Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Yellow Perch only ponds

Wondering if someone a little more savvy to the forum style can point me in the right direction for finding information in regards to yellow perch only ponds?

Thank you.

There is a tone of good info. If you just drop a search in Google and add pond Boss to the search query you will be presently surprised in the reading you will have.

Cheers Don.

P.S. I am only into my second year with perch only pond stocked with 400 yellow perch from Lake Erie stock.

Several important items are required for consistently growing only yellow perch in ponds. The smaller the pond is the easier it is to maintain as a yellow perch only pond. In my experiences the best size for perch only ponds are ones of 0.2 to 0.5 acre. Smaller ponds make it simpler to manually remove excess small perch whenever necessary. A second feature is to have limited or reduced amount of vegetation so adult perch or a few predators can locate small perch. Reduced vegetation will also make it easier to manually catch small perch for thinning the numbers. Using feed trained stocker perch is a very big benefit because supplemental feeding keeps the perch growing well to harvestable size. Minimizing the chances of food limited conditions keeps numerous perch growing well. IMO the two most important items are keeping the numbers at a realistic density and keeping fish from becoming food limited. Trying to grow too many perch per acre will result in reduce water quality and nuisance algae problems.

I think very few people manage for just yellow perch because of a couple main reasons:
1. Lack of knowledge of how to do it. Plus the management methods are different and techniques of how to do it are not commonly available for growing only panfish in a pond.
2. Most pondowners prefer to grow exciting, large hard fighting predator fish and panfish are usually a secondary goal that are necessary to achieve exciting predator fish.

Bill, I always appreciate your knowledge. I'm new to yellow perch and just stocked some last June in a newly cleaned out pond. Also stocked some fingerling bluegill and FHM and 25 small mouth bass. I put 200 3-5 inch YP and 100 5-7 inch YP. I'm wanting mainly a panfish pond. Fed them Aquamax all summer and many of the perch ate it very well but I think some reverted to eating the numerous FHM. How much do perch under those conditions typically grow per year and what is the best size to harvest them? Is is best to release the largest one for breeders?

Okay several questions to answer.
""How much do perch under those conditions typically grow per year and what is the best size to harvest them? Is it best to release the largest one for breeders?""

1. It will be a challenge controlling the BG in your pond. You will have to put special emphasis on that for management. SMB will prefer to eat YP and minnows before BG. Some SMB may even convert to pellets instead of eating BG.
2. Perch eating pellets will grow pretty fast but not all of the same size group will grow at the same rate due to various reasons. For ones getting ample food expect the 5"-7" ones to be 7"-10" after one yr in the pond. For the 3"-5" expect them to be 4.5"-7" after one yr in the pond. Some of them will be males and they grow slower than females.
3. Harvest can be several ways depending on your goals. If you want a lot of trophy sized Jumbo perch then harvest only those 8"-12" or 8"-11" and release larger ones unless they are hooked deep and if you see any blood, then harvest injured biggest ones. Some do not want old big perch dying of old age and going to waste. They then use the pond for production. When pond is for production then harvest everything over 8", 9" or 10"; size category is up to you. If you want the best of both methods then mix the two methods and harvest some of the larger YP and some 8"-11" and release a percentage of both groups. You could set a harvest size numbers limit for each category and when that number is reached each year then release everything after that.
4. While angling - sampling -trapping (harvesting) pay attention to and monitor on paper the numbers or percentages of medium YP less than 8"(4"-7"). These numbers should be at least 35-55% of the perch you are catching. These medium perch will be the replacements for the harvested YP. When the percent gets higher or lower, then recruitment for that size class was unbalanced and needs to be adjusted either with manual removal or supplemental stocking.
5. One fertilized egg strand in a smaller pond will provide enough YP fry to replace a reasonable annual harvest. Two yr old YP should easily be 8"-9" if growing normally. A 3yr old 8" YP is not getting enough food and this fish should be 9"-11", some 12" long with ample food. IMO BG will complicate the growth rates of the YP, mainly due to BG being more productive and competing for limited natural foods. I think the two size groups of initial stocker YP will do well, after that IMO you will start to gradually see some growth "issues" and numbers balance issues.

