The end game is here.
This weekend I decided to look at some of the fatter perch and discovered that the biggest ones, which were 7-7.75 inches were with eggs. They had really taken off the last few weeks as the water temperature came up into the low 60's. Here I thought they were fat because those were the ones eating all the pellets. Thirty fish with eggs, and another two bigger ones that were milting.
My goal achieved, I took the females and stocked them--their tails clipped so I can tell them from some females from a source about an hour from here. I have some pictures that I look forward to sharing. The males were fileted and eaten. This left 89 fish. 74 of these were placed in a holding tank for my partner, or anyone for that matter, to claim, maybe in exchange for two cases of Diet Mountain Dew. Beautiful feed trained yellow perch, of indeterminate sex waiting for a home. Probably almost all female, but risky if you were trying to have an all female pond.
The remaining 15 fish were left in the tank, aerator on, water inflow decreased to a tiny trickle. I disconnected the feeder and will hand feed these perch when I'm at the farm and see what happens. I want the water to warm significantly, hence the decreased water flow, so as to evaluate the upper limits of survival and growth. These fish are expendable, but I'd like to see them live. They were the fifteen biggest ones that I couldn't tell their sex, ranging from 5-8 inches. It was phenomenal how fast they grew once the water temp jumped up and the solar heating began to permeate the room due to the longer days.
I've really appreciated all the help from everyone, but now Cecil Envy is Cecil Endy.
If anyone is interested I'll start another thread to document the trevails of these fifteen perch, and my transition to bluegill and redears for next winter.
Bruce
