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The concept of forage ponds to supplement main ponds is becoming an increasingly popular topic on Pond Boss. I have read Forage Pond threads where the forage fish output is captured and transferred via minnow traps, dip netting, seining, draining to a secondary transfer tank, draining directly into main pond, and utilizing a direct piping system into the main pond for BOWs with equalized water levels.

Below are some Bill Cody quotes about parasites from a few of the threads:

"I have discovered that fish parasites will readily invade the forage pond and periodically all fish have to be removed and restocked when a large percent of the fish are infected. Plan for that problem. I periodically drain and treat the remaining water to restart the forage pond. Waterfowl, mostly herons, bring in the parasites."

"Periodic complete draining and restocking minnows will be the best management plan for the forage pond. Undrained ponds dedicated to forage fish over time tend to become laden with fish parasites; primarily black spot and white/yellowgrubs."

I have never heard of anyone giving a salt bath to their FHM or GSH before transferring the fish. I would like to construct my forage ponds for ease of transfer, but I do not want to create a system that transfers parasites to my main pond.

Question: Is the transfer of parasites from a forage pond to a main pond a legitimate concern? If so, what steps should we take to minimize parasite transfer and contamination?

Thanks,
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I asked Bill Cody if he would write the first reply - to get the thread started on the proper note. He graciously agreed and put together an extensive response!

Originally Posted by Bill Cody
They write books about this topic. I have a book that 53 years ago, listed known parasites of BG are 9 protozoans, 56 trematodes, 8 cestodes, 11 nematodes, 5 acanthocephalans, and 6 leeches, 1 mollusk, and 12 crustaceans. Known parasites of LMB as 13 protozoans, 45 trematodes, 11 cestoda, 14 Nematoda, 5 Acanthocephala, 4 leeches, and 10 crustaceans. Most of these parasites are not very obvious on or inside the fish. So parasites of just these two fish species can be pretty numerous, thus one should have a concern for transporting or moving fish parasites especially from wild water sources that do not get periodic fish renovation.

The primary parasites will arrive from or be delivered from mainly wading birds. There are numerous other ways that nature and man can introduce parasites to fish in a pond but about 70%-80% usually come in from the waterfowl transport pathway. Fish diseases which are very different from fish parasites and this is a completely different topic. Fish diseases usually arrive from infected or contaminated fish that have been somehow introduced.

Parasites and diseases can be internal or external for the fish. Healthy fish maintained in good water quality have the ability to most often avoid getting or being significantly harmed by fish diseases. Fish in natural waters live in a “soup” that has many natural forms of health contamination. Some water bodies contain more health problems than others. It is hard to know all the sources of contamination from any one water source. The individual contamination “problem” itself goes through highs and lows of population density because it is a living virus, bacteria, or larger organism (parasite). Basically healthy fish are naturally designed to fend off most of the health problems by use of the fish’s continually produced slime coating. Unhealthy or severely infected fish will die and in that process,,, spread the infection. This is similar to the Corona virus problem. Healthy people survive and/or have few affects, of the viral infection and vulnerable people get sick in varying degrees based on their genetic composition and the overall health of the person.

When stocking fish the salt baths are a good way to minimize or reduce but not completely eliminate introduction of the most common parasites and some fish diseases. There are books with numerous chapters that describe and discuss the wide range of parasites and diseases that affect fish. Very few pondowners do salt bath precaution because it takes extra time and effort. Plus very few pond owners know about the need or benefit of doing it. A lot or even most of these wide ranging types of fish health problems are not easily noticed on a wiggling, squirming, wet fish. Very few fish buyers even know what to look or test for when buying and casually looking at the fish. Plus if the fish are coming from a fish farm or hatchery many of the weakest ones have already died somewhere during the holding period before the fish are actually sold or delivered. Many fish farms remove dead fish from tanks each morning. Number of fish deaths is usually closely related to how long the fish have been held in tanks prior to sale. The degree of minimization or reduction of the “problem” from the salt bath is dependent on if the “problem” is external or internal and what or who comprises the “problem”; again some “problems” are external some are internal. Salt and chemical baths are primarily used to reduce the most commonly occurring externally related “problems”. Fin rot problems are usually not cures using salt baths.

