What to feed the pond fishes

[Avepico 184]

I recently moved Molly and Fitz out to the little pond in my greenhouse(90 Gallons). I have a pretty healthy green water situation going on out there and can't see them unless they are near the surface. I would like to see them at least at feeding time and was wondering if anyone is familiar with a good food that sinks slowly or if they could have a floating food. They are both commons and not as prone to SB issues as fancies, but I hesitate to give them floating food. I can continue them on their normal Pro-gold/Soilent Green/ veggies regimen, but would probably rarely see them.

Here they are in their bucket heading out to the pond. Standard five gallon bucket.

[Ms.Jenny 555]

Trust me, after a few weeks they will come to the surface whenever you approach. Pond fish are very friendly, you can feed them anything and they will come. I recommend holding the food with your fingers right under the surface of the water until they approach, which will eventually teach them to hand feed. I feed Progold, Repashy and Bloodworm regularly which are all sinking foods. When I walk up to my pond, both my fish stick half their faces out of the water with their mouth opened wide.

[shakaho 6,312]

Use floating pellets in a pond. You can't see what happens to sinking pellets in a pond. It's also easier to hand feed floating pellets. SBD is very rare in long-bodied goldfish.

If you cut a long thin (sort of earthworm shaped) strip of repashy and dangle it in the water, your fish will find it much easier to approach your scary hand. It's an easy way to get them started in eating from your hand.

[Avepico 184]

I picked up some floating pond pellets. Now they have to realize the pellets are food. The pond has lots of algae and snails in it and they LOVE snails. I will make up a batch of Repashy tonight or tomorrow in ribbons and see how that goes. These two have never been fond of hand feeding, the fancies took to it much better.

I can't wait for full summer. Go out to the greenhouse, check on the plants, and relax with a beer as I feed the fish. I was tempted to put Monkey, my little ryukin, out for the summer to fatten up but he is doing much better in the tank since the large comets are gone and has stopped hiding.

[shakaho 6,312]

Algae and snails are better for them than pellets.