Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose yellow perch

Greg - I recommend you use some caution here with yellow perch for your region. Think this through and make sure the client understands that y. perch MAY not perform as he dreams, expects or has heard about or experienced in the north. Educate the client so he does not blame you for "poor" results.

1. Keep in mind that y. perch are classed as a coolwater fish. Preferred temps of adults are 65-70 deg. Best growth of our northern stains is at 72 deg. Lethal temps (from literature) are around 89-90 deg. Some northern Ohio pond owners have experienced deaths of largest adults during hot spells (2 wks at 90+ deg air temps; surf water 90-92deg). Depth and stratification is key here. Perch can tolerate fairly low DO levels; slightly lower than bass & bgill. In Georgia, you are pushing Y.perch to their southern geographical limit and the results will reflect this limitation.

2. Y. perch require a cold period for gamate development. Cold temps of 39-42 degrees are required. I do not know the minimum time length requirement for the cold period. Some years Georgia may not have long enough cold periods for adequate development of gamates. Spawning may be sporatic or nonexistant.

3. During the hottest periods, growth will stop or be minimal at best. Y. perch do not feed when the water is near their upper lethal limit. Due to this, largest individuals may only get 8"-9" maybe 10" depending on numerous things.

4. I highly recommend that your fingerlings come from southern raised brood stock (Kentucky and south). I see a fairly wide tolerance to temperature in northern strains of perch. Those fingerlings from breeders acclimated for many years in southern OH "do" better in my region during hot summer than those from Michigan & Wisconsin.

5. Much better overall results will be obtained with coppernose bgill in N. Georgia. Taste of meat between the two is not all that different. Coppernose will definately get bigger, supply more meat and fight harder when caught.

6. Y. perch will not 'do' very well with LMB as the dominant predator. Perch stay slender too long during their life making them more vulnerable to predation by even smaller sized bass. Recruitment to 8"-9" could be very poor for perch. With sproadic spawning, which could occur often, deminished numbers of YOY will be low, thus providing inadequate forage for proper growth of LMB. Mixing them with bgill may help some here. My ex state fish hatchery buddy says breeding sized perch eat lots of bass fry.

7. Discuss all this with the pondowner. I would try and talk him out of adding perch to his pond in Georgia. Y. perch are easy to put in the pond but damn hard to get out if they are causing problems. They will definately compete with the YOY & juvenile bass AND small perch with also compete heavily with larger bgill for invertebrate food items. I suspect the overall bgill population will decrease and their growth will become slower if perch are added. Does he have a legitimate reason for stocking other than good eating? Maybe copy this and show it to him.