Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Yellow Perch Success

Hello all, Have not posted in a long time. I generally just read.

But just wanted to let you all know that I had a successful yellow perch spawn. Thousands of them all over the pond.

I am in SW MO in 3/4 pond. I put in 29 YP 7"-8" last spring. Never seen a dead one. And today I saw a lot of 1/2 to 1-inch long yellow perch fry.

About 7-8 days ago the water temp 2 foot down was 48 degrees.

Thank you all for your help.

I will post a pick as soon as I can trap a few of the little guys.

Pond Boss rocks.

That's a lot of perch!!!!!!!

What else you have in the pond missouriedave?

Is something else in there eyeballing those tender morsels!

Yes, The pond has been managed to grow large Bluegill. The predators are LM Bass. I catch 8-10 inch Bluegill regularly. There are a few large catfish, 3-4. And that is it. I pull the large bass (15") plus out and some of the smaller ones to aid in growth.

The pond is 11 foot deep. 3/4 acre. It has a nice balance. I am looking forward to having some yellow perch in a few years.

I suspect most of the YOY will be bass food and BG food. since they spawn so early. I am just hoping enuff make it every year to build a sustainable population.

Sounds like it is going good for you. To have the large BG, it probably is considered bass heavy? It will be interesting to see how many of the YOY YP get past the LMB. I believe Bill Cody says that the LMB will eat the YP more easily(larger sizes) than the BG. Are you or are you not providing cover for the young BG and YP? I wonder which way would be best to go on that? Be sure to keep us posted.


Edit---you were reading my mind as I typed!!

Yes, I do not know how many of the original 29 did not get ate. But enough lived to spawn. And I have provided some santuary for the little guys. I try to take the larger bass out. I like the slab-sized panfish. And YP is very good table fare. Time will tell. I put in some more cove this winter. Just a small amout, but enough to help I hope.

Now, If I can get the babies feed trained ... I'd really have something. Might have to trap a few hundred and feed them pellets.

If you have a light and purchase a belt feeder you can feed train them. That is how I feed train them.

What is a belt feeder Cecil? I have no electric at my dock. Could I just feed by hand? What is the purpose of the light?

A belt feeder is a mini conveyor belt that you put feed on and it turns on and off based on time you set, then dumps feed in based on the on time. You do have to measure the food out quite precisely, and make adjustments as you go.

A screw or auger feeder is a much better and precise animal. Fill whatever container it has with food and the auger will dispense small amounts of food based on how you have it set up.

You can eliminate possible over feeding and waste with a screw feeder, where as with a belt feeder, it will be as clumsy and forgetful as we all are

The light attracts the fry to congregate into a specific area. Because they are really stupid at this stage, they are unaware of dangers, and the light attracts. If you try do this in your pond, chances are that you may be ringing the dinner bell for predators.

Isolation and control will be your best bet for feed training. Trying to feed train by hand could become quite exhaustive on your part.

Feed training by hand can be done, but the fish have to be fed at the same time every day, not even 15 minutes difference. The light will congregate the small fish in a certain area, and then when the feed in placed in the water, they will be there to eat.

A belt feeder doesn't need electric. It can be set to feed every 12 or 24 hrs, but you have to be on site every day to wind the spring.

Ok, found one reasonably priced. Next question is how do I catch the little buggers? I put out a minnow trap overnight with bread in it. Not one fish. Sigh....

What did you find?

Found this. No way wife will let me spend $200 - $300 on a feeder.
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2248/Pond-Feeder?green=F9F28926-F71D-56F4-B767-B8F596742EFB
But if I can't capture the little buggers, it's pointless. How do you catch the fry?

Where will you put the fry, once you catch them?

I can build a cage from PVC and netting. Seen plans here.
Cecil posted them I think.

When do you plan on building this?

I can do it in an afternoon. I am retired.

But not gonna build a cage, if I have no fish to put in it. How do you catch the fry?

Two of the most common ways to concentrate and hold post fry perch are 1. herding and holding them into a corner of the pond with a net. Feed training occurs behind the net. 2. Capturing the fry (fingerlings), bring them inside and holding them in a tank that usually has some sort of flow through system bringing in fresh water and flushing wastes & solids. Note in the picture in the link below the fish being feed trained in the tank with a belt feeder. Both methods are not easy and are usually only done on a fairly large scale by hatcheries. Considering the difficulty, complexity, labor involved, and success rate, it is probably cheaper to buy the pellet trained fingerlings. Then raise those by one of various methods to a larger size for release into the pond that has larger predators. For my YP, I like to continue feeding pellets to purchased pellet raised YP to further habuate them to pellets, get them larger and accustomed to my pond conditions before release. This way basically all of them stay feeding almost exclusively on pellets - i.e. lazy fish.

