And what's your water temp?
I've removed two yellow perch egg ribbons from my biggest pond so far as of April 1. Water temp this morning was about 56.5 F.
No egg ribbons yet in my broodstock pond.
I was going to ask if there was a magic temperature when the YP spawn. Seems I recall about 53 degrees F? Is that close? I measured 47 deg. and no sign of perch eggs yet. I check every day though.
Here is a little info from several sources.
Yellow perch must undergo an extended period of cooler water temperatures to insure
proper development of their reproductive organs. Hokanson (1977) stated that this chill
period should be a minimum of 160 days at 50 oF or below, though Kolkovski and
Dabrowski (1998) reported the successful off-season (September-October) spawning of
yellow perch held in culture tanks and exposed to a chill period of 60 days at 50 oF.
The first egg ribbons were collected from the tanks on March 27th, and
spawning in all tanks continued through April 21st. Many of the ribbons were in small
segments (< 8 in) and these were incubated in McDonald egg jars (Figure 2) instead of on
the incubation racks. Water temperatures in the tanks ranged from 53.5 - 63.0 oF in
March. The majority of egg ribbon releases (referred to as peak spawning) occurred
during two distinct time periods, April 2nd - 6th and April 11th – 20th. Water temperatures
during these peak periods ranged from 53.4 – 59.4 oF and 53.4 – 67.3 oF, respectively
Ponds were inspected
daily for the presence of egg ribbons deposited on the trees. The first sighting of egg
ribbons occurred on April 17th (water temperature approximately 62.5 oF). It is possible
that spawning was occurring previous to this point, as it was impossible to see any trees
that were anchored to the bottom of the pond.
The fertilized eggs hatch within 10
days if water temperatures are slowly raised from
spawning temperature (15¼C) to 20¼C in increments
of 1¼C per day.
Common name: Yellow perch, lake perch
Scientific name: Perca flavescens
Production potential: Moderate, due to slow growth of males
Marketing potential: Potential: High
Size: 3-5 fish per pound
Market: Food
Temperature requirements: Growing: 55-78 F
Spawning: 50 F
Lethal: NA
Feed requirements: Protein: 32-40%
Fat: NA
Spawning requirements: Fish spawn in the spring when water temperatures reach 50 F. Eggs are
contained within a gelatinous ribbon. A 0.5 lb female will produce 10,000-
20,000 eggs. Eggs hatch in approximately two weeks at 53 F. Spawns may be
obtained by stripping eggs from ripe females and mixing with milt from males in
a dry container, mixed thoroughly and then water is added to activate the
sperm and permit fertilization.
ewest - where was the location of that study?
This year in NW OH the spring warming temps after ice out have been earlier than usual. Air temp was 80 today Apr 1, a record. Ice out was Mar 11 and first YP eggs were laid eight days later Mar 19 - water temp 50F. Usually first eggs are similar to that mentioned my ewest above Mar 27-Apr 1. I do have a few YP that are exceptions and spawn several days earlier than the main group. Yesterday Mar 31, I removed 5 gallons of YP eggs. Another pondowner 45 mi directly west of me also removed 5 gallons of eggs earlier this week. I expect the main spawn in my pond to occur this week. My records show normally the main spawn for YP in my pond is Apri 2-10. When I hear the toads trilling, my YP spawn is basically done.
No aquashade in my pond. I have found blue dye in other ponds slows the water temp warming, esp deeper, and delays the spawn several days to a week or more which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Bill that was an Ohio State Univ survey. Also some Wisc data. A bit from Vig. - all from Aquanic.
http://www.aquanic.org/species/yellow-perch/documents/perchspawn.pdfCody says- OKay thanks for the info, similar region as NW OH. Central OH is about 7-10 days ahead of northern OH.
Great info! So much to learn!
Thanks
Here is my first egg ribbon from the broodstock pond where I planted about 200 males and 20 females. I moved it via a dip net to the production pond and added it to a small christmas tree.
Found another egg ribbon in the big pond about 3 feet long. Also found a dead 13 3/8's female yellow perch that had released most of her eggs and died in the process. She was close to the egg ribbon so it was probably her egg ribbon.
Cecil, I think we may lose some perch to natural mortality during spawning time. A few years back, we brought some perch into the lab for spawning studies, and stocked a big female with several males in each aquarium. Several of those big females died after spawning, which has always stuck in my mind. That may be a stressful time when we lose some of the older fish to natural mortality? Perch are a fish that can exhibit high natural mortality rates, even when not harvested by anglers.
