esshup - It is good to know that some of the more modern fish sellers such as some of the National famous largest wholesale fish farms use clean water holding methods. They have learned the hard way by loosing many thousands of $$,$$$,$$$ of valuable fish from the widely used technique of using pond water holding fish facility methods. It would be good to know what percentage of all those fish farms - largest to smallest - that sell fish operate using your above described methods. I know of some fish haulers while on the delivery trips will drain stressed out metabolite laden tank water and replace it with some convenient type of surface water from various convenient sources.
I - My - big question is what is done with the 'clean water wholesale fish' when they arrive at the small fish farm for resale until the fish are sold????? This holding time may last several weeks. I know of no small reseller fish farm that takes the precautions you describe above. Fresh oxygenated water is IMO all they are concerned about regardless what is present microscopically. Fresh oxygenated pond water is all good water - right? I doubt if any of the many smaller retail sellers even have the ability to microscopically examine their pond water used as dilution water for hauling fish. If some retailer fish sellers cannot even sell a fish allotment having sometimes thousands of fish, without introducing a few other "wild" or unwanted or unordered fish,,,, then what type of clean water methods are they using to hold their fish for resale????
Knowing all this information above, our ever present global wide Mother Nature has her own hundreds of ways to introduce her unseen gaggle of microscopic organisms into an open pond. My point main point here is when buying your fish hauled in bags or dipped out of a hauling tank why add one more unknown variable into to your pond that could have been easily avoided.?
In my example #2 above I say that added water from a drainage ditch, creek or river or another pond is acceptable to add to a new pond providing it is filtered at the discharge through 500um mesh (filter sock). Do you have any idea how many microscopic organisms and micro-algae as species of potential problems will pass through 500um(0.5mm) mesh?? Answer: ALL OF THEM. . Microscopic organism to me are things smaller than 2mm maybe 1mm (1/16"). Some of the adults could be retained by the mesh netting,,,, but how about those same species that are as forms of immaturity and many sizes smaller than the adults? Again - ALL OF THEM! My fish rinse technique is just a simple precaution and not a necessity.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/29/24 12:35 PM.
