Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Update on perch production pond

Cecil, I think your shooters, since they are cool water fish and actively eat in colder water than BG, can add at least 3/4" to 1" more growth before they are a full 365 days old. Keep feeding them in the cage and we will see what sizes they are next spring. I think you are seeing predominately a normal growth size range from a typical egg strand. I think Bruce sees a very similar size discrepency in a batch of BG, esp in the spawns of the first few yrs of his big BG project.

I'm selecting the largest fish, which yes, will be predominantly females. However according to my original supplier there will be a few males in the bunch. And since I have a market for the larger females, and not many males are needed for breeding, this works out O.K. for me.

I have a cage just for males of which I will cull the largest ones for breeders. The rest are sacrificed for VHS testing as they don't grow as large and I'd rather sacrifice them than my large females.

Very interesting.

I'm guessing that in water with predators, the smaller and weaker fish would be eaten by the time the others could reach the larger size -- if they didn't get eaten first.

For some reason I also always thought that yellow perch were cannibalistic, so I'm surprised that the larger ones didn't eat the smaller ones. Maybe they just prefer the pellets.

Anyway, thanks again for posting about such an interesting project.

Ken

Actually that may have happened. There's no way of knowing short of cutting open the larger ones from time to time.

Very true. As a matter of fact, I've been seining CSBG the last week and I'm seeing fish all the way from 1.25 inches to 5.25 inches.

You have a remarkable divergence in your fish, but I am so impressed with the body condition of those top-end YP. They're amazing.

This is a really cool thread.

Cecil I agree with the logic. Can't say why wrt YP but thought this bit on LMB initial size , growth and adult size would be of interest.

Eric,

You're comparing a yellow perch to a lowly green carp!

How dare you!

Seriously that's interesting...

That is interesting, I would have thought the smaller fish would never have caught up to the larger fish. Kinda like the stunted fish theory that if they begin to grow agin, they wouldn't ever get as large as if they had had a proper diet all along.

Cecil I worded my post wrong, I meant to say that I'm sure you know these were the only fish in the pond, when you added the eggs, in other words the pond was sterile or free of fish when you began, no chance of any additions that would cause such a size difference, very neat just the same. Obviously you would get some difference egg to egg in any strand. It happens with Humans too, I have the siblings to back it up.

Joe G,

Yes there were not other fish in the pond especially perch as I've never had perch in the pond before and there is no way they could get in. I also drained and sterilized the pond before adding the eggs.

I never really doubted that, you seem like a man who has his feet on all the bases so to speak. One last question, you do eat perch don't you??? I'd hate to see all those fish grow that big with none ever making it to the table.

Well thanks for the kind words but I'm still learning.

If I eat any fish it may be some of the males if I end up with more than I need for health testing. The rest are too valuable to eat. Eating a big perch of 15 inches would be like flushing $75.00 down the toilet. And that get to 2 lbs. or better I could easily get $150.00.