Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations chain pickerel-yellow perch

Can you successfully introduce yellow perch into a pond that already has a large healthy population of Chain Pickerel? I have been trying but have been unsuccessful. Succeeded in introducing brown bullhead though.

also does anyone any good sites on the internet where you can order native species of fish from?

Jenhunt, Welcome to the forum!!!


I would think if you added enough YP in terms of size and sheer numbers, you may get the YP established.

The best and likely only source for "native" fish is yout local streams and lakes. Fish are deifficult to raise and if there is little demand for a species, it won't be grown by a fish farmer. There are several customs issues for shipping across borders also.

What else is in the pond? Agree with Rex on your question.

Just the Chain Pickerel and Bullhead, would i prehaps have better success then if i used larger perch? I have been getting the perch at a local lake, quite a few have been somewhat on the small side. I have put a fair number in but haven't seen any signs that they have become established. I think the Pickerel are eating them as quick as i put them in.

Yes large YP would help a bunch. So would some other forage.

Contact Wood on this site. He seems to know a bit about stocking in Canada. In another thread from a few years ago he said it was illegal to have YP.

Might want to check into it.

This is a copy/paste from a previous post this year. It has some links with it.



#206746 - 03/05/10 10:07 AM Re: Source for fish in BC? (catfish) [Re: DennisT]
Wood


Registered: 12/01/02
Posts: 346
Loc: Edmonton Alberta
Manitoba (Red river) is well known for channel cat fishing, it's also one of the coldest places in Canada, similar in climate to northern Alberta. Not sure why they can survive there, whereas there are no catfish around my parts.
For those that are not familiar with BC, there is a wide range of climates from arctic to desert, rainforest and lower mainland that rarely sees snow and is green year round. Not sure where abouts you are but there is catfish in BC waters, also lmb, smb, crappie as well as the cold water fishes.

As in Alberta, you will need a fish culture license to keep private fish. All I could find for allowable species is rainbow trout and white sturgeon. Transplanting of live fish from local waters is illegal, as it is in Alberta. It depends on where you are in the Province, but you likley have more native diversity than I have here, and I heard somewhere that it is very common for birds to transplant fish.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/omfd/fishstats/aqua/species.html#Finfish
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/pasb/applications/process/rainbow_sturgeon.html#a1

I've noticed at my pond that you can go a long time having the pond before even knowing you have Yellow Perch.

Your best bet at gettting a sustain population is to do multiple stockings per year while make sure you have enough cover in the pond for the YP to hide and to lay their eggs on. Christmas tree colonies would be good.

Some baseline questions. 1. About how big is the pond? 2. Does the pond have a wetland, marsh or weedy bay where chain pickerel (CP)are spawning? It might help to do some serious thinning of the chain pickerel numbers before stocking, that way there won't be so much predation pressure on the newly stocked YP. 3. What is the average size of the CP in this pond?.

Isn't there a problem with the catfish being active and feeding in
the bottom of the pond where the yellow perch sit in hot weather?

Pretty sure I read that on this forum...

'Junhunt' is referring to brown bullheads not catfish(cc) which can get a lot larger and prey on larger forage fish compared to prey of 8"-12" bullheads (brown, black, & yellow). IMO 5" YP would have a high survival rate with adult bullheads present. I have more concern with 12"-18" chain pickerel eathing newly stocked YP of 4"-7".