A couple years ago my brother in law bought a house with a 3 acre pond. This past fall he had an "event" that killed a bunch of fish. One of the fish that died was this ~30-40lb paddlefish (his weight estimate)! He had no idea it was even in the pond. I am shocked a fish this big could be in that small of a pond. This is his 12 year old son who weighs 75lbs with the fish.

I imagine losing that fish is going to lead to some sort of change in his pond. That thing had to have been consuming massive amounts of zooplankton relative to the size of his pond.

Thoughts?

I put some in my pond a number of years ago but never saw them again. No idea if they survived.

I've not understood the beneficial role of a Paddlefish in a fishery due to what I'd imagine, like yourself, the impact they have on the zoo population. Zoos help manage planktonic algae blooms and provide essential forage for YOY fish - I want zooplankton in abundance. I've never heard of a zoo management problem before - when the planktonic algae is consumed zoos crash - imagine it's happened thousands of times in my ponds, but I've never witnessed any detrimental effects to my fisheries due to zoo crashes. Bottom line: I don't understand the beneficial role a Paddlefish would serve in a fishery given their impact on the zoo population. Now, if Paddlefish consumed planktonic algae I could see a role in a very fertile fishery...regardless, that thing is an absolute prehistoric monster!

I'm wondering what took that massive bite out of it!

I also wonder about the bite. Most likely turtles after it died

If my paddlefish did survive, they do not seem to have hurt the bass.

I stocked a paddlefish in each of our ponds for my wife. She thinks every BOW should have a (potential) monster.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking. will be interesting to see if things change for him.

The bites are from a big snapper in there that was eating on the carcass.

She must think of your house like that too......

I don't want to brag.

Here in Missouri the Conservation Dept will put a few paddle fish in your pond if you let them then they will come back and harvest the eggs from them at some point and pay you good money for the service, how they plan on harvesting the eggs is beyond me, I fish in a pair of local large pond, small lakes that they have put them in, you never see them and they are both overgrown with pond weeds and moss, pretty much to the point of not being able to fish them through the hot part of the summer, only in early spring and late fall, but the fishing is great with bass and crappy mix.

I am finally finding time to reconnect on the Pond Boss forum after a couple of years. My first search was forums related to Paddlefish.

I help manage lakes at a resort in eastern MO where paddlefish were stocked at 4-6 per acre for future harvest by the fish provided. Paddlefish were stocked in 2002, 2004 and 2009. They were put in any lake that had drivable dam. In total 39 ponds and lakes, ranging from 2 to 236 acres were stocked with just short of 3600 paddlefish.

The fish provider has not honored his contract to remove these fish after 6-8 years. Paddlefish range from 40 to 90 pounds. My daughter snagged one two years ago that was 39 pounds. Our largest lake had 1300+ stocked. Only 120 removed after years of complaining. Imagine the biomass impact to entire lake.

Our professional fish managers have seen a significant impact on our forage basis due to lack of zooplankton. Very small YOY recruitment. We need these monsters removed.

The only way to remove them is by netting with large gill nets. These gill nets are not selective and we have seen catfish and bass die in these nets.

Paddlefish are neat to see swimming in clear water but I always wonder if the water clarity is due to their efficiency at eating.

I agree with TJ above that they provide no benefit to your pond.

I added a couple years ago to our 1.2 acre LMB/BG/CC pond but we had a Winter kill soon after. Never saw any sign of them. Pond continues to produce nice BG and LMB, but CC were killed off. Assume paddlefish died too. Water never got any clearer.