Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Grass Carp & Milfoil

I'm still fighting the milfoil in my pond. I fear for the fish I do have stocked; bass, cats, & perch. I'm considering using grass carp as a control measure, but I want to make sure they'll eat the milfoil. Anyone know for sure that they will? I don't want to totally eliminate all the vegitation, but I've got to get rid of the milfoil. It is so thick, that you can't use a lure.

Hoss - Eurasian watermilfoil (an exotic aquatic plant specie) ranks very low on a grass carp's preference list (about like spinach with kids). They may eat the plant to some degree, if they're really hungry. But, I've seen numerious ponds and lakes where grass carp were unable or unwilling to keep up with this plant's rapid rate of growth. SONAR, as posted to your comments back in May, would probably be your best bet. KD

This is an old thread but since I'm new here I would like to comment. I manage 7 trout ponds that are infested with eurasian water milfoil. We stocked grass carp in an effort to control the milfoil many year ago. As has been stated they don't eat milfoil. Somehow the expected lifespan of the grass carp has been exceeded by at least double and we have these huge carp swimming with our trout. It also appears that we got at least one batch of "guaranteed triploid carp" that reproduced because we have small carp, too. We wasted our money due to bad advice to stock carp and now have degraded our fishery as well.
Larry