Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations New Venture!

Hello.

Wow, that involves a lot of research what you do.

Some questions if you want.

Do your YP and SMB larvae stay in the tanks or you send them to a pond prepared in advance.

The SMB larvae must be like the YP larvae the first days if there is non living they let themselves die.

If you leave the larvae of YP and SMB in the tanks I suppose you pump the Zooplankton from a small pond prepared with a bloom full of Zooplankton

Maybe you have other ideas.

Everything related to the first days of larvae interests me.

I see you are staying in Kansas it's hotter than here for the Zooplankton.
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Azteca, fry are removed from hatch tank at 48hrs from sight of first hatch and transferred to fertilized pond. Whatever hatches in that first 48 hrs is all the fish that go into first growing pond. Next 72 hrs go in 2nd pond, third 72 hrs go into 3rd pond if hatch lasts that long. At 21 days a sample is taken and average length taken. when fish average 35-40mm They are seined and moved into feed training tank. Belt feeders are loaded and fish are fed 24/7, sorted every 5th day per size and separated into different containment structures in feeding tank. 3" is the goal in training tank. at this point fish of slightly differing lengths can be put together in ponds ready for constant pellet feeding.
I have a chance to gather perch ribbons from my grower in Colorado this coming spring as he tosses literally thousands of these up on the bank every spring because they lay the ribbons on our trap nets and nearly cover the traps every morning. These will be my test subjects on my new spawning mats. I don't know yet how the size will compare between the 2 when the SMB reach 40mm, but if YP are not much bigger I may try to feed train some together.

Hello.

Nice job, you don't seem to have any problems with your bloom and Zooplankton.

Here when the Perch eggs hatch and I have little Zooplankton due to the temperature too low, I put a big spot above the big pond to concentrate the zooplankton and I send the Zooplankton in my small pond under the light.

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A few pics of the more interesting things...







The "Place"....

Hello.

Thank you for sharing the evolution of your business with us.
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Hello.

How do you start your Smallmouth bass.

Do you have broodstock in a tank, or do you pick up the larvae in the pond, near the nests.
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Look at the 2nd post above your post. That shows the broodstock and the spawning mats.

Hello.

Thank you esshup, it's the first time I see those mats.

Does it work well.

I have questions about that, but I don't want to pollute is post.
I will make another post.
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azteca,

I would be interested in reading about that too!

My two cents - go ahead and start a new post on that topic. We have lots of people that do fish rearing that could contribute to the thread - even if Snipe is swamped taking care of all of his baby fishes! He can always chime in later.

It is said to be much higher success rate vs allowing them to spawn in pond.
The Mat is called Spawntex and is available in several aquaculture specialty shops.
Most all reproduction facilities use the spawtex mats- because they work extremely well.

And they are reusable from year to year.

Hello.

Have you ever tried this mat in the pond to see if it work for the Smallmouth bass.
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I am this year, Azteca. Setting in on a 2x2 pallet with 5 blocks around it. Hoping to get 1 of 3 with eggs to hatch off indoors. "IF" I can make this happen I will save 6-10 fish back to use in my breeding program. Many hatcheries place these in runs for nesting smb and results seem to be very good.
As esshup said above, they are re useable. I've had Red shiner blow eggs on these and when done I set them in a vat with 35% Hydrogen peroxide for 30 min then rinse them off and dry.

Hello.

I was also thinking about that , putting the mat on pallets surrounded by blocks.

Imagine how easy it would be if it worked.

Everything could stay in place, pallet and blocks, simply put a clean mat every spring.
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