Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Cecil envy

So if I understand this information correctly, then my YP could die somewhere in the mid-80's, but if they're like Cecil's trout, they could stress from the lack of oxygen contained within low 80's water. Great information.

I watched the YP feed agressively just 45 minutes ago. It was a sight to see! They're even tail-slappin' now that the water is warmer.

By the way--I am absolutely KICKING myself for not bringing my camera last night. I caught an eleven-inch bluegill that I would have turned in for Cecil's pond record sight. UGHHHHH!! It was a nice fish too. Would have like to have it mounted, but I think it could grow for a couple more years.

Yea, speaking of Cecil's record site; where are all the entries? At least I have an excuse. Not even a golden shiner entry. Is anybody fishing?
Bruce, as George would say, "If you dont have a pic, it's just another fish story".

Bruce - Call Dave at Blue Valley, I have discussed this specific topic with him. He knows the water profile very well throughout the summer in their perch ponds. I am guessing yours is going to be more suitable for perch than theirs. If you don't have his number, call me and I will try to get it.

Bruce :

NEDOC brings up a point made in the linked article that YP have distinct populations with adapted variations. If you call the hatchery they can give you the info on your population. Very good to have and know. You can add to their info your potential YP adaptation resulting from hot tub conditioning and you may well have YP with a higher tolerance for high water temps. :p

Interestingly, these yellow perch came from a combination of two brood stocks.

I believe one was called "Great Lakes", which is a fast growing strain, and the other was "Nebraska Sandhills", which I would surmise is a little more tolerant to warm conditions.

I also may have dreamed the last bits of information, then incorporated them into my memories of actual events.

Having just read through all 304 posts I must say this is some of my favorite stuff on Pond Boss. I had asked a question about YP upper temp limits and ewest sent me to a page in the middle - I got hooked like a fat bass and had to read it all.
Bruce the video w/soundtrack is amazing - as indeed is the whole project.
I was considering stocking YP in my new pond next year but now am concerned about the water temp. Please keep us informed with detail. I am monitoring the temps in my "small pond" - 72F at the surface, 56 at max depth of 9'. No aerator, no spring, no incoming flow - excavated embankement only.
Good show.

I forgot to mention, on page 9 Shorty said:

I'm going to check out the cost of the bottom half of a concrete 2-pc septic tank, it should hold 400 to 500 gallons, the only drawback is that once it is set in place, it can't be moved easily.

[ December 14, 2005, 10:29 AM: Message edited by: SHORTY ]

If any of you ever decide to use a 1/2 septic tank or other cast concrete structure to hold water be aware that the PH will go WAY up. I had to use a septic tank (1000 gal) to hold water for our house in between well going dry and pond water - had water delivered to it. The water burned the skin in the shower! I had to drain it and paint the inside with waterproof basement cement paint (Thoroseal?) to stop the burning. I didn't measure the ph but it had to be high enough to kill fish.

Thanks for the compliments O.S.

I'll bet you can raise YP in your pond. Even if you can't it isn't terribly expensive to find out. Right now my YP are thriving in water temps that are 74.5 at the surface and 66.5 in the deepest part of the pond. Last year I left a few in one of my unaerated ponds where the water got into the mid-eighties for temperature and I didn't start losing fish until August 1. I wasn't adding any cool water, so it was the ultimate test of YP durability.

I will definitely keep you informed as to my water temperatures throughout the summer and the health of the patients.

Yellow perch are agressive pellet eaters that are fun to observe, beautiful, willing biters...and taste delicious. Definitely worth the try.

Bruce,

I have found yellow perch are very hardy fish! Testament to that is where they appear where they are not wanted they are considered a nuisance species and are almost impossible to eradicate.

From my experience the perch handle well when hauling and moving. Tough little critters! Only mortality I have experienced is female spawning mortality and that is very minimal and happens in wild populations too.

I wish my bluegills that were in the bluegill pond were not as sensitive as they are. These particular bluegills can't seem to tolerate catching or moving very well. Could just be these particular fish or their densities where their immune systems were compromised by high ammonia levels or crowding stress.


Also caught and removed a 1 lb. 1/2 oz. bluegill off of a bed in the bass pond the other day. I quickly weighed him but didn't measure him but he couldn't have been 10 inches. He was as wide as he was long. Beautiful fish. Went into the perch only pond where there are about 6 large ones also.

