Last night I checked my Po'Boy RAS. My yellow perch are getting considerably bigger in overall mass. You can't really see it in length increase as much as you can overall body condition. I drained and cleaned the tank and made the following observations.
1. 7 perch have gotten way, way bigger than the others. These fish are presumably all females, but I'm not willing to risk the health of my pond by stocking them just yet. They are 6-7 inches and do not show evidence of egg production. Great body condition with a big ol' hump on their backs.
2. Vast majority of fish still range from 4-5 inches. I removed a total of 60 of these fish and will give them away. They are feed trained, and in wonderful condition, but I don't want to risk the whole system by keeping them.
3. I had increased water flow, and my overflow system wasn't quite keeping up, so the water was splashing over the side. One perch had escaped and was lying on the floor drain, but was still alive and I put him in with the perch I removed. The biggest perch look like they'd eat minnows in a second if I chose to put a couple of them in. I'm a little hesitant because of the fact that I've been disease free for the entire winter. Maybe I could buy some fatheads and quarantine them for a couple of weeks.
This should leave me with 135 YP in the tank.
