Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Copepods

A couple ice fishing magazines had articles stressing the importance of copepods to bluegill in the winter time. Are these something that will automatically show up in the ponds/lakes or is this something we could / should stock?

Ranger - Every water body that I have examined including new waters that are several months old have contained copepods. However there are many described copepod species (8000-10000 worldwide and around 100+ common North American species). As a group they are generally smaller than the Daphnia types of zooplankton. Some of the copepods are predatory feeders.

Many of the common copepods of fish ponds are smaller types that easily avoid being eaten due to their small size. I am preparing an article about zooplankton for PBoss magazine, watch for it in several months. Do you have any topics that I should cover in the article?

I used to fish a 35 acre lake in New England that had zooplankton large enough that you could see them with the naked eye. In fact they would actually come up into your ice hole bouncing around and apparently were quite active even in winter. The brook trout we caught through the ice were full of them.

I took some to school in seventh grade and we observed them with a microscope. Not sure how much the teacher knew, but she identificed them as "water fleas" which I'm sure is generic term. Bill?

Addtionally our local biologists here in northern Indiana maintain that zooplankton is an important food source for the trout that are planted in local lakes. One article says that rainbow trout can get to 3 to 5 pounds on zooplankton alone. However I personally don't see as fast a growth rate and as good a holdover in strictly zooplankton lakes vs. lakes that have gizzard shad or perch as forage fish.

Thanks Bill & Cecil!

Bill: As to future articles? Zooplanton sounds good. I've seen the pyramid XXX pounds of forage = XX pounds of bluegill = X pounds of bass. I've learned about the bluegill / bass. Still don't know much about the zooplanton / invert level. Would like to know a lot more about scuds / grass shrimp. Positives? Negatives? In which states are they legal to buy? Potential vendors? Etc.

I called IDNR early last week? about if I could buy Gammarus lacstris from out of state to stock. I hope to hear back from them this week. It'd be nice if there was a US map you could click on the state and it would say what was / wasn't legal / and about the process.

Thanks for the info. I'm learning more all the time.

An IDNR rep provided me with an Illinois Approved Species list. Gammarus lacustris are not on it so I won't buy any after all.

I just went and collect 50-75 gammarus spp. from a local creek. I just flipped over rocks and scooped them up with an aquarium net. My fish go crazy for them. I have found that the ones in my creek like a little slower water with lots of rocks, and they are not under every rock, there distribution seems patchy. Ones from a stream may or may not be adapted to ponds, but it doesn't take long to collect them (at least from Miller Creek).