The ten-minute rule caps the amount whatever the table says, because uneaten feed sinks, rots and uses up oxygen. Under 50 F digestion stalls, so feeding stops. Fish grow fastest between 70 and 85 F. Over 85 F the water holds less oxygen, so feeding moves to the early morning. The bag count assumes 50 lb bags and a 30-day month.
The protein ranges are the levels the feeding guides and the forum thread give for growth. They are 32 to 36 percent for bluegill and other panfish, 40 to 45 percent for bass, hybrid stripers and other predators, 28 to 32 percent for catfish. The fish weight you enter is an estimate. The carrying capacity calculator gives a range for the pond, and scoring a sample of fish with the fish condition calculator shows whether they are gaining weight on the feed.
Practitioner discussion: Pond Boss forum thread Fish Foods and All About Feeding Fish.
Want the precise number?
Type your measurements in above for a quick estimate. For the real volume, trace your pond on a photo or satellite image and set its depths. PondTools measures the actual outline, so dosing, liner and pump sizes come out right.
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