Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Water chemistry Ammonia

My pond is only a year old. It is small pond at about .25-.75 of a surface acre. It is about 11' at the deepest point. I do have it stocked with 60 walleye and 80 black croppie and 125 HBG. My forage base has been lots of FH and tadpoles all over. I am airateing. One thing is I have no spill way or drain out of the pond. The only fresh water is run off. The water levels are good. Now to my question. I understand that aireation doesn't remove ammonia. Is this something I should be concerend with, if yes how do I handle it. Thanks for your replies.

MNFisherman- Fortunately, bacteria known as Nitrosomonas utilize ammonia as a food source breaking it down into nitrites. Nitrites are almost as bad as ammonia as far as fish toxicity is concerned and it's just as well that nitrites form a food source for a second bacterial grouping called Nitrobacter. Nitrobacter break nitrites down into nitrates, which are relatively harmless when compared to ammonia and nitrites. Both of these bacteria use oxygen in their conversion process. This is the reason that ammonia is only a problem in a pond that is overloaded or contains low amounts of DO.

Ammonia is rarely ever a problem unless you have lots and lots of overcrowded fish, such as an aquaculture production situation.

Don't expect your walleye to grow very fast with 60 in 0.5 - 0.75 acre of water. Keep us advised on their growth rates as time goes by.

Here are the full fact sheets on the question from SRAC.

http://srac.tamu.edu/tmppdfs/13092343-SRAC4603.pdf

http://srac.tamu.edu/tmppdfs/13092343-463fs.pdf.

In properly managed fish ponds,
ammonia seldom accumulates to
lethal concentrations. However,
ammonia can have so-called �sublethal�
effects�such as reduced
growth, poor feed conversion, and
reduced disease resistance at
concentrations that are lower than
lethal concentrations.


Maintaining
high dissolved oxygen levels by
aeration will slightly reduce the
toxic effect of un-ionized ammonia.
In addition, TAN levels may
be reduced through increased aerobic
bacterial activity due to higher
oxygen levels.

Thanks for the good info. I plan to continue aeration over the winter to keep a small area open. My actual walleye numbers are less than 50, I lost a few due to stress from inital stocking. When I put them in they were about 6" long. I'm not interested in bass so I was hopeing the walleye would act as a good pred fish. I understand alot of the concerns about stocking croppie. If the walleye don't get the job done, I'm considering stocking 1 Northern pike. Some times the only way I seem to learn is the school of hard knocks. From the info you guys have given me, I shouldn't have to be concerned with ammonia yet. I don't think my over all fish populations are to far out of line yet. Next spring my croppie may or may not spawn, then it might be a diffrent story. I don't think the walleyes will spawn and from what I have read on PB the HBG should't? Thanks again for your great info and sorry about the long post.

Your HBG should reproduce but it will be at a greatly reduced rate when compared to BG and 90+ % should be male. What about a HSB or 2 to control crappie #s if needed.

I agree HSB would be good for helping to control small crappie, and would maintain your control of predator numbers. From what we've read about NP here and in PB Mag, I'd be worried that a Northern would be more likely hurt control efforts by eating Walleye.

Do you guys know of anyone local to MN who deals with HSB?.

I don't know if HSB would survive in MN but I also doubt if the DNR would let you stock them. If they're not indegenous to MN forget it. Also, they won't let you bring in fish from out of state either. I've tried that. I worked directly with the DNR fish pathologist to try to get his approval to bring fish from out of state and it was impossible. There's no law against it but his requirements are impossible to meet. Matter of fact I tried to get approval to ship some of Ken's Georgia Giants into MN and couldn't get it approved without Ken spending lots of money to guarantee disease free.

I'm sure they would also requier some kind of transportation permit. I don't think you can transport live game fish even if they are native to the state of MN, unless you are licensed. I wonder if I could get away with buying a few larger walleye from the local hatchery. That might make for a better option than NP or HSB.
Then I can have them delivered or get a temp permit from the hatchery.

Yes, the stocking permit you get is also a transportation permit. It includes information such as the date and approximate time the fish will be transported, the license number of the vehicle transporting them, and the route the vehicle will travel, the hatchery license, etc. The permit is free and easy to get from your area fisheries manager as long as you are not stocking something non-indigenous to MN. You do need to fill it out and send it in and then wait for it to come back approved. My fisheries guy was good enough to let me leave out the transportation date and other information until he approved it and then call him with the delivery info so he could fill it in before he sent it back to me.