"riverman" wrote in message ...

"rb608" wrote in message
news:JsVOf.3872$CT.3821@trnddc04...
"riverman" wrote in message
1) Since every variable was constant (bread, fish, feeding time,
location, amount) except for weather, I can only attribute their change
of behavior to the weather. So it appears that, in Koi ponds with carp
at least, fish feed much less vigorously during overcast weather.

"Feeding the carp" is a fairly common practice wherever these guys are
known to congregate around lots of humans, and it's sometimes amazing how
much these guys can eat given a near constant food supply. On large
reservoirs, I've always assumed that the school's ability to consume mass
quantities was explained by an infinite supply of hungry fish. In your
pond, however, it is possible that their refusal can be explained by the
fish simply being full?

Joe F.


Possibly, although I've never seen them completely ignore food like this
before. It also was earlier in the day, and they always are ravenous in
the morning. But I'll keep watching and see if the behavior stays the
same.

Carp are primarily bottom feeders, right? Detecting food is generally a
matter of smelling or tasting whatever they bump into rather than seeing it.
Maybe they're just not real good at spotting stuff on the surface unless
it's brightly backlit.

Another possibility is that thousands of generations of exposure to seasonal
rains has conditioned them to stop feeding altogether (spawning behavior of
salmon comes to mind) or wait for a particular food item to come along, or
something else as yet unknown.

Wolfgang