Cecil, I think we may lose some perch to natural mortality during spawning time. A few years back, we brought some perch into the lab for spawning studies, and stocked a big female with several males in each aquarium. Several of those big females died after spawning, which has always stuck in my mind. That may be a stressful time when we lose some of the older fish to natural mortality? Perch are a fish that can exhibit high natural mortality rates, even when not harvested by anglers.
Absolutely Dave. I have found stressed or dead females that apparently died in the spawning process or thereafter. I've seen some that appeared have tried to pass their eggs, but the eggs just didn't seem to want to come out completely. It appeared as if they partially were extruded and became water swelled, inhibiting the internal eggs from coming out.
I also think there may be in some cases, an attempt to reabsorb their eggs for whatever reason (in my case no males or few males present may be one reason), or perhaps a sudden drop in water temps. That is quite stressful also. At least I know it is with rainbow trout that reabsorb their eggs due to a lack of the correct spawning conditions.
Two more egg strands in the big pond this morning. Zip in the broodstock pond.
STILL waiting for my first YP spawn, I am starting to think my YP are sterile
STILL waiting for my first YP spawn, I am starting to think my YP are sterile
Do you have brush, weeds, etc. in deeper water they may be dropping their eggs on?
I removed a 5 gallon bucket full of ribbons from my pond last week as well. I distributed them to two ponds at my fathers place, he wanted perch so hopefully he will have plenty!! I left a couple ribbons I could observe in the shallows and that is all, no hatch as of yesterday but the eggs show very visible white larva forming in them, easily seen from ten feet away.
I'm getting a little concerned. In the pond where I moved 20 females to drop their eggs to be fertilized by up to 200 males I've only collected one egg ribbon that I moved to the production pond. I've removed about 6 or 7 egg ribbons from my big pond that is primarily females though. The problem is there may not be any males in that pond or two tops, so they are most likely not to be fertilized.
no ribbons for me either. This will be the first spring for my perch (stocked last year). Getting anxious and excited.
When collecting a redistributing, do you have to rehang, or can you just put them in the new pond?
no ribbons for me either. This will be the first spring for my perch (stocked last year). Getting anxious and excited.
How old and or how large were your perch when you planted them?
When collecting a redistributing, do you have to rehang, or can you just put them in the new pond?
Rehang to prevent the eggs from getting suffocated on the bottom. One needs to have good circulation around the eggs for optimum oxygen levels.
I just take a dip net, which I originally scooped them up with, and gently drop them on a deneedled Christmas tree in the production pond.
STILL waiting for my first YP spawn, I am starting to think my YP are sterile
Do you have brush, weeds, etc. in deeper water they may be dropping their eggs on?
In addition to stumps and Christmas trees this year I pushed a 40 foot long tree into the pond near my dock to get the branches into deeper water than last year. If this doesnt work I give up. I am seeing quite a few large perch when I am feeding so I know they are in there
STILL waiting for my first YP spawn, I am starting to think my YP are sterile
Do you have brush, weeds, etc. in deeper water they may be dropping their eggs on?
In addition to stumps and Christmas trees this year I pushed a 40 foot long tree into the pond near my dock to get the branches into deeper water than last year. If this doesnt work I give up. I am seeing quite a few large perch when I am feeding so I know they are in there
My point is they may be dropping their eggs in deeper water where you can't see them. Bill Cody and I put brush in less than 3 feet of water near the shoreline. One year before I used Aquashade, and had swimming pool clear water, I observed some egg strands laying on the bottom in the deepest water.
I just removed four or five strands from the big pond again that were distributed under the floating algae in some brush. Sneaky! Today I'm gong to rake out the floating algae mats so I don't miss any egg strands. I did see one of the smallmouth I planted last fall the other other day. And the toads are already laying their eggs.
Still no egg strands in the broodstock pond. I do remember that last time I did this they seemed somewhat delayed when I transferred fish. Perhaps they are delayed by the stress of moving or the new environment?
Cecil, just to deviate from topic a little, what would be the average growth of a 6 or 8 inch perch over the course of the summer and fall?
Cecil, just to deviate from topic a little, what would be the average growth of a 6 or 8 inch perch over the course of the summer and fall?
Pellet fed or natural feed? Male or female?
They would be pellet fed plus lots of natural forage, and both male and female. Would females grow that much faster than males?
They would be pellet fed plus lots of natural forage, and both male and female. Would females grow that much faster than males?
In optimum temps (upper 70's most of the summer) into the fall, I would expect the 6 to 8 inch perch to be 8 to 10 inches by fall possibly a few female shooters slightly bigger. This is the females,however,that do grow faster than the males. I have 2 to 3 year old males of the same age that are 3 to 4 inches smaller than the females. They look like runts compared to the females.