Bill:

In ponds, do you see Males getting larger than 11" or are the majority of YP 11"-12"+ Females?

Yellow perch males will get big up to 14" and maybe 16" if they live long enough. Dr. Dave Willis reported in an In-Fisherman magazine article that YP can reach the 2 pound size aka "Jalopy perch". Problem is with pellet fed males they die before they get larger than 12". I caught a 13" male perch last week.

Good stuff Bill! They don't call ya Dr. Perca for nothin.'

BTW my YOY yellow perch in the recirc in the basement have some fish up to 11 inches. Still a few months to go until they are a year old. I will be culling the smaller ones out and they will go to an Aquaponics farm.

Wish I could take a pic but it's so dark down there the fish freak if they see a flash. Then they go off feed for a day or so.

WOW you are getting supper duper growth on those YP in their first year. You could easily get another 1"-1.5" on them before April and in the next 10 weeks. They could be 13"-14" at 2 yrs old. Great work on growing them for their first year. Now be careful you don't kill them.

For taking some pics of them you could net sample a couple or gradually increase the light intensity over a 2-6 hr period similar to a sunrise then take a pic at "high noon".

Visions of draining a clarifier tank flashed thru my head....

Bill,

I've killed enough in the past to eliminate the things that killed them although it only happened once. Water quality stays pretty good due to a partial water change every one to two days and I'm keeping an eye on the ammonia and nitrites which read as nil to very low.

I tried the increased light thing over a longer period of time and they didn't like it. And sampling is very stressful on them. I think I'll just leave them be and take pics once I cull out the smaller fish in February or when I move the females to the pond in the spring.

If you're referring to the time my drain on the clarfier tank consisted of a hose in the vertical position, when not draining the tank, and due to a defective zip tie fell to the floor and drained the system that can't happen again. My clarifier drain hose now has a valve on it in the closed position when I'm not draining it and it's no longer in the vertical position. Likewise the external standpipe has a gate valve aka knife valve on it although I will soon have a valve behind the gate (knife) valve as they are prone to a slow leak as you know.

As they say on Koiphen site: If you don't prepare for Murphy he will get you!

Wow that is really some great growth.

I am not sure if your good at using any drawing diagrams but I have been trying to dig up as much as I can to start a aquaponics system for my youngest son and I to play with.

The biggest thing I am looking for is the most efficient way to move the water from tank to tank and keep it clean. With fishandworms system he has air pumps, water pumps, automatic solid waste removal units worth $4000.

I am just looking for a nice little hobby for my boy and I with out droppping a lot of money because in a few years it may all be sitting.

We are going to put in $2000 to $2500 for this project and have most of the parts. Just looking at an efficient design of water flow and filtering. Different elevations of tanks. Thinking of using venturis for air if we are pumping water and or air lift to move the water. Maybe this is a bad idea only having one system maybe a backup.

Cheers Don.

Don:

Cecil is pretty good at finding the least expensive way to do things. He's always looking for ways to streamline the system.

Cecil, just remember to turn the valve closed. Murphy can step in at anytime!

DonoBBD - Can we assume that you have read Cecil's posts about building his fish growing system?
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=311709#Post311709
Cecil- Anything to add that is not in the above link??

Yes I've changed a few things (always trying new things). And there is no reason you can't build everthing for under $500.00 for what you want to do. $2000.00 is way too much.

1. The clarifer (as in the book Small Scale Aquaculture) is stand alone and only has a u-tube siphon where water comes into the bottom of the 55 gallon drum. The tank side of the siphon is about half way down in the water column of the fish tank to suck in suspended solids and settleable solids that haven't made their way to the bottom of the fish tank.

2. The center drain and pipe is separate of the clarifier tank (I had them all in one at one time) and goes to an external standpipe with gate (knife valve) in front of it. Twice a day the gate (knife) valve is raised and settlable solids in the drain and around the drain are purged out with great force due to the water shooting up into the external stand pipe.

3. I no longer use the RBC's as a biofilter for my home system or the schools as the expense of building them is high (500.00 for materials), and the foot print is much larger than the moving bed biofilter in the 55 gallon drum. I will however use them in my coldwater airlift system as they are more efficient when it comes to energy use, can be run on just a little bit of air, and are low head.

