Feeding bass

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Frameshift

Cookie Monster
Oct 22, 2001
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Honolulu, HI
I got two largemouth bass (4 + 5") that I am housing until the water temp in our outdoor pond goes up a bit. Some lady brought them in to the LFS I work at and told us she didn't want these "gold fish related" fish anymore so I took them.

The problem is I cannot get them to eat anything but feeders, and I was wondering if anyone has any tricks for weaning them onto a better staple food. I've tried different sized pellets, flake, earthworms, and frozen bloodworms, but all they eat are feeders. I haven't feed feeders for the last week and their stomachs are becoming indented, but they still won't take any thing else.

It isn't cheap feeding them, the can go through 50+ guppies in 10 minutes.
 
Check with a local hatchery, or try getting some large pellet food for goldfish. They likely will take it if it's big enough. Feed it at the same time as the feeders.

other option, cool the water down, and only feed them once a week. They won't grow, but they won't die.
 
I would think that pelleted cichlid food would be good for bass if you can get them to eat it. I am sure that they would eat earthworms, crickets, or superworms. I have also seen gamefish food at some livestock feed stores. I think it was made by Purina. I feed my green sunfish a varity of cichlid food and he has more than tripled his size in 7 months. Largemouth bass are in the sunfish family so I am assuming that what would be good for a green sunfish would also be good for a bass.
 
i've had a largemouth since it was 2" (now just over 12") and i feed it almost exclusively feeders. the problem is, unless mine is really hungry he won't eat anything that isn't moving (and not just in the current). on occasion if i don't have time to get by the lfs to pick some up i'll hold some lunch meat in the water and he'll take that. i'm hoping to diversify his diet soon with some earth worms, crayfish, etc. like it would get in the wild but we'll see how that goes.

as for the nutrition of other food, remember most game fish are fed pellets in hatcheries (if you want to catch stocked fish fast mush up some of the hachery pelets and use that for bait). so yes, they will flourish on that but that's assuming you can wean them off the feeders. i would say just keep cutting back on the feeders while you add pellets in and hope that they eventually get the clue.
 
How about cooling them down and then just releasing them into your outdoor pond? Unless it freezes solid in the winter (not likely with the winter we're having, all wet and no snow), they should be fine.
 
I thought about that Harry Tolen (don't Washington winters suck?), and it's probably what I'll do in a week or two if they don't start eating pellets. They are very neat to watch, very active and begging for food, and if they go in the pond I won't see them till I catch them :D.

I know they are hungry, they are right up there with the oscar begging for food, but as soon as the pellets hit the water they aren't interested. I even tried some cut up silversides, but if it doesn't swim like a fish they won't even touch it.
 
you could always try some lunch meat. back when i first got my bass and it wasn't big enough to eat feeders i used to break up lunch meat and feed it. the only thing is you have to put in just enough that they eat it the first time it sinks. otherwise they pretty much know its dead and won't touch it (mine doesn't anyways). dipping it in the water and moving it around also seems to work pretty well too.
 
We have two smallmouth bass, a pumpkinseed, and a couple of crappies. The bass will eat basically anything - we feed mostly goldfish pellets, because they're in a tank with goldfish. The pumpkinseed and crappies will nibble on pellets, but mostly they like the daphnia you can buy in a liquid base in a jar, and freeze-dried tubifex worms. We soak the worms so they become all... wormlike, and then the fish go nuts over them.

Have you tried raw fish or shrimp?
 
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