Well the fish truck from Dunns came around last Thursday and decided to see if the water was fit for fish to live after the total fish kill in this pond. Got 100 2" RES and 2# of FHM and put about 70 of the RES and about a pound of FHM in this 1/10th acre sediment pond. I took an extra long time to acclimate them since the water was still stained very brown with tannin. But algae was growing new around the edges and there were snails galore moving around in the shallows. I first put a small batch in to see if they went immediately belly up and they seemed ok so put the rest in.
No floaters the next day so all seems ok.
Then I started catching RES out of my forage pond. Since the little ones had not died, started putting adult RES in also. Had I known I would be able to catch bigger fish I likely would not have even bought any fingerlings. So far have put 9 adult RES ranging from 5" up to a couple that were 10"+. Couple 9" and a couple 7". Am going to try and catch one more and make it 10.
That should give me adult RES that are ready to spawn next spring, then the 2" fingerlings from Dunn's should be spawning size by late next summer. So hopefully will have a pond full of RES by next fall.
I think I had a complete fish kill in this pond. All the big fish died and a lot of fish on the bank all the way down to an inch and two inch in length. So if any lived they likely would be small fish. Saw just a handful of Gams but I think they came in a couple days later from the pre-sediment pond where quite a few Gams (and maybe BG) survived. Since these two ponds are now connected by a 6" tube, it is possible there could be some small BG. Or maybe not.
But at any rate, with these big RES I am putting in this pond, they should have the upper hand on any spawning that goes on next year. That is unless we have another huge rain where BG and who knows what can swim upstream and get in. But I am hoping for lots of RES recruitment next year.
