Fertilized last week for the first time. I had to turn off diffuser before I started to get a bloom. Visibility went fron 8' to 4' and the FA flurished. I spent most of the day today removing the FA. I plan to spray Cutrain Plus on any FA that reappears.QUESTION- should I reapply a second dose of fertilizer now, or wait until after I have treated the FA?

Kelly B, I'm curious as to why you are going the fertilization route. Personally, I don't want pond weeds and the overhead of maintaining them. This is probably a stupid statement, but have you tried overstocking your forage base, and feeding them to excess at the same time? I'm only guessing that if you feed your fish, you gain both the fish weight gain benefit, along with the increased nitrates that would provide a bloom.

Surely ewest or another PB master can lead you in the right direction, and bust my chops

From the archives

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=96127#Post96127

When Not To Fertilize

Some ponds should not be fertilized. Here are some cases where this is true:

• Muddy ponds. Mud prevents sunlight from passing through the water. Plankton must have sunlight to grow. If a pond stays muddy most of the time, do not fertilize the pond until the mud problem is corrected.

• Ponds infested with trash fish. If undesirable fish dominate the pond, poison the pond, restock, and then begin fertilizing. Request Extension Publication 1954 for details on renovating farm ponds.

• Ponds infested with weeds. During warm months, pond weeds use up the fertilizer that the microscopic plants should get. Therefore, the pond stays clear even after repeated fertilizer applications.

• Ponds not fished heavily. Fertilizing a large pond is a waste of time and money if you fish it only occasionally. You just produce more fish that aren’t caught.

• Unbalanced fish population. If the bream population is overcrowded, it means there are not enough bass to keep the bream down. It would be foolish to fertilize if this condition exists. Request Extension Publication 1952 and Information Sheet 1479 for information on how to determine balance and to correct problem populations.

• Catfish ponds. It is not necessary to fertilize catfish ponds if a feeding program is followed. Where a commercial feeding program is not followed, fertilize in the same manner as for bream-bass ponds.

• Excessive water flow. In some spring-fed ponds, the volume of water flowing through the pond is too high to maintain adequate plankton blooms. In this case, fertilizer is constantly being diluted and will have little positive effect.

Yea! Ewest is back!!!!

I missed all of the great info and linkages.

Pardon the interuption, carry on.

I wanted to fertilize to increase the forage base and I was hoping that the reduced visibility/sun light penetration would help with the unwanted vegetation. I have never tried the overstocking method. I do not meet any of the "when not to fertilize" conditions. I think the base of my problem is the high level of water turnover and high D.O. level when running the diffuser. Any suggestion on how to remedy?

Several days after you spray/treat the FA.

Kelly I am a strong proponent of tilapia because they do two things for me. One they remove almost all of the filamentous algae and two they feed my predators. I spend about a hundred dollars a year stocking the tilapia and once stocked there is no monitoring or waiting for the right time to apply chemical. I have a very fertile pond. I fertilize the pond and the pasture around it and without the tilapia I would have a very unfishable pond. The pounds of tilapia per acre, just like the fertilizer, is less than the reccomended value. I have found for me that stocking four pounds of tilapia per acre is optimum. It may be different for you but I have been doing it now for four years. When I stocked ten pounds per acre they removed all plantlife from the pond and not just the filamentous algae. Stocking four pounds per acre still leaves many of the other plants after removing the filamentous algae.

James - Kelly B is from Cal. They don't even let visitors sneeze in Cal because they are sure it would bring in some foreign object. Tilapia - no way - no how .

That's just sad.

If I couldn't get tilapia I might not fertilize.

Don't be ridiculous Ewest. We let visitor sneeze in California. Jeez.

Note: Vistiors to California are allowed to sneeze provided they are wearing a respiration mask, a hazmat suite, chemical resistant gloves and have applied for a sneeze permit and paid the sneeze tax.

Ewest I might be wrong but think tilapia are big forage base in CAL ponds. I will ask a client out there. I know their cost is super cheap out there with several producers.

Tilapia



In California, tilapia may only be cultured in southern portion of the state, unless the Fish and Game Commission grant special permission. We recommend that you check with your CDFG Regional Office to determine what species of tilapia and where they are allowed. Go the California Department of Fish and Game web site and refer to Regional Offices to access your CDFG Regional Office for this information.

Even that requires a permit IIRC.

One point of note - from what I can tell with limited checking - a violation carries a $50,000.00 fine and possible prison term.

Client said in southern Cal he stocks them and alot of the private waters his fishes also stock. Lake Mead even has them. Permit required but not a problem from CADFG. CAl has the largest producer of tilapia in the country.

Tilapia are only allowed in Southern California. I looked into Tilapia when I was hoping for a non chemical solution to my Elodea problem.

Quoted from a website about Tilapia in California:

"In California, Tilapia is only permitted to be grown south of the Tehachepe mountains. The species allowed is O. Mossambicus as it is considered indigenous, having been planted in the mid-1960s in irrigation channels to fight the invasion of the waterway-clogging hydrilla weed."

The Tehachepe mountains run approximatly east to west and are just north of LA.

Oh and Lake Mead is currently in Nevada. Because of the expanding population in California we intend to annex it into California in the next decade or two.

I considered smuggling them into Northern California but DIED said that if I was arrested he refused to post the $50,000 bail. I mean sheesh, mention bail money and suddenly all your friends are busy.

There are also millions of dead tilapia lining the edge of the Salton Sea. You can smell them from miles away on a hot windy day. Mmmm, smells like dinner. I like to ride out there on my dirt bike to show my friends the beautiful view. Then when it's time to leave I make sure that I go first so that I can spin the dead fish into the faces of my riding buddies. I don't have that many riding buddies anymore.

JHAP...

Buy them, stick them in a cooler, release them, then don't tell anybody about it. In the fall when the temperature starts to drop, pull out 20 or so little ones. You can over-winter them in a 100 gal. fish tank and then release the 15-20 adult breeders in the spring. As long as the fish don't get more than 6 inches over the winter, they won't overload the tank. The rule of thumb for an aquarium is one inch of fish per gallon. Once they start breeding, your tilapia population will increase rapidly.

If caught, I will disavow any knowledge of your activities.

I found a commercial breeder of tilapia in Desert Hot Springs, about an hour and a half drive, problem is I need a $pecial permit from DFG in order to purchase and have to have the fish transported by $pecial $ervice from there to here. I like the idea of the icechest but dont know where to stock my coller. I like the winter fish tank idea also. Ezylman any suggestions?