On the advice of private consultant I stocked 10 - 10" GC last week for control of FA. The pond is 2.16 acres and the FA has taken over the shallow end. It will probably be a couple of years before I notice any change but I wanted to try this before chemicals.

What can it hurt? There is little other plant material for them to eat.

2 in my new 1/2 acre did not control the FA. They eat pellets, they can cause a lot of trouble if your trying to introduce desired plant species, they get really big and become less effective, they're pretty expensive, they're hard to remove after they've been stocked

I think the jury is still out on whether GC eat FA or not.

10 does not sound like too many. If they end up eating it, you would see a clear difference this year.

See the archive FA Thread.

Thanks for the replies. I don't really have much else for them to eat other tha FA so it will be a good experiment. The pond is brand new. I will report back any successes or failures.

The jury returned a unanimous verdit in my pond trials....GC guilty of not eating FA, even when little else is available.

Guys I think we are missing a key word, control FA. They eat it I have seen it on several occasions. However they by no means contorl it. Also however I like to sotck b/c many times the FA is growing off of grass. The GC will eat the grass thus reducing FA. We now manage about 85 ponds in metro ATL. I have GC in most and go through so much copper it is crazy. If only we could use tilapia. Also Mark it is not a 2 year deal, if you have enough you will know by spring after you have them. My suggestion is alagecide application to control FA, fairly cheap but require mutiple treatments over growgin season.

Thanks Greg. I am trying this first in hopes of avoiding chemicals. I may add some golden shiners as well. If I plant lily's in the shallow end will the GC eat them? If lilies' get established won't they shade out the FA?

They will eat lillies about as well as FA not very well, so you might get established. However if not a certain varierty (not sure what tht is) they might also lead to overabundance. They will uptake nutrients that otherwise would have wound up being FA.