Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations White amars (sp)

Trying to recreate what I had on before:

Grass Carp, Tilapia, Shad, etc. - They do not create or destroy nutrients - they move it around.

Take your 1 lb GC that grows to 3 lbs in a year. It removes 2 lbs of plant matter from the pond (assuming the % of water in fish flesh and the plant are equivalent; if not, substitute the words "dry weight" and my argument remains). It consumes much more plant matter than that to fuel itself during the year, but that weight is not removed from the pond - just recycled back into nutrients.

(A VERY tiny amount of mass is converted into energy by the GC - E=MC squared - but that amount is truly miniscule AND is returned when plants use the nutrients and more energy from photosynthesis to grow. From a weight/mass standpoint, the mass equivalent of the energy involved in chemical reactions is negligable).

GC are good at recycling bulky plants they like to eat into nutrients. Tilapia are good at recycling FA into nutrients. Shad are good with plankton. And LMB & HSB are good at recycling small fish. The ecosystem turns these recycled nutrients back into more plants - what kinds depend on the plant species that are in the pond and what the resident fish allow to grow versus eating almost all of.

Nutrients can be removed from a pond by removing fish (catch & keep or ML's 4 legged dead tilapia cleanup crew), removing plants (raking), water flowing out with nutrients in it, or organic material turning into bottom muck. Nutrients can be added by feeding, fertilizing, or bugs & leaves blowing into the pond. But fish species do not eliminate nutrients - they move them around, possibly from one concentration of biomass (particular fish or plant species) to another.

Perhaps all this is rambling (had 3 hours sleep last night thanks to 10 year old with appendicitis scare & subsequent quality time in emergency room) but my point is, you guys (may) think you're disagreeing with each other when in fact you are looking at different parts of the same picture (like the blind men and the elephant, not that I mean any of you can't see what's going on).

I am sorry if removing this post in its earlier form (after I put it on I felt it was superfluous) or being flippant afterward contributed in any way to any misunderstandings. I agree with ALL of you (most of the time on everything, 100% I think on this post).