Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations YP questions

Hey guys, Gotta couple questions on yello perch, I would like to raise some in my pond. I have a few other ponds that have yp in them and was wondering how soon they spawn and if it would be possible to take some egg ribbons out of one pond and put in my other pond? How do you tell if they are fertilized? I looked for egg ribbons last year but I couldnt find any, I may have been to late. What depth should I be looking in? If I do find any what would be the best method to raise them? (just throw in pond, put in stock tank with running water?) any ideas.
My pond is 1/4ac. 1-10 feet deep.
thanks Gene

Hi Gene. When did your ice go out on your pond? I'm thinking that your yellow perch spawn should happen soon. We do quite a bit of work in the Sandhills, and we often have perch larvae by mid to late April. We've got several other NE forum members, so hopefully they'll chime in on their spawning times for perch.

Try putting out a brush structure in a convenient location so you can watch for an egg mass. Any type of Christmas tree or bundle of deciduous tree branches will work. Just put the structure near shore is 2-4 feet of water, and they'll find it!

The ice has been gone for about 2 weeks. So I should be looking for strands that resemabal toilet paper, wal-mart bags? thats what I looked for last year and thats all I found.I was amazed how much trash is in public ponds.
thanks for the responce.

Gene,

Other than a fine article by Dave Willis in Pond Boss on the subject several months ago I started a thread on the same subject here. You may be able to glean some info from the posts. I would do what Dr. Willis said and put some brush bundles or christmas trees submerged along the edge of the pond and watch for egg strands. If there are males and females in the pond I wouldn't worry about them not being fertilized. Be aware there are a lot of eggs in those strands and you don't want to overplant.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=114182#Post114182

Of course you don't need to set up a tank like I am as all you need to do is transfer the egg strands. Just make sure they are up off the bottom. Eggs that lay on the bottom will most likely die.

Thanks, Cecil. Great pics.

Thanks guys for the info. I looked alittle yesterday but found nothing Ill look again today, hope im not to late.
thanks again
Gene

Gene - Do you have any brush or branches along the shoreline down to 2-3 ft deep?. How clear is the water? Can you see down 3 ft into the water so eggs can be seen easily?. I've found that y.perch (YP) can prefer to lay eggs on one directional shoreline compared to the others. Place a small branch or clump of branches on each directional shoreline- N,E,W,S to improve chances of success. Expect the egg laying to continue until the water gets 56F-60F in the shallows -at 3ft deep. In my area once the toads start laying eggs the YP egg laying has mostly ended. If there are structures deep in the pond YP will also lay eggs there, but instinct tells them to put eggs shallower where warmer water will hatch eggs sooner.

Once you find eggs gently move them into a bucket with water. Make the transfer and wrap eggs around some submerged branch/es in the new location. If new location has a full community of fish with largemouth bass and lower than abundant dense cover don't expect a high percentage of survival of YP fry to 8" sizes.

As you may have seen in some of my other posts. Up in Upstate (Rochester area) NY I have already had the YP spawn out. I am between 3 to 7 days since spawn for the YP.

I have an interesting situation in my pond that this year I actually have visability down to 12 feet deep in mid day sun. I have never had this much visability. I have the winter algea but no bloom yet for spring stuff.

Although this is geared toward aquaculture production of perch, never-the-less it has some great information that may help:

http://aquanic.org/publicat/state/oh/perchfd.pdf

Eric,

Not all you perch will necessarily produce eggs in one period of time. Some times there are two peak periods where eggs are distributed. The above link (previous post) I believe talks about that.

Thanks Cecil, I was aware of that publication and that the YP can spawn at various times, However in my pond I have not seen that. I also have more ribbons than I have ever had at the earliest time I have ever had a spawn. Plus also have the deepest water clarity that I have ever seem. Just an all around interested year and we are just staarting out.

Eric - the winter growth of FA will tend to suppress development of a plankton bloom. If FA persists don't expect much of a plankton bloom this spring until FA dies out. Lets see if I am correct.