Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants How Many GC

Seems I have another buddies neighbor asking for advice from me now, So I am turning to you guys.

he has a half acre pond pretty shallow 5-6 ft at deepest. he wants to add some some GC and is not sure how many do add.

Rule of thumb here, I Know if you had specific list of plants etc would help. But just general shoreline grass, cattails and some submerged stuff.

Bobby,

With your last sentence, I'm not sure I would use any grass carp.

Don't take me wrong -- I am a huge fan of grass carp. They can do wonders. But, they can also become huge pests, especially in ponds with feeders.

I'm thinking that a few teenagers (from the local high school wrestling/football/etc., teams) with pond rakes, muscles, and the willingness to hand-pull the cattails, might be the best solution.

... just a thought from my befuddled old mind.

Ken

From the people who actually breed and produce the triploid grass carp:

Grass carp prefer aquatic vegetation such as Duckweed, Chara, Naiad, Potamogeton, Eurasian Watermilfoil, Bladderwort, Hydrilla, Elodea, Coontail, Spikerush and Water Stargrass. Grass carp generally do not prefer filamentous algaes, watermeal, watersheild, spatterdock, waterlilly, arrowhead, water hyacinth and cattails. Plant preference is greatly linked to fish size. Smaller grass carp will readily eat filamentous algae and pithophora while larger grass carp do not prefer this species but will eventually eat it once they have eaten other available species. Emergent vegetation such as hyacinth and arrowhead are generally not preferred by grass carp, however once grass carp have reached large sizes they will eat these species.

Complete eradication of aquatic vegetation can be rapidly achieved by stocking 10 to 12 grass carp per surface acre. While eradication is sometimes preferred by some pond owners, it is normally not in the best interest of public water bodies. Aquatic vegetation can be managed rather than eradicated by using smaller periodic stockings of grass carp and monitoring the response of the aquatic vegetation to grazing, weather and water quality. Stocking 1 to 3 grass carp per vegetated surface acre every 3 to 5 years is becoming more popular with public vegetation control projects. The growth of aquatic vegetation is influenced by weather, water quality and water levels. The level of control provided by grass carp is dependent on the size and age structure of the grass carp population and the growth rate of the aquatic vegetation. Modern aquatic vegetation management plans must continuously monitor these dynamic relationships to achieve the desired outcome.

One thing to keep in mind is the size of the predators in the pond (i.e. LMB). Since GC are fusiform in shape and don't have sharp spines, I would stock GC that are at least 50% as big as the largest LMB in the pond or they could become expensive tootsie rolls for the LMB in the pond.

He is wanting to plant the GC becuase he is more concerned about getting the pond cleared than what fish are in it.

I wanred him of them being snacks, he does have stunded Bass but most are about the same size as the GC they offer at the GC store.

I also told him that if he ends up with to many he can try to remove them but they can be dificult to remove.

In fact I am borrowing his cross bow this weekend to try to remove the last two giants from my euryhaline fish pond, all other attemps have failed. They have been cuaght on bread balls a few times years back so they now are going to get shot with an arrow.