Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Gams love weeds

The Gambusia have spawned prolifically in all my ponds with the warming temps. Pictured below are literally thousands of Gams along the weed lines in the TGG pond aka Kid's pond. They are a little hard to see but all those dark lines are Gambusia just waiting to be eaten by a smart predator.

The weeds are a little thicker than I normally like and they will be the subject of a PACU experiment which is currently ongoing. Finding the right balance of enough weeds for structure but not too many for fishing is a difficult and ongoing task.

ML
I spent yesterday and was also impressed with the GAMs. I put in 50# of Roseys and had a flash flood 4-5 DAYS after stocking a couple weeks ago. Worst rise on creek I've seen at this ranch. Since the flood have yet to see a Rosey . I am thankful for your Gam info and stocked them last fall. They are everywhere. In the creek...100s in the entire watershed where ever there's a puddle. I do get warm fuzzys when they get airborn from a BG or LMB under them.
edit I will have a primrose problem at this new pond but will leave it for now. The GAMs love to hide in it.

I did a dipnet survey yesterday. A lot of my big female gams are "un-pregnant", but I have yet to spot any young. There should be 1000's, and I guess I'll be seeing them soon. One day I was dip netting gams at a friend's lake, and netted about 20 baby gams in 1 scoop. It was the one of the funniest things I have ever seen. There they were, 20 tiny gams, with tiny thin bodies, big staring eye, and all lined up exactly the same inside the net. I could have kicked myself for not bringing my camera. It would have made a stunning picture.

Fish Base
The species is viviparous . Internal fertilization is possible because the anal fin of the male is modified into a copulatory organ. The females carries about 30 alevins and gestation lasts for a period of 24 days to a month .

EFish
Reproductive Habits:
� Mature rapidly, and may reproduce 4-6 weeks after birth
� Spawning occurs mid-April to September in water 15.5-20�C
� 3-4 weeks for young to develop inside female, young are born live
� 1-354 young per brood

ML and bobad, its tough to get a good pic of the little fellers aint it?

i think my new BG are making a dent in the gams.

my pond has a small sub basin (sediment basin) separated by a sediment dam. we surveyed the middle portion of sediment dam to be between 6 to 12" below spillway level at other end of pond. maybe to find more shallows or escape predation or both.....hundreds, maybe thousands of gams have moved up into the sediment basin and will become trapped as the pond level drops going into summer.

jeff (if listening), i'm fairly confident if you want more gams and our friendly fish farmer doesnt have them, just come on down again and we'll scoop some out. i'll be needing to transfer them into main pond body within the next couple months.

ewest, Wow!! I had no idea they could bear that many young! I was thinking maybe 30, 40 tops.

Working on my dock today, and began noticing lots of nearly 1" baby gams. They appear to grow in length very quickly, and put on body mass more slowly. I bet I have been seeing babys all along, and not noticing how skinny they were. I'm hoping for a gam explosion before I stock the LMB.

Jeff is listening, jeff is always listening. spooky ain't it.