For the sake of open discussion, I'd like to talk about carrying capacity and what it means.
We know there are individual items that can increase carrying capacity to a point, BUT....
What happens when (I'm using a customer's pond as an example, or exhibit A) the owner has 3-4 species of fish, fairly balanced in most ways, then because of reasons I've yet to understand, gains access to about 120lbs of full-on adult bass, adds them to his pond and a year later, starts finding a big adult bass about every 3-4 days-dead. No other species visible as morts-only the adult bass, but they are good in body condition, no wounds, fungus or any visible ques.
This begs the question how and at what point does carrying capacity inflict mortality without affecting body condition?
Last summer, his bass were on nests, but only 1 nest noted of 23 produced visible fry. 22 male bass remained on nests for nearly 2 weeks before slowly abandoning the areas. I got on top of some of these and shot some video trying to get him some good footage.
Should this have been a sign of the adults not effectively reproducing by knowing it was over-crowded??? Is that possible?
I'd like to hear some thoughts on this.
