Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations I Don't Think I'm Ever Gonna Buy CC for Restocking

(unless maybe I want some with 2 eyes)

Yep, my first 100% proven home-spawned catfish. I've seen some smallish (compared to the average size of the original stockers put in during 2003) CC at the feeder this year, but they are big enough (and far enough away and moving) that they could be slow growers from 2003. But Leela here is definitely a native-born citizen of my pond.

Is Leela naturally one-eyed, or did she have a run-in with Robby?

Theo, I thought you never hooked one in the eye. A couple months ago, was fishing for small BG to cull. Had just put on a fresh piece of worm under a bobber. Got a hard bite, pulled up and nothing, nothing but the worm looked all balled up. Swung it to me for examination. Is it a snail?...what...Closer look showed an eyeball with the hook thru it. No stringy nerves..just an eyeball. Now how did that happen? Reminded me of "One Flew Oer the Cuckoos Nest"..the fishing trip and the guy examining the fish eye.

Oh, and the hook was stuck thru from the inside of the eyeball. Stange.

Dang, Burger, now that's what I would call a hook set!!

The eye socket was smooth and unmarked, Sunil. Maybe she was born without a left eye, maybe she lost it. Having seen what a small BG can do to a big Goldfish in an aquarium (do you know the words to "Harvester of Eyes"?), fingerling CC may have had an encounter with fingerling BG at a very young age (?).

Well, I suppose having only one eye is better than having three eyes when considering genetic mutation??!!

I can tell by the way you talk about her, that you have a deep love for her. Congratulations, Pops!

Theo, sorry to have hyjacked your thread briefly. it just brought to mind my tale. I would think she lost the eye recently and not a birth defect. The eye socket is so pronounced. You may very well be correct about the little BG. I think at least 3 of the 25 I stocked in March are blind in 1 eye now, after my accidently catching them fishing with worms and shiners. Not sure about growth rates, but seems to have been an early spawn for CC, or they are growing very fast. Have yur water temps been up for a while?

BM:

I am the last person anyone needs to apologize to for threadjacking. Well, next-to-last at best.

I really have no idea when she became monocular. The eye socket was indeed very pronounced, but showed no trace of injury or scar. I imagine loss of an eye is less of a handicap for CC than many other species.

Bass spawn here was roughly mid-May; I think water temps would have been right for a CC spawn sometime in mid to late June. I think she must be from last year, if not 2004. But 6 inches in a year sounds about right, so I'm pegging her as 2005 YOY.

Theo,
When you stocked in 2003, did you set any CC-specific structure in preparation for starting a family? You know, clay tiles, large cans, stuff like that?

Yes. Here is a list of the structures in place that could possibly be used for CC spawning (obviously at least one of them worked).

1) Ceramic field tile piles: Two piles of whole and partial ceramic field tiles, scavenged from the pond excavation and placed before it filled. They are a mix of sizes 12" down to 4", both roughly 7' long X 5' high X 2'+ wide. These were not intended for CC spawning, just general habitat. They may be too deep (the top of the tallest pile is about 5' below the surface), but since some of the tiles are blocked by partials, giving them only one opening, I suppose they are a possibility. If anyone is interested, I can dig out the analog photos and scan and post.

2) Plastic field tile pieces: There are 3 or 4 of these, 6" and 8" diameter, from 3' to 5' long, sunk in 3' to 4' of water. All are open on two ends.

3) Plastic buckets: About 7 or 8 buckets (3-4 5 gallon and 3-4 7 gallon), sunk on their sides to make one-opening caverns in 3' - 4' of water. These may be the most likely spawning containers. There are also a lot of buckets (apx. 20 5 gallon, apx 40 1 & 2 gallon) set upright on the bottom in 6' - 7' of water that I doubt the CC use due to the orientation. (FYI, the horse business provides a lot of scrap/surplus buckets from 5 gallon feed and water buckets that get trashed and from feed supplements that come in smaller buckets. I placed all the extras we had in the pond when it was dug.)

4) Inverted watering trough: The 70 gallon remnant of the watering trough that burned was upside down in 3' - 4' of water for 2 years for CC spawning. This is the other likely candidate IMO. This trough lost it's rock weights and floated up last Spring, and is now part of the Robby the Robot BG housing project.