Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Fish "flashing"

I spend between 100 and 200 hours under water each year, a fair amount of that time observing fish and other aquatic behavior. The vast majority of this time is in clear ocean water, but would like to do some more in the pond next summer if it clears up enough to see anything.

One particular behavior of certain species of fish is something called "flashing". It is nothing more than them coming up close to something, and quickly using their momentum to rub up against that item. I assume it is to attempt to remove parasites, or do something similar to what a cow does when rubbing up against a tree or a dog scratching .

Where I'm at now, along about a half hour before sunset, Creole Wrasse by the tens of thousands form a line of loosely a few fish wide and deep and like a conveyor belt they travel to what I have to assume is their nite time sleeping area. This conveyor belt of fish can go on for an hour or so.

They swim by in this continuous "school". Certain sponges they somehow choose to "flash" against. Not every fish uses this chosen "flashing" point, but maybe one out of every 50 or 100 will pull out of the school momentarily, "flash" against this purple tube sponge, and jump back in line and continue on with the rest. I've hovered in the water for ten minutes at a time watching this one sponge get "flashed" against. Sometimes the sponge will actually get a slick appearance it has been rubbed up against so much by the fish. There are other species that also flash against things, but there are just so many Creole Wrasse and they do it so obvious and repeatedly that the behavior is so much more noticeable than other species. There might be a Wrasse flash against a certain sponge every 4 or 5 seconds.

I'm getting to the point. Slowly, but I'm getting there.

What I'm wondering, is what would happen if a person put a cattle salt block or blocks in a pond in a few feet of water. Would BG or LMB use it as a rubbing block or "flashing" point?

It has been discussed here on PBF the benefit of salt in the water. It has also been discussed about the number of gallons a pond might contain and how many truck loads of salt it would take to actually make any difference in the water salt concentration.

But what if a person provided a concentrated area of salt water? Like a square cattle salt lick block sitting in the water? Wonder how many days it would take the salt block (either white or mineral) to dissolve and go away? Wonder if it would provide a high salt concentration zone within a half inch of the block? Wonder if fish with parasites or other skin/scale problems would use it as a "flashing" block? Wonder if it would provide any benefit at all?

Would it hurt anything to throw a half dozen cattle salt blocks in the pond?

Maybe too much time on my hands to ponder such things?

utube clip of Creole Wrasse

I gotta ask. Do people eat Creole Wrasse?

I had a plan, and the plumbing in place to actively pump salt water into my pond every 7-8 days. We were going to backflush my soft water tanks into my pond instead of into my septic tanks. Lots of controversy on what makes the septic tanks corrode and collapse around these parts. Some septic companies blamed the water treatment folk for putting salt water in the cement septic tanks. The water treatment folk paid to have studies done on salt discharge into the tank vs somewhere else and they feel they can prove that it is the gasses in the sewage themselves that break down the cement and not the salt at all but the debate continues.

My plumbing problem got complicated when the iron filtration system that keeps the stain potential out of my underground sprinkling needed to backwash every night, and on the night that the salt water had to recharge and the iron system had to backwash, they both used the same pipes to flow into the pond. We were worried that the salt system may not have enough pressure to exit down the same lines.

So we ended up separating the plumbing and now the salt water goes to its own place, not in the pond, but the high iron discharge water (we figure about 700 gallons or so every time the sprinklers run) go into the pond.

I wouldn't care if the little bit of salt water went into the pond but for now it isn't.

I like the idea of a salt brick though. Even if it isn't a flashing point, it makes me wonder if the microenvironment around that salty 'zone' would be attractive. I also wonder if eventually they will make fish food 'bricks' that are embedded in a slow release matrix or a salt block matrix that as the matrix softens the fish can pick away at the food in a slow release fashion. This would be easy, throw a brick out every 50 feet or so in the shallow areas and replace weekly...

Along the same line of thinking, I was thinking of adding Trophy Rock to my well water where it entered the pond. It is a mineral rock with some salts. But after giving it much thought, I think it would take a ton or two of it for any benefit if there was a benefit.
Tracy

Not that I'm aware of, but when we used to dive a lot off the coast of Mexico, the Mexicans would bring stuff in that I did not think was edible. So who knows.

