Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Bluegill on Gambusia Action

Last Wednesday was probably the last really warm (80 deg) day we will have here this year. I took the opportunity to net 94 assorted size (roughly 1" to 3+") Gambusia out of the millions of them in my new pond.

I put these 94 Gams in my 100 gallon PBR, which is stocked with 11 adult BG (7" to 9.25" in length, all with good RW) for the Winter. I wanted to judge how effectively BG could prey on Gambusia.

Roughly 1/3 of the Gams disappeared per day; after 3 days there was only 1 Gam left in the PBR. That works out to almost 3 Gams per BG per day eaten. Pelleted feed consumption dropped by about 1/2 during the 3 days the BG were eating Gambusia.

Cool.

Best thread title I've seen in a while.

Very cool that you have so many Gams in the new pond!!

I was really amazed at how prolific they were. Before it cooled off, in one glance you could see multiple swarms of them so thick they blacked out the bottom over an area maybe the size of your head.

Now that I know how easily they fit in big Lepomid gullets, I am very interested to see how the adult RES and BG that I put in the new pond with them this year have grown, say, next year.

Any guesses about your pond productivity? Is it especially productive for any reason, or just typical of your geographic location?

Natural soil fertility around here seems to be very good. My older pond has visibility that runs 18" to 30" almost constantly during the warm months with no direct fertilization (there is undoubtedly some runoff of lime and chemical/natural fertilizers from our pastures and hayfields in the watershed). Most of the other ponds near me have beau coup lawn runoff (think Yuppie Scum conducting Lawn Wars) and are IMO way too fertile, suffering from an excess of FA or Duckweed/Watermeal.

The new pond has not demonstrated quite as good of an algal bloom yet, but the Gams took feed well all Summer. I feed up to 3 pounds of Purina GFC per feeding (once a day on weekdays and sometimes twice a day on weekends), and the Gams (with a little help from the adult male BG) would make it disappear in 10-15 minutes.

Interesting stuff Theo. As you know DIED and I both have Gams and I really think that they are a benefical addition to the pond. They do breed like crazy. In the early spring we will have several schools patrolling the pond that are several feet square each. You can see the ripples they cause from across the pond. They get significantly reduced in population by the end of summer. I don't feed so I figure they are getting eaten by young bass and our various sunfish (BG, RES, GSF). What you have observed seems to confirm this.

Oh and by the way when are you gonna get rid of the eye?

Moving the masking tape around my monitor as I scroll is getting old.

Jeff, my friend, I am SO glad you have Ricki to take care of you.

No doubt. It's good for me personally and probably the world as well.