Yesterday I received 1200 HSB from Keo Fish Farms in Keo Arkansas. It was an amazingly simple process. I thought I'd throw together a post with some youtube videos so people could see what to expect if they ever attempt similar. I'm attempting to grow them out in a 1100 sq ft pond til October of this year. Although I am starting them in a cage for the first week or so to allow me to monitor them. I'll try to update this with their growth. I apologize for not getting an actual picture of one so you could judge their size. I'll see what I can get done the next time I handle them. I also apologize as in the first video I called them muskie. Apparently I had muskie on my mind. Feel free to chime in and tell me what I did wrong so people can learn, etc.
Christmas morning.....
The acclimation period......
The release....
And two hours later they're feeding.... (sorry you can't see the feeding well, I had already thrown some in when I started videoing, it was fun to watch them swarm to the area and feed) And just for the record, Keo told me to start them on 1.5mm or smaller feed. I started them on Optimal Grower #2, which is 1.2mm.
So from 5pm Wednesday to 12pm on Thursday 1200 fish had gone from Little Rock Arkansas to South Central Nebraska, were acclimated and feeding. I hope the success continues.
Excellent report and well done !! Thanks for posting ! Good to see you habituate the fish !
For all - be sure when you open a O2 transport bag that you are ready to put the fish in the water (already tempered). The bag contains pure O2 reduced by the CO2 produced by the fish in process. As a result they need to go in to well oxygenated water as soon as the bag is opened.
That is a neat setup. I like being able to watch them for a while before letting them loose in the main pond.
I have the good fortune of having them in this cage for a few weeks, then letting them loose in that same pond (1100 sq ft) until October. At that time they get released in the main pond (15 acres). I really think these grow out ponds are going to be game changers for my main pond. And it'll allow me to grow specialty fish in my mid sized (2/3 acre) pond.
Very cool NEDOC! Thanks for taking the time to put it on video.
I had no idea wipers came from Littlerock. That would be within driving distance for me (5 hours according to mapquest). I will be watching your project with interest.
Very cool NEDOC! Thanks for taking the time to put it on video.
I had no idea wipers came from Littlerock. That would be within driving distance for me (5 hours according to mapquest). I will be watching your project with interest.
They come from near Lonoke, Arkansas. The nearest freight airport is Little Rock. Lonoke is about 25 miles east of LR.
Very cool NEDOC! Thanks for taking the time to put it on video.
I had no idea wipers came from Littlerock. That would be within driving distance for me (5 hours according to mapquest). I will be watching your project with interest.
They came from Keo Fish Farm which I believe is in Keo Arkansas.
You’ll get to see them in person in Sept snrub... as long as they make it.
Fellas, I just put this on here because I’m a complete novice and was thinking how I’d like something like this on pond boss just so I had a clue what I was getting myself into. I hope it helps someone. All in all it went as smooth as I could’ve hoped for. But I definitely would’ve felt more comfortable with a little bit of a tutorial to help me out.
I forgot to add that I began feeding them on Optimal Grower #2, which is 1.2mm in size. Keo told me 1.5mm or smaller. Ordering your food ahead of time seems fairly important. I'll update as I step up in pellet size.
As a note, I did order a 40lb bag of Optimal Grower #2. I have no idea if that was the right amount. I've got a feeling that I may have been better off ordering one of Optimal's 10 lb pails of Grower #2 and then step up to their 1.8mm feed for another 10lbs. I'll try to keep this updated as I go.
Here are my HSB feeding one week (actually 6 days) after arrival. Growth is noticeable. Probably even in this video. Again, I'm thinking I should've ordered only 10 lbs of Optimal Grower #2 instead of a 40 lb bag. I think these fish are already capable of moving up to the next size of pellet.
Cool vids, they are eating machines... do you plan to feed on the main pond?
My plan presently is to feed heavily when water temps are between 58 and 75, give or take a few degrees. I’ll shut off when the water gets above 75. The reason for that is twofold.... 1) I’ve read that hsb tend to stress when feeding above 80 degrees and 2) I’ve got an over abundance of common carp. By eliminating the feeding when temps are over 75 I’m hoping the hsb become more aggressive consumers of the newly hatched carp fry.
NEDOC, my Hybrid Stripers don't seem to stress. They are still feeding with no apparent ill effects. I rarely have 75 degree water.
That's great to know. I wasn't concerned about killing them. I just thought they may not feed as well. I'll still probably plan on shutting it down for 4-6 at some point in the summer to help control the carp population. But I can dictate it by the timing of the carp spawn rather than by water temps.
Great work Corey, love the experiments! Keep us updated and nice work on the transport I am happy our temps stayed low and allowed a nice trip for you and your babies.
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau
NEDOC - I have a suggestion. When you add the pellets do it by small hand fulls and try to spread-toss it into the cage trying to cover as much of the total cage surface as possible. Spread out the food offering. IMO when you just dump the pellets into the center the fish on the periphery do not get adequate amounts of food. As an added benefit, When you spread-toss the food out across the cage surface, there may be some smaller pond resident fish outside the cage that could get a few pellets which would also help them grow and it would make good use of your excess from the 40 lb Optimal bag. I agree with your idea of using just 10 lbs of Optimal for each size of pellet as the fish grow to the next larger pellet.
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