As far as aquaponics, a raft tank divided in the center IMHO is the way to go and you run water through your entire system by directing it into one side, it runs down that side and crossed over to the other side. Then it comes back in the starting point area on the other side and drains back to the fish tank. You ca aerate the fish tank, and run your moving bed filter on a small 60 watt mag drive pump and a 60 watt.60 lpm linear air pump. Actually you could probably do it on much, much, less energy with only a 20 watt linear air pump if you use filters that don't require much lift and use an air lift to move your water and aerate it at the same time. I will be experimenting with this in the spring.

Previously with my Aquaponics system, as long as the water was pumped from the top of the clarifier to the bottom of the moving bed filter, and the moving bed filter was higher than the raft tank, and the raft tank is higher than the fish tank, the water can be mostly moved via gravity back to the fish tank.

Wow great link.

I have access to all the barrels I want and all the IBC totes I want. I was going to build two solid waste swirl filters before a bio filter like in the link Bill as posted.

One question is I expect that the water should go to the grow beds from the clarifier first then the bio filter then back to the fish right?

The ammonia is removed in the bio filter correct? Guessing that the grow beds will be a large bio filter as well?

Cheers Don.

EDIT: P.S. the $2000 was including our greenhouse that will be 18X32.

Here's a DIY settling tank many are using in Aquaponics.





Below are directions for a final DIY Sand and Gravel filter you could use (not primary filter) that can handle up to 2000 gph as a finishing filter if you want gin clear water. I haven't built one yet but will probably have one of these to remove the precipitated iron from my well water before entering my coldwater partial recirculating system. May also use one at the end before it goes back to the fish tanks.

It's a breeze to clean with a Shop Vac on reverse or a blower mounted on top. It also does some biofiltraton. Remember it is not a primary filter unless your fish load is really low as it would clog quickly. You can tell when it needs cleaning if your blower is detachable. This way you can observe the water level in the vertical tube and tell when you need to blow the solids out.



http://www.koiphen.com/forums/showthread...d+Gravel+Filter

Yes this is what I have seen and feel it will be very good for our little project. Was thinking of two of these in a row.

Cheers Don.

Yes! With any type of biofilter or grow beds, whether it be DWC, media, or NFT you need to remove as many solids as you can before the water goes to them, so you don't get any anoxic areas of decomposing detritus in your media, which can lead to reduced nitrification due to competition from anoxic heterotrophic bacteria. And contrary to what many people think, your plant roots need oxygen and not fish poop. The roots can get coated with detritus and actually have problems. The plants get their nutrients and nitrates from the water. My solid laden water is drawn off and used on my raised garden.

Personally I would include some type of biofilter separate from your grow bed to be safe, such as a 55 gallon drum moving bed filter. But it's your choice.



If it's a media grow bed, yes, the media acts as a biofilter but like I said above it's a good idea t have a dedicated biofilter to play it safe.



Gottcha. Didn't know that.

Not sure if you need two in a row. I would try one first.

I prefer my barrel with the deer fence netting as it acts as a mineralization tank with the solids collected in the deer fence netting. Also cheaper and simpler to build than the radial settler.

BTW here is another link to my makeshift aquaponics system last summer.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=353329&page=1

And keep in mind I don't profess to be an expert in aquaponics as I just dove into it last summer. Heck I'm still learning about aquaculture as JKB will not hesitate to tell you. LOL

There are several others year that have done aquaponics and know more than I do.

Warning: Aquaculture and Aquaponics can be addictive and can become an expensive hobby if you're not careful!

Very nice. Love the growth. Guess just diving in is really what I need to do.

Where do you and fishandworms find those air pumps your using?

Cheers Don.

I've been buying mine off of ebay. You may want to see if you can find a hydroponics or aquaponics supplier in Canada as shipping from the U.S. might negate any bargin you find.

A hydroponics supplier in California seems to have some good prices. I believe they are called Greenworks. This was just pointed out to me the Koiphen site.

Something like this?

Cheers Don.