Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations BG egg stealers?

Last night I stopped by the pond to grab something and I noticed that there were about 5-6 2" BG on nests pecking at the gravel. I assumed they were stealing eggs. I noticed that they werent concerned with my presence so I decided to try poking them with the tip of my rod. The poking didn't seem to bother them either. They just ignored the pokes and kept on digging in the gravel. The nest seemed to be abandoned by the adult BG. Other nests had adult BG on them and the adults were protecting the nests from the small BG.

Is this a sign that I may have too many BG in the pond? Will the adult BG be able to successfully spawn with all the little BG stealing eggs? Are the adult BG usualy successful at defending their nests? I'm sure this is common but it got me thinking, I haven't seen any fry yet this year. I'm pretty sure that by this time last year there were clouds of fry everywhere.

You are describing normal BG behavior. If your temps have been cooler than normal as many have reported this spring your spawn may be later. If you have BG on beds I bet you will have lots of fry soon.

Cool, Thanks ewest.

I figured it wasn't a big deal. I was just getting a little anxious. They have been choosing their spawning beds over the GFC lately so hopefully there will be some clouds of fry shortly.

Brett, 99+% of all eggs/fish laid and hatched get eaten. That cuts down on overpopulation and is nature at work.

An adult BG can lay 100,000 plus eggs. Imagine if most were not eaten... Just 10 BG and you'd have 1 million BG. 100 BG and you'd have a billion BG. Even the most ravenous of LMB populations couldn't keep up with that many BG!

I am starting to see some BG beds around the pond, and no BG would eat any feed tonight...

Slowed BG feeding is often encountered during the spawn.

Wow, When you think about it like that a few beds getting raided is a good thing.

I didn't realize adult BG could lay so many eggs. That's pretty cool.

Me too. All the fish are slowing down with feeding. The CC won't even touch the feed right now. I'm hoping they spawn this year. I know it's unlikely but I added some tire structures last summer and it just might give them the right habitat to spawn. I can't imagine why else they would pass up the GFC.