Your soft water and low PH could stifle growth a little though.
For me once the perch get to about 11 or 12 inches they seem to grow about an inch a year under optimum conditions.
Let's see if Bill Cody (Dr. Perca) concurs.
Bill?
Cecil, has the growth rates for the YP pretty accurate. Every population has exceptions in that some are slower growing and some faster growing with the bulk of the population in the middle. Often the slowest growing ones become food because of their being vulnerable to predation for a longer time due to small size.
rexc - I would do some fishing to see if you have males and females. At this time of year the females should be obviously plump or swollen with eggs and males with free flowing milt. When angling now note that catching of males or females can be skewed due to feeding tendicies and location of each sex. As long as you can catch both sexes you will get some laying of fertile eggs. Most YP eggs are laid in water less than 3 ft deep but not always, exceptions always occur.
I have to have females and males I would think, I have added over 200 YP to the pond over a three year period. I will admit I have never caught a male with milt coming out of it, but I have caught a lot of really fat females. I have never seen a perch minnow either.
I am now transferring some perch from my neighbors overcrowded YP only pond in exchange for some LMB from my pond. I will have YP spawning eventually.
rexc - in transferring now you should see individuals with milt flowing with only slight pressure on the abdomen. If your pond is pretty weed free or weed free and you have good numbers of LMB including small LMB (3"-8") Then it does not supprise me you don't see 2"-4" YP. Small LMB luv them small YP maybe even as much as fatheads.
We're in contact with a Nebraska state hatchery, in the north-central part of the state. They got their first egg ribbon of the year in a hatchery pond yesterday.
Bill, I have basically no cover and no spawning subtrate but an 8'x10' patch of cattails (which are completely covered toad eggs at the moment). I only stocked 3 adult perch a few years ago and 1 died. I had hundreds of 2-4" babies die and trapped several last year (posted photos before). This week I'm seeing 3"-4" following my bass spinnerbaits in to shore. The blades are as big as the perch. Plenty of LMB, HSB, a couple SMB, and a few CC present.
De nada here as yet, although the females seem to be getting more gravid. This would be the first year mine are big enough to spawn (if they make it).
You guys know bout my accident. Not that ya gave a poop. My electric chair I go to the pond in neds a bat. I got it covered. Takes time. I dieing to see some perch strands. lol
I'm now concerned enough to move egg strands from the big pond to the production pond whether they are fertilized or not. (Virtually no males or literally no males in the big pond). After all if I don't get fertilized egg strands in the production pond, I have to wait a whole year to do it again. Still only one egg strand retrieved from broodstock pond even though there are 20 gravid females and 200 males in that pond! Must have moved them too late and stressed them.
However I'm getting 3 to 5 new egg strands in the big pond every morning. What can I say? As soon as I think I've got things figured out the fish refuse to read the book.
Cecil:
Could you catch a fish out of the brood stock pond and see how they're progressing? % wise, you should catch a male and not a female... Your luck wise, you'll catch a gravid female.
Got any pics of BG fishing?
Still nothing happening up here! I measured the water temps last evening at it was
55.7 deg.F. I still see a couple of fat females swimming around, but no egg ribbons yet. Things have cooled off weather wise with a fair bit of rain this week. Maybe this will slow things up some?
Lots of small RES and small LMB swimming around in the shallows
I found a big ribbon running through a Christmas tree near shore. Hopefully that means there are more that I cannot see.
Saw the first one yesterday! Small, but none the less it was there!
Water temps have dropped back to 52.1 degrees, but lots of sunshine and a bit of rain. Hope to see more this week. The ones we do have are real shallow in some grass.
Found a second strand today on the same tree
Cecil:
Could you catch a fish out of the brood stock pond and see how they're progressing? % wise, you should catch a male and not a female... Your luck wise, you'll catch a gravid female.
Got any pics of BG fishing?
Did that. Most have dropped their eggs especially the big perch up to almost 14 inche, but what's interesting is the smaller females seem to be reabsorbing their eggs for some reason. That may be where I screwed up. I planted mostly smaller female perch and even though they seemed to have some good egg mass. Perhaps they reabsorbed their eggs?
I have moved two egg ribbons out of the broodstock pond to the production pond that should be fertile. Hopefully I can get a couple more and I will be fine. I'm still getting four or five monster size egg ribbons in the big pond. I'm moving them to the production pond just in case they are fertile.
Update: I set up a light on the pier and to see if I have any perch as perch fry are "phototactic" which means they are attracted to light. Turns out I do. Can't tell how many at this point but I am seeing some fry in the 4 to 5 mm range. Lots of zooplankton too. As long as I have a few thousand perch I will be happy.
