Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Regional PB Gathering this weekend - Somerset PA

Benson (1975) found that brown bullheads in a small impoundment of the Tygart River in West Virginia consumed 54.2% plant material, 22.7% invertebrates, 21.9% detritus, and 1.1% fish. The same study found that brown bullheads in the Monongahela River consumed 36.1% sewage, 33.4% detritus, 18.8% invertebrates, 6.1% plants, and 5.6% fish.

Common invertebrates consumed included midges, worms, copepods, beetles, caddisflies, and crayfish. Fish collected near sewage outfalls consumed large amounts of sewage and invertebrates associated with sewage. Leeches, mollusks, fish eggs, and frogs are also common foods of adults.

Juveniles (30 – 60 mm) are primarily carnivorous, and feed mostly on cladocerans, ostracods, amphipods, bugs, and mayflies, as well as eggs and larvae of other fish (FishBase 2001).

Brown bullheads prefer midge larvae (Chironomid) and scuds (Hyalella sp.) (Klarberg and Benson 1975, Kline and Wood 1996). Chironomid larvae made up only 2.9% of bottom-dwelling invertebrates in a West Virginia river, but made up 10.1% of the invertebrates eaten by brown bullheads (Klarberg and Benson 1975). Young-of-the year (YOY) consume more Chironomid larvae (71%) than do adults (38%), while adults consume more scuds (44%) than do YOY (4%) (Kline and Wood 1996). Raney and Webster (1940) reported that young of the year consume mostly Cladocera (25.0%), Diptera (24.3%), and Ostracoda (20.5%).

Brown bullheads are able to digest and utilize filamentous algae and consume large amounts (as much as 60% of their diet) of this food source (Gunn et al. 1977).

O.K. I nominate CJ to stock a pond with brown bullheads and fertilize it heavily to get a good crop of FA, then see how well they do at keeping it in check.

I suppose that if there's nothing else in the pond to eat.....

I'll pass... I have seen more than one pond infested with both FA and bullheads.

Hmmm! I have my opinions, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Right now, few of them agree in my mind. I need some time to digest all of what we experienced.

More, with lots of photos in the coming days. Maybe somebody else can make sense of our weekend.

I just know that my ideas of brown and yellow bullheads, plus one black bullhead, sure changed my thinking in the last few days.

Ken

Me too.

Me three!

I'll just go ahead and say "Todd four!"

I am definitely curious to see the different bullhead photos.

I sure hope so. A lot of it really hazy to me!

Ken, I keep forgetting to ask...what did any of the crappie or yellow perch have in their guts?

[Sorry it took me so long to get back to posting. Kind of like Lusk's "good news, bad news" writeup in the latest Pond Boss issue, that is what it has been like for the last month. Fishing at Sunil's and an unexpected new pond, courtesy of the powerline on my property were the good/fun news.]

Anyway, my whole perspective on bullheads really changed after this trip to Sunil's. I'd never before seen bullheads like the ones we pulled out of Sunil's pond. These things were huge. They were the size that channel catfish dealers usually harvest for commercial fillets.

Here are 60 of them:


This is what they typically looked like:






I filleted and skinned about 80 of them. Twenty that we ate on Sunday night, and another 60 on Tuesday morning -- those shown in the cooler photo above. As would be expected, they were about 50%/50% male/female. The females were full of eggs, or they'd just emptied. Some of the males were filled with milt, others were not. The interesting thing was what was in the stomachs. I looked in probably at least a quarter of the stomachs of the bullheads. I saw no evidence of bugs, fish, snails, etc. I saw what appeared to be filamentous algae! I don't know what to say. This is typically what I saw inside the bullheads:







A number of them also had some rather serious hemorrhoids, or rectal prolapse:



As for what was in the crappie and yellow perch stomachs -- I didn't look! We got so many bullheads, which I cleaned first, I didn't have the energy to look in the stomachs of the other fish we got.

By the way, I'd have to say that Dave Davidson's Texas Jumpers (scary worms) made the best bait.

Ken

Very interesting findings.

My hatred of bullheads has waned, ever so slightly, due to the FA consumption.

But Todd really still hates them, and I don't think he even has any in his pond. Time to send 'Ole Mudcat Joe down to WV....

Sunil- Those are some dandy sized bullheads. Very interesting.. eating FA. How many do you harvest each year? How long does it take them to get that big? You wouldn't belive how many people up here love that fish!

I take out every one that I catch, and throw them up on the bank. Over the course of a given year, I might remove 40 or so.

As far as how old these fish are, i really don't know. I'm guessing 4-5 years old.

Don't get excited guys. They ingest FA while feeding on or near the bottom. It is not a major food source for them nor a cure to the pond owners FA problem. http://www.fishbase.us/TrophicEco/FoodIt...species=natalis

One can dream, right????

Heck, I'm OK with accidental ingestion of FA too!

If they eat it by accident when consuming something else. Would it stand to reason than, if the FA were flavored some way BH would continue to eat it. Sure they would starve to death only eating FA but heck we could have solved two problems at once. Removal of FA and killing the much hated whisker fish.

Many of the studies I looked at indicated not only did bullheads specifically eat FA, but could digest it and utilize it as a primary food source. See above posted studies...

Sunil, those bullheads are black bullheads. At least from the ones I could see.

Hey EWEST -- Don't tell Sunil that! That was some of the most enjoyable fishing ever. I need to get invited back regularly to cull those things so we can have more neighborhood fish frys.

Hey Sunil -- don't pay any attention to Eric. Those are very beneficial fish that need to get culled now and then! Are you coming to Gary's bullhead fry on Saturday?

I don't think they were black bullheads. I'm thinking they were either yellow or brown bulkheads. I'm on the road as usual, so I'm on my phone. I'll post pictures of their whiskers and fins when I get to a computer. From the colors of their chins and whiskers I couldn't tell.

All I know is that they are fun to catch and delicious to eat.

Thanks, CJ. I think I have a mix of brown and black nasties.

I've got a neighborhood retention pond that I've been stocking with shiners, fatheads, and bluegill. The pond is brutalized with FA.

I might have to bring some bullies over.

CJ do you have the full cites of those studies or what was the source. From here ? http://www.epa.gov/region1/ge/thesite/re...wn_bullhead.pdf

http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Ameiurus-nebulosus.html

A nocturnal feeder that feeds mollusks, insects, leeches, crayfish and plankton, worms, algae, plant material, fishes and has been reported to feed on eggs of least cisco, herring and lake trout (Ref. 1998). Juveniles (3-6 cm) feed mostly on chironomid larvae, cladocerans, ostracods, amphipods, bugs and mayflies (Ref. 1998)

Food items - Fishbase Brown Bullhead

http://www.fishbase.org/TrophicEco/FoodI...ecies=nebulosus

Yes, from there Eric.