Water Gardening: Did I give my neighbor wrong advice about feeding fish?, 1 by carolinatoad

carolinatoad wrote:
I love my 3 watergardens. I don't have fish to speak of. Just rosy chubs and skeeter darters. These are mainly food for my many many thousands of frogs.

My neighbor had her watergarden re -designed by a pro, (i would have helped them do it for free if they had mentioned they wanted to do this). New liner, rocks, skimmer etc. In fact, I consider it to be a new pond.

I went to visit the day it was filled with water. Of course, it was beautiful, being new,crystal clear and not a speck of algae. As we sat around the pond talking, I asked if she had fed the fish yet. She said no, she wanted her fish to feed naturally from the pond just like in the wild. She said the contractor told her not to feed them at all and they would not become dependant on her for food.

I highly disagreed. I told her that the pond was new and there was no established food for the fish. That she should feed lightly till the pond established itself.

Was that bad advice?