Catching perch as post fry larvae is usually done either with a seine or a light trap depending on the size of the larval fish. Light traps can be simple or complex. Most places do not pellet train until the larvae are about 1"-1.25" long because those are the first size easiest to seine and they are at optimum size or stage for food training.

This link is a common style of belt feeder. The belt is spring loaded & 'cocked' and as the spring unwinds or pulls back it drops feed from the belt into the tank or pond.
http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2253/Belt-Feeders?green=099B439E-46D3-5A4B-A21B-B22666299806

TY Bill. But how, other than seining, how can I catch say 50-100 1" long YP fry? Many of the YOY are in the grass around the dock. Are you saying, just fence it off? That would work... Would make the wife think I am more crazy too, but WTH. I could fence them in a small area I guess.

http://www.aquaticeco.com/subcategories/2253/Belt-Feeders?green=5EDA0193-FA49-5EE4-011D-20B6671FBDCD

For fry you need to feed 24/7 of which a belt feeder is suited for. Perch fry like some other species are phototactic in that they are attracted to light. If the feeder is placed just above the light shines in the water they will eventually start feeding on the light and get trained to find easy feed that way.

And like Bill Cody says it would be cheaper to just purchase feed trained yellow perch than to do it as a recreational pond person.

You'd have to purchase 50 pound bags of starter feed and progressively larger in pellet size as they become larger and for you a recreatoinal ponder probably wouldn't use an entire 50 lb. bag before going up to the next pellet size. Another reason it wouldn't be cost effective for a recreational pond person.

Actually I think you have that mixed up with another type of feeder. There is no time to set or feed dumped in based on the time you set. You simply pull back the belt which is spring loaded and the feed is dumped in at a slow even rate as the spring unwinds. The amount of feed dumped in is simply based on how much feed you load on the belt.

Been there done that with less than satisfying results due to how easily the fine mesh needed clogs with algae. Same goes with a blocking net if it's not set for a large area. You could end up with oxygen depletion if the nets gets clogged and it doesn't cover a large area.

Bill,

I have now designed a recirculating system for under $500.00 that not only does not require flow through, but it has an external stand pipe that you can pull a gate valve to flush solids out of the tank as many times a day as you wish. This is especially important with small fish that feed constantly and produce a lot of solids.

It's not a typical stand pipe as it is usually empty until the gate valve is pulled which violently fills the stand pipe dislodging and removing any solids in and near the center drain of the circular tank. Of course being a circular tank with centripetal flow the solids automatically collect around and in the center train.

The center drain is only a 3 inch shower drain and 3 inch PVC but the stand pipe is 4 inches. However you only use about 2 gallons of water when you pull the gate valve and then drain out the solids laden water.

It works quite well as the water that fills the stand pipe is not only brown with solids it really stinks! I know it does a great job as a second purge is clear with no odor.

With my larger fish I do a purge of solids twice a day and in conjunction with my clarifer tank of which I clean every three or four days and do a partial water change my water stays crystal clear.

The one I got from a YP farmer in Wisconsin was electric and had a programmable timer on it. It was in pretty sad shape when I got it. Didn't look much like the picture he posted on ebay. I may still have it, but haven't seen it for a few years now.

I forgot about the clock spring units.

Thanks for all the answers. Looks like the fry are gonna be on their own. I guess sometimes the best thing to do is nothing, nothing at all , and let nature take its' course.

My bad Phil as usual. I wasn't aware there were other kinds.

Here's a belt feeder and Wil'O Wisp bug light used to attract the yellow perch fry to the feeder.

Here is a cage at the end of the pier from a few years ago that had female and male yellow perch in it.



A willow brush I cut down every year provides me with the infrastructure for the females to drape their eggs on in the cage. Every spring I cut it down and it grows back for my use the following spring. No need to waste my time looking for used Christmas trees.



Here is the bush cut down and lashed together with nylon rope and a piece of cement block with a hole drilled into the center to run the rope through.



Here it is in the cage.

Cecil, how does that belt feeder actually work?

When you pull the belt back (looks more like a conveyor belt) it tightens up a spring inside a clock like device on the side. You then put how much or how little feed you want on the belt. As the spring unwinds, the belt moves toward the open end of the box, which houses the belt, and feed slowly dumps into water off the end of the belt.

I like it. Low tech engineering.