Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose High Quality Bass Forage, the Lake Chubsucker

This should help.
The Progressive Fish-Culturist
Volume 40, Issue 1 (January 1978) pp. 33–34

Possible Use of the Lake Chubsucker as a Baitfish Jerome V. Shireman, Robert L. Stetler, and Douglas E. Colle School of Forest Resources and Conservation University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611

ABSTRACT: Adult lake chubsuckers (Erirnyzon sucetta) were placed in a 0.3-ha vegetated pond where they spawned. A population estimate yielded a mean biomass estimate of 514 kg/ha; the fish averaged 128 mm total length. Females produced an average of 18,478 eggs. Food analysis indicated that fingerling chubsuckers consumed primarily filamentous algae, cladocera, chironomid larvae, and copepods. Fingerling lake chubsuckers seem ideally suited for use as bait minnows since they have round cylindrical bodies, soft fins, and golden color. In addition they are hardy and can withstand the stress of handling.

At least 20 species of fish have been raised as baitfish in the United States. Of these, the go!deen shiner (Noternigonus crysoleucas), fathead minnow (Pirnephales promelas), and the common goldfish (Carassius auratus) have been cultured successfully in the southeastern United States (Anon. 1970). These species have the following characteristics in common: they are easily and inexpensively raised, they have sufficiently high fecundity to establish large fingerling populations, they spawn naturally in ponds, and they are acceptable to fishermen. Additional features such as hardiness, cylindrical body, and vigor are desirable characteristics of baitfish. The golden shiner and fathead minnow are soft-rayed species, which is also a desirable trait.

The lake chubsucker (Erirnyzon sucetta) is distributed through the eastern United States, ranging from eastern Minnesota to New England and south to Florida and Texas (Eddy 1957). It is found in a variety of habitats including ponds, lakes, and low-gradient streams with mud and sand bottoms (Bennett and Childers 1966). Because the lake chubsucker exhibits many of the characteristics desirable in baitfish, we undertook a study to obtain life history data and to evaluate the potential of the species for commercial culture.

Methods

Lake chubsuckers were collected from December 1975 through March 1976 for fecundity estimates. After capture, fish were measured to the nearest millimeter (total length) and weighed to the nearest 0.1 g. The ovaries were weighed to the nearest 0.01 g and preserved in Gilson's solution, which hardened the eggs and freed them from the ovarian membranes. We washed the preserved eggs through a series of USA Standard sieves (2,000, 850, 600, 250, and 125/am) to separate them into uniform size groups from volumetric displacement estimates. Mean egg sizes were determined for both preserved and fresh eggs by placing a sample of eggs in a partitior•ed petri dish and measuring them.

On 18 March 1976, 7 male and 11 female chubsuckers (269 to 404 mm total length) were stocked in a 0.36-ha vegetated pond. Eighteen brood stock channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) were already in the pond. Fingerling grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) were stocked on 18 July 1976. Grass carp consumed all the vegetation in the pond except for a small stand of cattail (Typha sp.). On 17 October 1976 the pond was sampled with electrofishing gear to collect chubsuckers and to estimate the fingerling population. Chapman's modification of the Peterson formula, N = (m+ 1)i'C+ 1)/R+ 1, was used to estimate the number of small chubsuckers (Ricker 1975). Confidence intervals were established by using binomial tables (Steel and Torrie 1960). The upper one-third of the digestive tracts of 15 young of-the-year chubsuckers from the pond were examined for food and the percentage occurrence of each food item was determined.

Results

Fecundity Eggs were separated into three size groups upon sieving. Materials that passed through the 250 -/am sieve contained ovarian tissue and small immature ova. These small ova were not used in fecundity estimates because they would not be expected to mature during the current spawning season. Mature preserved eggs were separated into large (700/am) and intermediate (400/am) size classes. Wagner and Cooper (! 963) reported that mature eggs of creek chubsuckers (Erirnyzon oblongus) varied in size, depending on the degree of ripeness. Behmer (1965) found large, intermediate, and small transparent eggs in the ovaries of carpsuckers (Cariodes carpio). Although he at first assumed that the intermediate-sized eggs represented an egg stock for a second spawning, he later found that the intermediate-sizeggs remained in the ripening ovaries until spawning and were apparently released with the larger eggs during spawning; he found neither intermediate nor large eggs in spent ovaries. In our study we found that ovaries contained only small transparent eggs after spawning. The relation between intermediate and large egg sizes obtained by Behmer was very similar to ours. For this reason we included both large and intermediate sized eggs in the fecundity estimates, on the assumption that both sizes of eggs were viable. The 14 chubsuckers used in this estimate were 259 to 347 mm long. The mean fecundity estimate was 18,478 (SD • 5,477) eggs. The correlation between the logarithm of fish length and total number of intermediate and large eggs was not significant (P•0.05)(nonsignificance may have resulted from the small sample size).

