Well....it happens to the best made plans.. Previously on the PB forum I ran across the words 'bucket stocked' I wondered what that meant since I assumed it was common for pond owners to use a bucket to put things in or take things out of their pond. But I believe I discovered through first hand experience that the term 'bucket stocked' is a BAD thing that happens when someone else feels they are helping you by putting some unwanted fish in YOUR pond.
Last night around 6pm I'm running a leaf blower up by the front of the house and our dog goes nuts barking and running like crazy for the front corner of our property by the edge of the pond. He is going like crazy and barking at something just in the edge of the woods. Usually this means someone is walking down the road with another dog or it is a squirrel, but this time it was much more persistent and he wasn't going any closer to whatever it was.
I turned off the machine and started walking down there and then it happens. A stranger walks off the road, through a small clump of trees, walks down to the pond and dumps a half full white 5 gallon bucket of 'something' into the pond. He was going to turn and leave but the dog had him cornered and then he saw me coming.
He sheepishly introduced himself as the neighbor 2 doors down (who I have never met) He said he sold his house and was moving out this weekend. He had 'some fish' in an aquarium and said 'I dumped them in your pond as I didn't want them anymore'
what???? AARRGGHHH!!!! After all that work of trying so hard to keep unwanted fish out and to put the correct number of fish in and to time the stocking more or less in a reasonable fashion, I tried so hard to start a forage base by knowing exactly what I had in there, and then recently adding a few more carefully selected small panfish, now in one swoop of dirty aquarium water I have who knows how many fish of unknown type, size, and health, plus who knows what new diseases or aquarium organisms or plants?
I didn't want to rip on a neighbor especially me being the new guy on the block, but i did try to weasel out of him what he threw in there and he was quite vague. He only would admit that there was 1 bullhead that he thought would do 'well' in my pond. What! of all things to keep in a home aquarium, a bullhead??!!?? And why would I want a bullhead in my pond?
He wouldn't disclose anything else, only change the subject and talk about how much he will miss his house as he goes to a condo, nice weather, nice house you folks have here etc.
I wished him well for his upcoming move and that was that.
Now I'm nervous about what in the world to do!
Is it easy to catch a lone bullhead this time of year? How does one try this? What does the bullhead eat if he does stay and starts growing? Any helpful effects of having one and only one bullhead?
In retrospect, he probably was the person who put the goldfish in the pond from time to time and some of them have survived the draining, redigging and refilling and so the appearance of unexpected goldfish last spring is starting to make sense a bit...
I'm just hoping he didn't dump in a bunch of green sunfish, bluegill etc.
I guess nothing to do know except wait.
I can't put a sign up that says 'no bucket stocking please'. I don't want to be a rude neighbor and put up a no trespassing sign. Maybe a 'don't feed the fish' sign? How about 'Michigan DEQ research pond, no fishing and no stocking!'
anyone been there before and had this happen? Consequences I'm likely to face?
