Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose LM Bass ladies only pond

What if 1 was to stock a 1ac. pond with 1 or 2 dozen female only LM bass. Has this been done before? No over pop. & big Fish Later?
I Have Bluegill Minnows & 100 catfish in place now [stocked this year ]Waiting to and bass in spring.[thinking about]

I'm working with three clients now introducing all femal bass this fall. It shows good promise to become "the way" to manage trophy bass with little fish harvest. I will let you know how it goes. Make sure your bluegill are well established when adding adult bass and yes do not stock more than two dozen in your 1 ac pond.

what about sex reversal in largemouth? I have seen several articles that hint around at the phenom. but never any solid research papers. Maybe Dave Willis can enlighten us?

Shan -- I sure don't know. I'll do a quick search tomorrow morning at the office, and see if it brings up anything that appears practical.

Dave

Shan (and others): I couldn't find much! I searched for largemouth bass and sex reversal, and found one paper (following). Unfortunately, I couldn't get an electronic version of the paper to share. In fact, even the abstract was not available online.

PORTER, M.D. Effects of methyltestosterone on largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides.
Journal of Applied Aquaculture, Vol.6(4), pp. 39-46; 1996

There were a couple more papers on sex reversal that came up for striped bass and hybrid striped bass. I'll post those citations below, in case anyone is interested.

GOMELSKY, B.; CHERFAS, N.B.; GISSIS, A.; HULATA, G. Hormonal sex inversion in striped bass and white bass x striped bass hybrids. North American Journal of Aquaculture
Vol. 61(3), pp. 199-205; 1999

SCHUTZ, J.R.; HARRELL, R.M. Use of sex reversal in striped bass to create an all-male population. North American Journal of Aquaculture, Vol. 61(2), pp. 97-106; 1999

So, the bottom line is that I was not much help. I don't have any personal experience to relay.

Dave

My Master thesie project was sex-reversal, actually production of monosex of all female largemouth bass. I was getting new born bass to fed on pellets treated with 17-beta estradiol. If a bass is subjected to estrogen before it differnates its sex it will be a female. Problem...it was already done with pellets and I want to do a bath immersion tech. much simplier b/c you did not have to train bass on pellets. My professor diagreed so I dropped it and got a non thesis Masters which allowed me to take more classes to my benefit anyway. I say all this to tell you it has been for years Garrett did it TX years ago. Problem...FDA if the bass subjected to hormones are eaten what will the human effect be? Probably none, but you have to spend $$$$ to prove and what drug company is going to do it. So now it is being done with 2nd generation bass that were sex reversed and it will work and be avail. soon. I'm working with a hatchery on getting some asap. Until then I will sex adult bass and stock in this manner. I do not want to advertise on this site, but there is another pond mag out that has two articels on sex reversal, all femal bass populaitons.

Thanks, Greg. Another great example of the diversity available on this website.

Greg, An interesting article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram a couple of months ago dealt with possible sex role type reversal of fathead minnows in some holding type areas below a local sewer area. As I recall fatheads were stocked in a low water area behind the sewer area to be used to monitor water quality. The gist of the story was that the male fatheads were taking on some sort of female tendencies due to, they surmised, estrogen from birth control pills that had passed thru womens bodies and were still in the treated water. The question the story asked is what this seemingly purified sewer water would do to men that were constantly subjected to small amounts of estrogen for an extended time. Or, as my wife put it, "Where did all the real men go?".

Dave, intresting theory on the Estradiol but in reality there is no way that you could measure that small amount of estradiol in the water and blame it on womens birth control pills. The estradiol is measured in nanograms. A nanogram is equal to one blade of grass on a official football field. If they were measuring it on birth control pills they better take into consideration the extremely high estrogen content of cabbage, soybean oil, cows milk, womens breast milk is extremely high in e2. All could be in the water., There are so many things that could be in that water contributing to levels of e2 that it would be crazy to say it was the pill residue. Also in no way would levels ever get high enough in a fish to cause a health problem. I have 16 years experience working with growth promotents in cattle, (not counting college)and all that goes with it so the comment suprised me a bit. Would love to hear more comments

One other comment-Greg is right, our company would go broke doing the FDA studies to get a growth promotent approved for fish such as Estradiol. You could never charge enough to the end users to even pay for the raw ingredients. One thing is true if you give a male hormone (testosterone), to a heifer (female cow) you can see male characteristics in them; ie, thick neck, more masculine sholders ect. Also, female hormones given to steers can at times make them a bit queer acting. Good discussion and i'm sure someone out there has used hormones in fish enviroments to assist them with growth and Feed efficiency. Probbly some goverment studies out there wouldn't you say Greg?

Thanks For Info. Is the Biggest promble ending up with GIRLY man fish or do female bass just got has male bass around to get fat & happy

Here's my two cents on the subject:

In aquaculture sex reversal is quite common with tilapia, some yellow perch, and producing female only trout. You can buy all female trout eggs from a large supplier in Washington state but the name of the place evades me at the moment. Many trout farms don't even keep broodstock anymore and order sterile female only eggs from this place. The females grow faster and do not put any weight into egg production. Males of the trout species are not as desirable when they mature.
But with talipia the males are more desirable for food production.
However although hormones are used they are used in a way that the final offspring that are used for food production are free of any hormones.

Bobby Glennon of Malone and Sons in Arkansas is working on female only crapppie. I'll have to check on the status.