Population Estimate Electrofishing for a population estimate was done from 17 October 1976 to 2 February 1977. A total of 1,262 chubsuckers were captured; 1,022 were marked and released, and 147 were later recaptured during the collecting period. The population estimate for the pond was 8,730 young-of-the-year chubsuckers. Confidence intervals (P • 0.05) were
7,683 to 10.127 fish. THe total mean biomass estimate was
514 kg/ha (455 lb/acre). On 15 October 1976 the mean total
length of these fish was 117 mm (SD -- 29.3), and by 1 February
1977, when the study was terminated, the mean length was 128 mm (SD -- 23.4).

Food Habits

Fifteen chubsuckers (83 to 152 mm long) were collected from the pond and examined for food. All intestines with food (14) contained detrital material and sand grains, indicating bottom-feeding. Fish 83 to 103 mm long fed primarily on filamentous algae (100% occurrence), cladocerans (25% occurrence), and chironomid larvae (25% occurrence). Copepods were of lesser importance (13% occurrence). Larger fish, 127 to 152 mm long, fed
primarily on copepods (50% occurrence) and algae (25% occurrence); cladocera, ostracods, and chironomid larvae (13% occurrence) were eaten with equal frequency.

Discussion

Lake chubsuckers can be propagated easily and inexpensively, and spawn in vegetated ponds without artificial stimulation. The young fish do not require supplemental food but feed on naturally occurring organisms that can be increased by fertilization. In the laboratory, however, young chubsuckers accept artificial feeds and might use such foods in culture ponds. Young-of-the-year chubsuckers are extremely hardy and, unlike bait fishes in the cyprinid family, do not have deciduous scales; consequently they antal food but feed on naturally occurring organisms that can be increased by fertilization. In the laboratory, however, young chubsuckers accept artificial feeds and might use such foods in culture ponds. Young-of-the-year chubsuckers are extremely hardy and, unlike bait fishes in the cyprinid family, do not have deciduous scales; consequently they are less susceptible toinjury.

Our fecundity estimates indicated that this species produced adequte numbers of eggs to sustain production ponds. Unfortunately, lake chubsuckers do not reproduce during their first year and brood stock must therefore be held to maturity or collected each year from wild populations; however, it may be used for several seasons. We are not certain of the age of the first spawning, but maturity is probably reached in the third year of life.

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by special funds from the Center of Environmental Programs of the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida.

References

Anonymous. 1970. Report to the fish farmers. U.S. Bur. Sport
Fish. Wildl. Resour. Publ. 83. 124 pp.
Behmer, D.J. 1965. Spawning periodicity of the river carpsucker,
Carpiodes carpio. Iowa Acad. Sci. 72:253-262.
Bennett, G.W., and W.F. Childers. 1966. The lake chubsucker as
a forage species. Prog. Fish-Cult. 28:89-92.
Carnes, W.C. 1958. Contributions to the biology of the eastern
creek chubsucker, Erimyzon oblongus (Mitchill). M.S. thesis,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh. 69 pp.
Eddy, S. 1957. How to know the freshwater fishes. Wm. C. Brown
Co., Dubuque, Iowa. 253 pp.
Ricker, W.E. 1975. Computation and interpretation of biological
statistics of fish populations. Dep. Environ. Can., Fish. Mar.
Serv. Bull. 191. 382 pp.
Steel, R.G.D., and J.H. Torrie. 1960. Principles and procedures
of statistics. McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York. 481 pp.
Wagner, C.C., and E.L. Cooper. 1963. Population density,
growth, and fecundity of the creek chubsucker, Erimyzon
oblongus. Copeia 1963(2):350-357.

Accepted 17 October 1977

34 THE PROGRESSIVE FISH-CULTURIST