I was on a website that strongly discouraged the use of grass carp. According to them, experience has shown that GC reduce BG numbers and hence LMB growth. They cited an old 1978 study to support this thesis, https://afspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1577/1548-8659%281978%29107%3C172%3AEOGCAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2
Comments? I guess I can see that if GC wipe out weeds entirely, this would be very bad on a number of levels. And it does make me nervous to think of them hogging the fish feed. But are more limited numbers that just reduce weeds somewhat really such a bad thing?
I was thinking the GC would thin out the bushy pondweed to where the Bg had fewer places to hide. Making it easier for the lmb to eat them and in that situation my lmb might get fatter and the cnbg population would go down in that situation. The bushy pondweed is pretty invasive at my pond so I was put in a situation to where I felt I had to do something and BPW was on their list of things they would eat. I am just hoping they prefer the BPW over my APW. I really like my APW. But I am guessing they will eat the APW over the BPW
Go read about Lake Austin in Texas then make up your own mind...………..Grass Carp are the worst fish you could stock.
@Spicelanebass - Asian carp are an illegal invasive species that adversely affect many bodies of water in the USA. Triploid carp are sterile and won't create the problems you're thinking of.
@anthropic - Lots of people use them, depends on your situation and stocking rate. May not hurt to get an opinion from a pro. But you can purchase triploid carp with a permit from TX Parks & Wildlife.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/water/habitats/private_water/gcarp.phtml
Grass carp are a tool but like many tools if you go to big you can strip the nuts or too many will strip all the vegetation. TP&W screwed the pooch at several lakes back when they had little experience with the carp. Ever herd of Lake Conroe in Texas and GC added? Same as lake Austin. Too many bitching about to much vegetation and then too many bitching about tougher fishing because of lack of veggies. Since I had no personal experience with them. I was aware of the mistakes that have been made using GC so I went with my fish biologist Todd Overton and finally added the number he recommended.