They are planktonic feeders (eat zooplankton mostly). You will see them eating tiny particles in open water. The biggest ones only get maybe 6 or 8 inches with the average much closer to 4, but then people (not me) eat sardines and anchovies, so maybe that does not make a difference.

They and Chromis seem to make up a large portion of what I would consider the small fish side of the food chain around reefs. There are lots and lots of them, and lots of larger fish feed on them. They are kind of like BG in relation to LMB in a pond.

That is why I thought that in the water might be better. As soon as it dissolves and distributes throughout the BOW it is in much too small of concentration to do any good. Maybe a concentrated spot could be beneficial? Don't know.

I may try a few blocks this spring and just see what happens. I mostly wanted to find out from the experts or anyone that has tried such a thing if there could be any harm done. As long as I can't hurt anything, then worst case will be a few dollars wasted on some salt that does little good. I've wasted money on more frivolous things, so it would be nothing new in that respect.

What amount of lime have you added to your pond and have you conducted a ph test at different times of the day?

Limed the pond basin based on soil test before it filled and added some more around the edge after it was about a year old.

Checked the ph with a soil ph meter a couple times but don't remember for sure what it was. Somewhere around 7 so I quit worrying about it and did not check it any more.

Good algae bloom and about 24" visibility due to algae during most of the summer. Did clear up a lot clearer this fall, but had FA growing on the bottom so figured it was taking up the nutrients.

Water seems to be pretty healthy.

Just remember snrub when you are diving YOU are part of the food chain. I've seen some monster tigers and hammerheads out there

Pat, since u brought it up (tigers and Hammer heads), I have been wade fishing around Mustang Island and other places in S. Texas and every time I go I keep a close eye around me for the sharks that might want to eat the Reds and Specks that drag behind me on the stringer. I was so nervous about the wade fishing that I looked up shark attacks along the Texas coast, and to my surprise there were no reports of such things. One guy got bit when removing a hook from the mouth of a shark but that was all I found. I'm always a little nervous about it when I go. I will not wade fish in Florida haha
Tracy

Hi Tracy,

Here are the Texas shark attack stats. Looks from the stats perspective pretty safe.



http://surfingintexas.com/texas-shark-attack/

LOL, I would be happy to see some. There is a place called Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica I've always wanted to go that has hundreds of the Hammerheads to watch. But my wife is into Macro stuff and open water current diving is not her thing and my dive buddy crapped out on me and got a divorce so no one to go with. Funny how thinking with the little head can totally screw up a guys life (my buddy, not me). I should have done it ten years ago. Shudda, coulda, wooda.

Sharks generally speaking don't bother divers. If you happen to get in some territorial scuffle with one it might end up bad, but they don't look at divers as a food source. And just like the fish in our ponds, everything on the fish mind is about eating their preferred food, reproducing and territorial issues. Come to think of it, I'm not that much different!

We have been diving a lot with sharks in the Bahamas but mostly reef and nurse sharks. It is a rare treat to see a Tiger, Bull or Hammerhead. Have only seen a few in my few thousand hours of diving.

Swimmers, surfers and waders are hundreds or thousands times more likely of getting bitten by a shark than divers. Usually a case of mistaken identity and in turbid water. The shark makes a mistake and the swimmer pays for it.

Snrub
As a past charter captain I have over the years seen some huge hammers and tigers... On one trip we were tied up behind a shrimp boat that had been culling their catch. Our target was kingfish. We had a nice king maybe 30lbs on and a 800-1000lb tiger showed up. The water was calm and with the sun directly overhead you could see down 30-40' and see the chase play out. The king did well for a few moments till it tired out. The tiger hit it from the side cutting it into three pieces. Couple of chews and it turned around and ate the tail section. The fisherman was reeling in the head section but the tiger had other ideas, hitting it right behind the gills. The poor fisherman wound up with about six inches of fish..... But what a show that was. They are amazing critters.



Pat