On Fri, 8 Aug 2003 11:44:27 -0700, Deswinds wrote:

Can someone tell me what to do? or how to go about encouraging my fish to
come to the surface to feed? Right now they wait for the "floating" pellets
to sink to the bottom before they'll eat.

I know, this is hardly a concern, generally, but my grandkids don't quite
understand why they won't come to the surface to eat like they've seen on
the tapes they saw. Is there a trick to teach them to come up? or is it just
they are too young. I've 4 goldfish (2" long) and 4 shubunkins (3-4" long).
They've been in my pond for maybe 2 weeks now.

I suspect you are overfeeding them. You should feed them 3 or 4 times a
day and only give them what they will eat in a couple of minutes. Don't
feed them for a couple of days, they won't starve. They only have a
small digestive system and only need a little at a time.

Also dangling your fingers in the pond will help them to get used to
you. Eventually they will come up whenever you go to the pond. Don't
give in and feed them every time, limit your feeding to 3 or 4 times
daily. You will also notice that they will eat more on a warm day than
on a cool day but still limit it to what they eat in a couple of
minutes, anything left after that time is too much.

There could also be another cause, they could be frightened by a
predator but if they are hungry they will eventually trust you.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on.

--
Regards - Rodney Pont
The from address exists but is mostly dumped,
please send any emails to the address below
e-mail ngps07 (at) infohit (dot) fsnet (dot) co (dot) uk