What is the best way to hatch the perch ribbons?

My son and I will be pulling some ribbons and hatching them in a bunch of small fish tanks we have. Any tips or advice would be great. We are looking at hatching brine shrimp to feed the young in the tanks an as they get bigger move them to larger tanks and larger food.

The tanks we have are 3~2gallon tanks with air stone foam filters, 2~3gallon tanks with air stone filters, one ten gallon tank with heater filter.

When we place the three little tanks together in the middle with the two 3 gallon tanks on the ends we put the heating in the center tank. It will heat all five tanks.

Ok so after that we have a 10 gallon tank with heater and we have a IBC tote that has been used for rain water for years and is very clean. Will be cut down to about 30"s tall. Not sure what the gallons will be from there.

Then we are looking at building a wooden framed single raceway tank with a sloped floor. My good friend owns a flat deck roofing company and has the bridge-stone white rubber roofing. He has a pile of scraps that we will line the wood framed tank. Looking at using air to make the current with a curved hood not a paddle wheel. Just a screen on each end to keep the fish in the middle and feed floating feed only. Will prevent the feed from leaving the screened in ends. Water in water out partial swirl filter then bio filter of some sort then back into the tank. In the future I hope to set this up in a green house for fish and veg.

Cheers Don.

One thing I thought I would ask.

We would put a blue dye in to limit the light getting to the angel fish eggs. After they hatch we would then move them to a tank with out the blue dye.

I read on here that the perch ribbons needed or was protected by the UV light naturally. Is the blue dye needed? Just place the ribbons into a tank and keep it warm with good air and they will be fine?

We have water we can pull from our tropical fish tank that is aged and will get pulled into the foam filter right away.

Cheers Don.

Hatching time for perch eggs will depend on water temperatures. I would not warm the eggs above 65-67F. Higher temps tend to cause more development problems of the 'fry'. Newly hatched brine shrimp may be too big for swim-up YP, but very newly hatched brine shrimp eggs could work okay. Try them first since you know how to hatch shrimp eggs. Most places use rotifers as first food for late stage yolk fry. Rotifer culture are typically more dense than artemia cultures. thus the fry find more rotifers than shrimp nauplii. Many of the rotifers used for fry food are around 100-125 um long whereas brine shrimp nauplii are 160-250um long X 65um wide.

Brine Shrimp Culture
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/12/breeder

Rotifer Culture
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/9/breeder

Wow Bill, this is awesome info! Where can I buy several gallons of green rotifer culture! Wouldn't that be good to add to the pond from time to time, or are there plenty of rotifers in fertile water already?

Numerous species of rotifers and plankonic crustaceans (zooplankton) are present in most all ponds especially those that have not had frequent algacide treatments. Phytoplankton blooms even mild ones produce lots of zooplankton. Zooplankton are even common in ponds with clear water having visibilities of 7 to 15ft. Zooplankton densities wax and wane depending on amount of phytoplankton that feed the zooplankton. The most abundant types of zooplankton present change depending on season.

Ok, so there may be plenty. I've read of using 'green water' cultures to get started. Would a local swamp that is quite eutrophic or murky be a way to jump start phyto or zooplankton? Or just rely on occasional blooms to keep levels high?

Bill would it be better to use decapsulated eggs and just feed the eggs? Would you happen to know the size of the brine shrimp egg?

Cheers Don.

I wouldn't feed the shrimp eggs. Feeding yeast would be better than the eggs- IMO. I would first try the newly hatched shrimp.

Local swamp water has lots of good organisms. Not all will thrive in a pond with good water quality. Stay away from green water in a swamp it could contain harmful algal species. If I was collecting water from another location I would use the fine sieves used in the links to collect the rotifers. Filter water save the organisms and add to pond. Mesh sizes of 63 micrometers(0.0025") to 105um(0.004").

Having trouble getting the water temp below 67*s with the heaters set as low as they can go. Might have to set up a timer for the heaters.

Any thoughts on how to hold the ribbons down in the tanks? I don't think it would be good if the ribbon floats to the top.

After the perch have hatched how soon can we raise the temp?

Sorry for all the questions. Not sure how well this first try is going to go.

Cheers Don.

Wrap the egg ribbons on some dead tree branches, or plastic fencing or lace the ribbons on coat hangers and or encased in small plastic mesh baskets sunk in the tank. An evergreen branch would work sunk or held down with a weight. Be creative.

Heater on a time is a good idea. 60F is adequate. Raise the temperature to 67F to 70F as soon as the fry start swimming around or swim up. Feed first food then also.

We are going to just trim the branches that the ribbon gets laid on in the pond and leave the ribbon on it. Just weight the branch down.

Again Bill we very much appreciate your time and experience to help my son and I with this adventure.

Cheers Don.

Those with yellow perch in the states along the Mason Dixon line of north OK & MS, and areas of MO, KY, and VA should be seeing perch eggs now or very soon. Be watchful in the next week or two. Farther south the YP spawn could be done for 2017. Check your shoreline water temperatures - 48F-52F are the magic numbers for YP spawning.

I am going to the perch farm tomorrow and will find out if perch are spawning in Central Ohio.

Picked up 100 yearling yellow perch (2016 hatch). Nice healthy fish direct from the pond. Water temperatures ranged from 36F-38F in central Ohio March 19. Ice was on the shallow ponds a few days prior. Only a couple ponds have had any evidence of egg ribbons. The main perch spawn in central Ohio will be later after the first warm spell in March due to colder than normal water temperatures. Males are oozing milt and females are swollen with eggs.

Do Yellow perch do well in Texas? I haven't heard of or seen any here.

We do not know how well yellow perch survive in ponds in Texas. Few if any Texas members here on the forum have tried to raise yellow perch.

Yellow perch have very limited distribution and are very rare in Texas. Perch reportedly are a 'cool water' species that typically as a species do not tolerate warm or hot water in the 90's. There is a strain of yellow perch do thrive in warm waters of northern Florida and in Georgia. If anyone tries to grow yellow perch in Texas they should only use locally raised fish or collect for stocking native perch from Texas that have grown in warm Texas waters.

http://www.fishesoftexas.org/taxa/perca-flavescens
Texas distribution: Introduced into many waters in the state; established breeding populations exist only in the Rio Grande near El Paso, in Meredith Reservoir on the Canadian River, and Greenbelt Reservoir on the Salt Fork of the Red River (Hubbs et al. 2008).

If one is really serious about raising yellow perch in Texas you should first look up how warm the water in the Rio Grande near ElPaso gets in summer and then compare those temperatures to your summer pond water temps. USGS likely has a monitoring station on the RioGrande near ElPaso.

Thanks for the info, Bill.

Texas weather is so unpredictable one never knows what to expect. We have several winters in a row where we are only below freezing a few days a year and when you get used to that, it will throw you for a loop and drop into the teens for a week. After high school I worked outside for a living and one year it dropped to 5 degrees and stayed below freezing for nearly 2 weeks. I believe that was the winter of either 83 or 84. It's been too long to remember, but that's about as cold as I can remember. The Ice storm of 78 was pretty cold too!

Cody Note: Yellow perch love the cold when they will feed actively. Cold is not a problem for yellow perch. It is water temperatures above 85F when they start getting stressed and significantly reduce feeding.

Until I joined PB, I had never heard of them. I have never personally heard, or maybe remember, anyone ever trying them here.

I had a momentary brain dysfunction. I've been thinking about Tilapia too much.

We get some hot temps here too. Some years we've had days on end above a 100.

I guess if someone wanted to try, they could use them as put and take like they do trout

Bob Lusk says that largemouth also reduce their feeding intensity when water temps are above 90F.