The question is: "Is the transfer of parasites from a forage pond to a main pond a legitimate concern?" "If so, what steps should we take to minimize parasite transfer and contamination?"

1. IMO the transfer of parasites from a forage pond to a main pond should ALWAYS be a concern. Why introduce “problems” into the main pond if that particular problem does not already exist in the main or receiving pond?
2. “What steps should one take to minimize parasite transfer”.
For the average pond owner I think the basic and simplest answer is to pay attention to or monitor the basic health of the fish in the forage pond. Are there or have there been any apparent parasites on any of the fish such as black spots and or noticeable adorations or abrasions on the skin or fins of any of the fish that are being monitored in the forage pond? You will not see all the problems. But periodically carefully looking at fish in the forage pond is a good routine policy. The number of ‘infected fish’ indicates the degree of the problem.

Generally my rule is, the longer the forage pond has been active since the last draining or fish renovation the more likely the pond fish will have some sort of parasite / disease contamination. Nature has numerous ways to introduce these health “problems”. Once present these “problems” almost always continue to multiply in the natural setting especially in over-crowded forage ponds. Selling, trading, or giving away infected fish is bad for business and your reputation. Periodic forage fish renovation is really the best plan of managing a forage fish pond. Many of the best fish farms do this every year. Clean out the fish and start over. Plus fish farms are usually dealing with fry to fingerling so fish populations in these ponds are renewed each year or frequently or routinely. This helps a great deal to minimize parasite and disease problems on the commercial and private scale.

The most common visible parasites will be on fish that come from ponds that have common visits from wading birds, which does occur on most all types of forage ponds. The other item to look for or pay attention to is have you noticed any or several sickly, infected, or dead fish in the forage pond? Is it a common or a rare occurrence? Usually in the main community fish pond weakened or sick fish become easy prey items before the infected fish dies so the problem is often not even observed. The frequency of any of these health ‘problems” will determine when it would be most beneficial to use a salt bath when transferring fish from the forage pond to any other water body.

Snipe from his extensive experience with State DNR fishery workers demonstrated the salt bath use in the transfer of forage fish in Snrub’s pond. The salt bath dip is always the best standard and a safe precautionary procedure to use; although it is not a fool proof method due to the wide diversity of health problems that can infect fish. See Snipe’s salt bath technique during fish harvest in this link:
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=528099&page=12

The other concept or philosophy here is if the receiving pond already has fish with the same parasite problem as the fish in the forage pond then there is IMO less need to treat the infected incoming forage fish at least for the same obvious “problem”; such as black spot parasite, or white, yellow grub. An infected fish is often a weakened fish so a salt bath can be a beneficial thing to routinely use if you place high value on your fish community. This is just my philosophy that I use for my private ponds. However, if you are trading, selling or giving away fish and you have any form of infected fish the salt bath becomes a more important method to use.

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A good way to manage a forage pond is to manage it as "hatchery pond" for the production of 1" to 3" fingerlings. This means that the pond is drained and dried annually. Pond design should make it less accessible to wading birds (steep sides and sufficient depth). It's parent stock should be free from observable parasites when stocked each year. IMHO, a salt bath is unnecessary when the parent stock is sourced from the destination pond and the harvested forage isn't clearly infested. If there were a very bad infestation in the forage pond, I think I would err on the side of safety and use them as fertilizer for tomatoes or something like that.


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I read lots of posts on PB with people complaining about herons and cormorants EATING their fish. I had no idea that birds were the main vector for parasites and diseases.

Obviously a little extra initial work in shaping the slopes on forage ponds will have a bigger pay off long term - for multiple reasons.

I have observed various species of herons take fish. Despite seeing lots of cormorants, I have never observed one taking a fish.

How do cormorants take fish? What needs to be added to an "anti-heron" pond design to also discourage the cormorants?

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Originally Posted by jpsdad
IMHO, a salt bath is unnecessary when the parent stock is sourced from the destination pond and the harvested forage isn't clearly infested. If there were a very bad infestation in the forage pond, I think I would err on the side of safety and use them as fertilizer for tomatoes or something like that.

