Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Fish Infested with Yellow Grubs

I'm in the process of renovating my pond, and the fish have Yellow
Grub larvae/eggs that are found in the flesh beneath the skin of
bass, bluegills, and mostly catfish.

What are my options to remove these? I would like to keep some of the fish to eat but they are not appealing with literally hundreds of yellow eggs in the muscle of the fish.

Thanks!

1.) Keep herons and other fish eating birds out of the pond via staked lines. Many fish eating birds wade into the water and if a couple of lines at the correct height are installed the birds can't wade in.

2.) Make the banks steep enough to discourage wading by fish eating birds like the heron.


3.) Plant the pond with redear sunfish to consume snails that are part of the cycle which produce these.

4.) Treat for snails along the shoreline with copper sulfate.

5.) Reduce aquatic vegetation that that snails feed on.

6.) Mow vegetation on the shoreline that snails attach to.

Here's a good read:

http://www.luresext.edu/aquaculture/yellowandblackgrubsinfish.htm

Thank you. I read an article along those lines and it gave me a lot of info.

When using copper sulfate, will this chemical affect the fish in the pond?

"It depends." You'll have to get some input from the herbicide experts here which I am certainly not.

CUSO4 will inhibit gill function (death) in some species in low alkalinity waters. Copper can bio accumulate in ponds.

If you do all the suggested things besides CuSO4 you will not need copper sulfate. Most find it very successful to stock the redear sunfish-RES. If you can maintain a population of RES throughout the years you will not have a grub problem.

since you are in FL and if you have lots of snails you could stock a few sheepshead. they would be able to crush even the larger snails the RES cold not fit in thier mouths. It would give a bonus fish that would get to a nice size range and not effect your other fish popupation balances.

Where in FL are you?

I wasn't so keen on Copper Sulfate. I really would like to keep the pond all natural and use natural remedies to remove the worms. How would I go about adding a species like sheephead? I'm in the process to renovating the pond is this part of the process.

I went out on a boat yesterday and there is WAY to much filamentous algae under the surface that I wasn't aware of. About 70% of the pond is covered beneath the surface.