Mischke et al. (2013) recently used a delayed feeding experiment to test whether natural live prey can entirely support juvenile channel catfish growth in nursery ponds. They established “industry standard” and “delayed” feeding treatments by adding manufactured feed to the ponds immediately at the time of stocking, and 6 weeks after stocking,
respectively. The delayed feeding treatment did not reduce fish growth or survival, suggesting that fish in the industry standard treatment either did not consume the feed for the first 6 weeks, or did not receive nutritional benefits by including it in their diets. However, fish diets were not quantified in their study, so the relative contributions of live prey versus feed to fish growth in ponds remains unclear