Rusto and I recently helped Snipe and John seine and transfer fish from a forage pond. It was a lot of hard work!

There have been discussions in the forage pond threads of plans to "directly" transfer forage fish to the main pond. This sounds great in practice to eliminate the hard work of seining and it also reduces the handling of the fish. However, I can easily imagine a non-expert like myself missing parasites in the forage pond and moving them right over to the main pond.

Would you advise a rule for direct transfers, such as: ALWAYS dip net or minnow trap a sample of your fish for examination before making any transfers.

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Originally Posted by FishinRod
Originally Posted by jpsdad
IMHO, a salt bath is unnecessary when the parent stock is sourced from the destination pond and the harvested forage isn't clearly infested. If there were a very bad infestation in the forage pond, I think I would err on the side of safety and use them as fertilizer for tomatoes or something like that.

Rusto and I recently helped Snipe and John seine and transfer fish from a forage pond. It was a lot of hard work!

There have been discussions in the forage pond threads of plans to "directly" transfer forage fish to the main pond. This sounds great in practice to eliminate the hard work of seining and it also reduces the handling of the fish. However, I can easily imagine a non-expert like myself missing parasites in the forage pond and moving them right over to the main pond.

Would you advise a rule for direct transfers, such as: ALWAYS dip net or minnow trap a sample of your fish for examination before making any transfers.

To emphasize what Bill has already stated. The corrective action when an infestation occurs is to drain and dry the pond in order to break the cycle. So if one has a forage pond that drains with forage into the destination pond, the cycle is easily broken by draining and allow to dry each year. So I would advise to source the parents from the destination pond and drain right into the destination pond without giving it another thought. Since you're drying the pond each year, there is no need to worry.

The problem with infestations occurs where the forage pond is allowed to hold water year round. Extensive shallows and numerous small fish attract the vectors (birds) and the parasite infestation increases over time.

Last edited by jpsdad; 12/07/20 12:05 PM.

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Originally Posted by FishinRod
I read lots of posts on PB with people complaining about herons and cormorants EATING their fish. I had no idea that birds were the main vector for parasites and diseases.

Obviously a little extra initial work in shaping the slopes on forage ponds will have a bigger pay off long term - for multiple reasons.

I have observed various species of herons take fish. Despite seeing lots of cormorants, I have never observed one taking a fish.

How do cormorants take fish? What needs to be added to an "anti-heron" pond design to also discourage the cormorants?

There is no such thing as a bird proof pond probably. Things a person can do are already mentioned but in addition to this reducing the time between harvests can do a lot to help. Few lepomis of the millions that swim up reach 1" in length in the destination pond that is loaded with other lepomis and LMB. RES and BG can attain 1" in 4 weeks from hatching under good growing conditions. In a forage pond the survival to this length is MUCH MUCH higher. If harvested every 6 weeks, one can get multiple crops of forage. The size at 1 to 1.5 " isn't very attractive to most wading birds (maybe the green heron as an exception). So simply by preventing the conditions that would attract them will help.

Last edited by jpsdad; 12/07/20 12:39 PM.

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Thanks jpsdad.

I knew there was no "perfect" strategy to beat the birds, I just wanted to optimize at the design stage.

I didn't realize that bird predation was insignificant for a forage pond. Good reproductive conditions can just overwhelm the predation losses!

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Originally Posted by FishinRod
Thanks jpsdad.

I knew there was no "perfect" strategy to beat the birds, I just wanted to optimize at the design stage.

I didn't realize that bird predation was insignificant for a forage pond. Good reproductive conditions can just overwhelm the predation losses!

I guess it depends on the birds that are present. Kingfisher and Coot will take and may target preferentially the size that BG are at 4 to 6 weeks. GBH need bigger prey and I think cormorants do too. If a forage pond remains watered year round and has all manner of fish sizes in it ... it will attract a broader spectrum of predators. If the prey is predominately small, even with extensive shallow water, GBH will choose to the destination pond because it has the size of prey they need.

I once read that the minimum depth to discourage large wading birds is 2.5 ft deep. Steep sides also discourage them. Green heron, at least when I observe them, tend to hunt from the bank.


