Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Grass Shrimp and timing

I am thinking adding Grass shrimp as on of the very first things might help them establish much more successfully than stocking along with BG and RES. I think the BG and RES will start feeding on the baby shrimp righ away and hinder the population explosion you want.

I stocked them along with some minnows FHM and SFM (Sail fin Mollies).

now if I stock and sunfish or any other lower end predator they really have a good head start. It is hard to wait that long patience is a virtue in ponds as well karate I suppose.

This is the result of one scoop of the net along the shoreline of the pond,,,,,Just one swipe

Tremendous! Hope I have that many some day Is this from initial stocking or how long after stocking do you have that many?

I stocked around the 1st of August 2014 and noticed great numbers june 2015,I only stocked a few dozen so it took a bit to start seeing exponential explosion of them. after this spring I could see the bottom literally carpeted with them....with out exaggeration

I am in florida and ran my well all winter so my water nerver dropped below 59 degress during the winter so I am sure I had some slow increase during the winter but once things warmed it really exploded like a coiled spring....

BR, I hope someday to have some GS just like u. But until I get some veggies growing, any I put in the pond rite now would just be a snack to all th RES and CNBG @ my place. Happy for u

Tracy

Mine are growing out of contol with no vegies....But no BG or RES either.

Thats why Im thinking when people are starting fresh with a pond if they stocked them a good bit prior to any sunfish , perch etc. they will get a really good jump start regardless of cover.

you could raise millions of them in a small forage pond or even something like an above ground pool. They really like to eat fish pellets too.if you wanted to try to establish with shrimp eaters already in the pond.

Is there a grass-shrimp supplier that ships to Indiana?

I got mine from Petsmart, they are native here not 100% how they will handle indiana winers. You might try just find out, Do you have a forage pond to try them out in?

I want to be sure that I know the grass-shrimp species and that they are native here. That is why I am looking for a supplier. Any help finding a supplier that ships to Indiana is appreciated.

Does anyone know what species of grass shrimp Petsmart sells?

YEP

Palaemontetes Paludosus

Looks like they are not native to Indiana and may need warmer conditions?

Anyone have experience with grass shrimp from Fattig Fish?

I believe TJ has. Search the forum and you'll find posts about them IIRC.

Looks from the most recent posts that flooding might have wiped them out? I sent an email just in case they got things going again.

I got a message from the owner and she was terribly affected by the flooding. She offered to try and help. but I did not think my recreational desire was worth her trouble. It is too bad she is alone in her efforts.

I have not been able to find any info regarding the temp tolerance of Palaemontetes Paludosus on line. I suspect they are pretty cold tolerant. Some of the small ditches and creeks they live in get iced edges during freeze spells. long term cold exposure does add additional stress however though, so I'm not real sure. some one could try them out if they had a small hole in the ground with no predators.

We will see. I got 22 from Petsmart and put them in an unheated tank with pond water. See range map at link


http://maps.iucnredlist.org/map.html?id=198284

All of us who have had grass shrimp sent to us from Carol Fattig have PK shrimp They are cold tolerant and wintered in Michigan deep freeze conditions in my pond just fine.

another forum link:
Older Fattig PK shrimp link

more info about PK shrimp here (range, success stories etc)

PK shrimp

Would love to get some Pk shrimp, but the flood makes getting them from Fattig out for now.

RAH:
That range map os very intersting showing theup all the way into the great lakes region MN and WI. if they have a range that wide it seems very good odds they should do just fine.

I have been unable to find any primary collection data to support that map.

I phoned Fattig a couple days ago. She said she has no plans for getting back into the grass shrimp business. It's a shame - a shame they were flooded out and I shame I can't order from them. It sounded like they had just what I was looking for. I ordered a cup of scud (Gammarres (sp?) lacustris) today from a supplier in MN.

Any news about Pk shrimp for this spring? I'd like to stock some as soon as they become available, if they become available. Lately it's been like early summer here rather than late winter.

I talked to Carol Fattig a few minutes ago. She says she has her hands full running her farm and has no plans to get back into the fish business, although she misses it. We talked about the possibility of someone partnering with her to run the ponds. The future of the property is in doubt. It's about 10 mi from her farm.

Turtlemtn,
If someone knew abit about this or if she gave some coaching along the way I'm sure someone could start some ponds and have enough to start shipping. I don't know what the 'cross state line' rules are but she didn't seem to have to follow any restrictions as far as I know.

Growing them is very easy, they go gangbusters on their own as long as there are not a lot of predators and the water quality is fairly good. I just don't know how to harvest, package, ship, etc.