For those of you interested in golden shiners as a prey species, I did some more checking after Bob's comment on parasites in the females. I checked with my old fish culture professor (Steve Flickinger). His response follows.
"Dave, the parasite is Pleistophora ovarie. As the name implies, it invades ovaries, and of course older females have had more time to accumulate greater numbers of parasites. Upon discovery of the parasite, Stuttgart, AR people were recommending use of only age 1 broodstock. My minnow farmer contacts told me age 1 golden shiners are too unpredictable, and thus they used older shiners and increased the number of brooders to compensate for lower fecundity. Once upon a time there was a recognized subspecies of golden shiner for the more northern and western populations. It probably is all messed up now with bait bucket introductions. As I recall this parasite is found only in golden shiners, but I think another species is found in salmonids." End of quote from Doc Flickinger.
So, I guess I'll have to do some checking and see how widespread this parasite might be. At least initially, I think that I'll contact the state biologists, and ask if I can collect some wild golden shiners from them during next spring's electrofishing. Perhaps the wild populations might have few or no parasites?? Obviously, I have more questions than answers, but Bob has certainly re-awakened my interest in trying to get some golden shiners established in some of our ponds.
Dave Willis