I was having my doubts this year! The good Lord cut me a break this even though I tried my best to screw it up!
Coach,
If you're reading this, maybe you should give a light a try. I was told by my previous perch producer even a flashlight will do to do a check if one waits patiently on the pier with the light directed into the water. If there's no perch you can always wait for a snipe! Just dont' forget the paper bag!
It appears that the yellow perch in northern South Dakota are just finishing their spawn this week. One of my students collected some adult fish and spawned some fertile egg masses on Wednesday, with help from our local state agency biologists. We are also trawling about 8 lakes with a fine-mesh net, and caught just a few, very tiny perch larvae in a couple of our southern SD lakes this week. Thought that these might be reference points for a few of our interested "perch" folks here on the Forum.
That's interesting Dave. Thanks for sharing that.
I'm considering manually spawning some perch next year using the "dry method." Along with insuring I have fertilized eggs, if I use a human chorionic gonadotropin injection I can insure they all hatch at the same time which is important. If anything I can say I tried it.
Of course that depends on the red tape and if its cost effective.
Hopefully I wouldn't have as much trouble getting the hormone as I do fertilizer.
BTW is this hormone from humans or something? Maybe cadavers?
Good question on the HCG, Cecil. I didn't know, and you made me curious. I checked online and if we can trust what I found....
Like other gonadotropins, hCG can be extracted from urine or by genetic modification. Pregnyl, Follutein, Profasi, and Novarel use the former method, derived from the urine of pregnant women. Ovidrel, on the other hand, is a product of recombinant DNA.
Even back to the earliest days of me being in the fisheries profession, we were using HCG. My first exposure came in ND, where they used it to ripen the green female walleyes for spawning. That was back in the mid-70s.
I went out tonight and had perch fry at the dock within five minutes with my flash light. A couple dozen were visible, which I didnt think was bad considering the short amount of time I was out there and the small light I had
One of the best days of my life. I found three strands of perch eggs on trees that I sunk. I pulled 4 out of the 12 I have sunk and three had eggs on them. I can hardly contain my excitement.
I have something on my trees as well that look like egg ribbons?? But I know I don't have any perch? Could it be some other type of fish other than perch???? Do you have a picture of what they look like? Mine were at the tips of the branches and white in color all in strands of about 8 to 10 inches.
One of the best days of my life. I found three strands of perch eggs on trees that I sunk. I pulled 4 out of the 12 I have sunk and three had eggs on them. I can hardly contain my excitement.
Congratulations! You're the proud father of thousands of perch fry! Should I send you a box of cigars?
I'm happy I have some perch coming under the light but not many. Hopefully there are more than I'm not seeing.
I have something on my trees as well that look like egg ribbons?? But I know I don't have any perch? Could it be some other type of fish other than perch???? Do you have a picture of what they look like? Mine were at the tips of the branches and white in color all in strands of about 8 to 10 inches.
Perch ribbons are several feet long and look like wet toilet paper in the pond. Also its doubtful you have perch ribbons because they would have spawned in Arkansas over a month ago.
If your ribbons are black they are probably toad egg ribbons, they would be everywhere by now down there
No they are white and look like toilet paper, but not real long. I don't know what they are?? If they are still there I will take a pic the next time I am out there.
No they are white and look like toilet paper, but not real long. I don't know what they are?? If they are still there I will take a pic the next time I am out there.
Where does you septic tank go?
Funny Cecil but it can't be that yet as I don't have one out there at all. NO Septic!!!
Funny Cecil but it can't be that yet as I don't have one out there at all. NO Septic!!!
So you just run it right into the pond?
Dang it man! I shutup now!!
Dang it man! I shutup now!!
You know a reservoir near me once had some of the fastest growing bluegills in the nation. That was back when raw sewage got dumped in by lake residents. After things were cleaned up and a sewage treatment plant was installed the growth and numbers have never been the same. Seriously!
You know a reservoir near me once had some of the fastest growing bluegills in the nation. That was back when raw sewage got dumped in by lake residents. After things were cleaned up and a sewage treatment plant was installed the growth and numbers have never been the same. Seriously!
So that is Condello's secret.
You know a reservoir near me once had some of the fastest growing bluegills in the nation. That was back when raw sewage got dumped in by lake residents. After things were cleaned up and a sewage treatment plant was installed the growth and numbers have never been the same. Seriously!
So that is Condello's secret.
Yes but you have to drink lots of Mountain Dew to make the septic tank waste potent enough to produce the really really big bluegills. Once he moves and that secret goes with him the ponds will be only mediocre.