Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Source for PK shrimp and LCS

My catches in the adjacent pond to the marsh would produce 10-20 each net sweep during a mid September sampling. Longer sweeps resulted in more shrimp per netting attempt.The pond contained lots of coontail.

Hopefully, algae and eel grass will be enough without fish present. My biggest worry is a shock due to different water chemistry. Not sure what hard slightly basic water might do to PK's coming from softer acidic water?

PK will thrive in eel grass - my experience. If you get PK from soft water just temper them by slowly adding your pond water (1 qt at a time every several minutes) to the water the shrimp are in. Maybe transfer the receiving shrimp to a larger bucket for the tempering. This should also temper the water temperature.

Coontail does have benefits but I am not use the few benefits outweigh all the negatives.

I did the gradual transfer, but it was late so I only did it quickly over only 45 minutes. I am hopeful that going from warmer to colder water was less harmful than the opposite. I have more concern about pH and alkalinity. I will report back when I know more. For me, it is worth the risk of failure. I think cold introduction might be less stressful than during the warm season. The pond is completely open now that things warmed up a bit. Your comments give me greater hope that these are PK shrimp. I really love this stuff!

Your tempering introduction could have lasted overnight and into the next day. Grass shrimp do not consume large amounts of DO per individual compared to fish.

I know that I rushed it. I am a morning person. Hopefully at least one pair will make it and start a population. If not, maybe my conditions are not conducive to a sustainable population for me.

Since you have no predators in that small pond and if those southern acclimated shrimp can tolerate your IL winter water temps then surely some will survive to reproduce even in reduced habitat conditions. Predation after they hatch and then 1 year before they spawn causes a very high mortality esp when habitat is minimal or limited.

Since you have no predators in that small pond and if those southern acclimated shrimp can tolerate your IL winter water temps then surely some will survive to reproduce even in reduced habitat conditions. Predation after they hatch and then 1 year before they spawn causes a very high mortality esp when habitat is minimal or limited.

Central Indiana and moderated temps from groundwater, so maybe less of a thermal shock? I think that if I get an initial late spring spawn, I might be good? I am more worried about getting an initial spawn from the stockers. I do have plenty of algae right now growing on branches that I added a while back. Time will tell...

In the upper Midwest most female shrimp are gravid in June with lots of tiny hatched shrimp in July. Most hatchlings are close to adult size by the end of September. More growth will occur in spring as the shrimp mature toward the June gravid period.

I guess that I will know how things work out in a couple years.

If the stocking is successful and your fish do not eat all the offspring, you should be able to catch some YOY grass shrimp in some net sweeps among close to shore weeds during Sept-Oct 2017. Note these shrimp will be about 3/4"-1" body length; not mature and not full grown.

There are no fish are in this pond and I do not plan to add any fish until I have sustaining populations in additional ponds or wetlands (at least several years).

speaking of PK shrimp,
I saw 2 very unique lures when doing a image search for something else. Has anyone tried a lure that looks like a PK shrimp like in the picture below?

I also loved the lure that looked like multiple GSH or other baitfish stacked tightly together. That was a pretty brilliant design.

baitball lures

soft shrimp

Ryjohn is about a two hr drive to Monroe,and so I am not around that part of La very often. But I can say there are a lot of grass shrimp in lakes around here and one can catch them just like the way he described here. A bait shop also sells them here certain times of the year. I gave up trying to grow them until some veggies are growing in the pond. RAH, good luck with your project.

Thank you for the well wishes. The pond is warm enough that water beetles and backswimmers were moving about in the water yesterday. No PK's seen though, but the pond is 8-10' deep.

PK shrimp are sort of secretive and skittish. It is difficult to see them along shore especially if one is standing up. I only net mine by running a sweep net through some close to shore plants. I think there has to be pretty high numbers of them before you will consistently catch a few in a net sweep.

I'll try netting next fall and see what shows up. Hopefully they will breed like our local coyotes!

Any updates for us RAH?

You were concerned about water hardness, ph, what are your water quality parameters? Do your PK shrimp like it there? escaping predation and what grasses or weeds do they like? How do you sample them?

Thanks

No evidence that they survived. The water is hard (from an artesian well). The small pool also got invaded by GFS, but there are lots of plants to hide in.

GSF are ravenous on anything as small food items. GSF can significantly limit survival of fish fry, If your PK do not create a reproducing population blame the GSF as predators.

That is why I mentioned the GSF. The little pond is above a shallow duck pond that has GSF due to flooding events from a nearby stream. Guessing that they made it up to the artesian pond during a period of heavy rain when the overflow was running a bit heavier than normal. I did add a single LMB in the hopes that it would eat the GSF, but never saw it again. This little pond is only about 25' in diameter, but was dug 8, deep in the center.

RAH,

That is a nice little pond that you have created. Have you considered draining and starting over?

You might be able to pick a time to drain this summer when it would have minimal impact on all of the wildlife utilizing that pond. You could then re-start the pond with the ecology of your choice. You might only get 2-3 years before the next high-water event that puts GSF into the pond, but you could have established PK and a few larger LMB by then that could have a chance of extirpating a few invasive GSF.

Scooped a tractor bucket of water from pond to water newly planted trees and found hundreds of ghost shrimp swimming in it had to dump it back in pond….. I like my shrimp… guess the abundance of weed (slender spikerush )is good for something. Lots of the shrimp were carrying eggs

I had not heard of the "FEL" technique to sample the populations of ghost shrimp in a pond. I learn something new at Pond Boss every time I log in!