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Originally Posted by FishinRod
Thanks jpsdad.

I knew there was no "perfect" strategy to beat the birds, I just wanted to optimize at the design stage.

I didn't realize that bird predation was insignificant for a forage pond. Good reproductive conditions can just overwhelm the predation losses!

Some fish farms in Arkansas see fish losses to birds in the $100,000.00+ range.

Cormorants catch fish under water. They can eat a pound of fish per bird per day. Pelicans are a problem in hatchery ponds too. Since all the birds that predate on fish are known to be active at night if there is enough moonlight, you may not be awake when the birds come in to feed.


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No shallow water shelves for wading herons and maybe some strung lines.

How do we discourage the cormorants?

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Originally Posted by FishinRod
No shallow water shelves for wading herons and maybe some strung lines.

How do we discourage the cormorants?


String lines across the pond to prevent them from landing. They have to run across the water to get airborne, and they will supposedly bypass the pond. DD1 did that, I hope it's working for him.


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Get an Osprey for your pond. My son who was setting in a deer blind a couple of days ago watched the resident Osprey keep the Cormorants off the pond. It was pretty cool thing to see. He would dive bomb and fly over the pond, any Cormorant that was looking to land at the pond he would drive it off. The way I look at it is one Osprey that eats fish is better than several Cormorants that eat the fish.

For the past few years an Osprey has shown up as the water temps cool down and when the Tp start swimming at the ponds surface looking for some warmer water. I expect the Bald Eagle to show up soon if he is not already there. He also shows up around this same time of the year,


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What I did. First Put TPosts about every 30 to 40 ft around perimeter of the pond. Then strung electrical fence tape using Jon boat and trolling motor about every 30 to 40 ft to the posts. About 3 ft above the water.

Having small wings, the cormorant birds need a long runway to get airborne. So, if they can’t lift off, they won’t land.

I used the tape instead of wire because it is more flexible and cheaper. I’ll leave it up until after they migrate back through inI the Spring.

They got me 2 years in a row. Had to restock and have no idea just how my overall biomass was affected.

Got good advice from Chris Steelman, Esshup and Lusk.

BTW, grown Grandson and his best friend did all the work. It takes 2 people to really do it right. One unrolling the tape and the other running the boat. I supervised and made sure the beer didn’t get warm.

Last edited by Bill Cody; 12/08/20 05:08 PM. Reason: coromorants added

It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

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Dave, I remember reading that post!

How much easier would it have been to string your lines - before the ponds filled.

I think you were battling herons. Did you ever post a picture of your string art!

I might even set some of the posts in concrete to make a permanent solution to a perpetual problem. High tensile fencing wire is really cheap and lasts a long time. Would I have to tie some "flags" on it for deterrence, or would the birds hitting a semi-invisible wire be a bigger deterrent?

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Here are 2 pictures that Bill Cody sent me.

Look closely at the first picture. That is a piece of eel grass in the cormorant, along with the YP. Does that mean that Cormorants eat Eel grass? I doubt it. That would be the same as saying Channel Catfish eat FA.

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


The 2 pictures also give you a great example of camera perspective.............


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Rod, the pond filled over 20 years ago. At that time I had never heard of a cormorant and didn't get hit until recently.

Herons can't clean out a pond like mine was. And this was the second year on a row. I'm in their flyway but had never been bothered by them.

I have never posted a pic in my life. Maybe Al can do it for me. Or maybe it's time I learned.

It started out about 2 feet above the water. But, with no rain since, it's now 3 ft and could get even worse. That concerns me


It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
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Originally Posted by esshup
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]


The 2 pictures also give you a great example of camera perspective.............

I am more worried now than I was before. The cormorants are getting smart enough to use the "Bruce Condello Photo Technique"!
laugh

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Dave,

Thanks for the advice (even without the pics)!

My forage ponds are going to be right out in the open, and our farm is within 11 miles of a big reservoir. So cormorant defense is now added to the design plans.

P.S. There is a front going past us tonight. Hopefully it will bring some rain down your way.

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FWIW ponds with shad or similar silvery forage fish seem to attract cormorants most.

















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