mnfish - I doubt the NP will heed your advice and stay small. IMO they will eliminate your YP over the next few years especially the YP 8"-10" or sizes that you prefer to harvest. They are also likely to prey pretty hard on the BH which may be in your plans. BG and BCP will be the least favored prey but they will definately get consumed. Ideally you want male NP not females. Male NP stay smaller than females. If you had a choice of stockers IMO it would have been best to choose the runts (probably males) in the tank thus maybe getting closer to slower growing NP. Keep us advised of your progress. I am very interested in how your YP handle the NP introductions.
I always doubted the "eating machine" label the NP often get. Toothy yes, aggressive - maybe not so much. I doubt that pound for pound an NP eats more than a LMB. I've worked with NP and LMB and IMO you can't get much more aggessive behavior than a LMB. Granted a NP can develop a larger weight than a LMB. It is understandable that the larger weight predator will eat more than the smaller predator. It takes a certain amount of fish biomass to gain a pound of body weight, so unless a fish is adding more weight per year than another fish the amount eaten is probably very similar.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 08/27/12 11:00 AM.