BTW bluegills are done! I'm just looking for a forked piece of dritwood I can put them put on to add a base with artifical vegatation etc.

Big bluegill and big yellow perch are exciting!!

Thanks, Cecil. A lot of what we do here is because of you.

Bruce - In addition to what Cecil said "Only mortality I have experienced is female spawning mortality and that is very minimal and happens in wild populations too." Occassionally in, midsummer in certain ponds stocked with perch near me, we will see some late July - August mortalities of largest perch. I am not sure yet if this is due to temperature or oxygen. I think it may be primarily due to temperature-oxygen combination as the perch seek coolest water when surface temps are in the mid to high 80's or low 90's. Not all local perch ponds experience this problem and I think the strain of perch brood stock also plays a role with this topic. Smaller perch have been reported to tolerate higher temperatures than the largest and oldest individuals.

With summertime temperatures climbing I would like to report that I still haven't had any of my Po'Boy RAS YP die yet. The water temperature in the tank finally got to 71 degrees with only 1/8 gpm. I rarely bother to clean the tank so there's tons of algae in it, but the YP continue to feed vigorously and grow. Their growth rates are considerably less than the perch that were released in the pond, but I still have good looking fish.

The predicted highs for eastern Nebraska for the next 7 days average 100 degrees, and almost as bad the predicted lows are 74 degrees. OUCH! This is the real test of the YP/BG pond.

Bruce is it about time to free those YP before they stunt ? What do you have planned for them ? It is time for them to move on so you can start a batch of mean RES. How about an overview of what's up at the Condorosa (? sp).

I believe that is classified information.

That is hotter than it is here in central Texas. You had better rent some of those huge wedding reception tents and shade your ponds. Or maybe you could get a ton of ice delivered each day.

Put an old car door in the pond and roll down the window.

Theo- I think you would need to be going 55 MPH for that to work. :rolleyes: :p

I had an amazing experience last night. Almost otherworldly.

I went to the horizontal aeration pond, which had received all of the yellow perch raised in the tanks last winter. Our water temps had fallen into the low 40's for a few day, but recently we had a warm spell, that culminated in an 83 degree day yesterday. On a whim I decided to see if the fish would take any pellets. I propped up a lawn chair on the dock and threw in some Aquamax pellets. The water has recently cleared so it has a secchi reading of two meters.

To my utter amazement, big 11 inch yellow perch started creeping out of the depths and plunking pellets. They ate so many pellets that I had to go back to the Morton building to get more! It was SOOOO cool to see the bright yellow and black perch tip up at about 40 degrees and slink up to the pellet. I watched it at least 200 times. Then a big 10.5 inch male bluegill rushed up to smash a pellet. I was beside myself with joy to see the process repeated over and over again in the middle of November. I even called my Dad and talked to him while it was going on.

I don't get enough of this kind of thing, but when it does happen it makes all of the hard work, and failures worth it.

Big smiles

Very nice!!! I just read this thread the other day from beginning to end and was both amazed and impressed with the entire process. It was kinda like a time-lapse photo for me. I have a limited knowledge of growth rates for bass, but I don't know a thing about the growth rates of perch. 11 inch fish that are barely over a year old seems to me to be outstanding growth. Is this the case?...or do perch really grow that quickly? Either way, it's got to be terribly gratifying for you. Good job indeed.

Actually these fish have now finished two full growing seasons and have been on pellets continuously. They were the cream of the crop, then selected from there. We've also got some "un-finclipped" fish in this pond that have completed their third year of growth. I'll bet the 11 inchers are more likely to be those. Regardless, I know some of the fish that were raised in the tank range from 7 inches on up to over ten. If I were to catch one of the fish I could check the caudal fin and know for sure.

Possumeater, you are welcome to come by some time this winter to see the tanks. Right now there are some awesome bluegill in them.

Bruce - Your observation about YP in cold water reinforces my earlier comment in another thread that YP are relatively quite active in cool and cold water compared to BG and bass. I have found with pellet trained YP that, if you soften & roll the food using my method and drop it into a hole cut in the ice the perch will feed basically the same way you described above only they rarely feed at the surface but they will come within 2-3 feet of the surface eating sinking pellets. I have fun doing this siting in a warm ice shanty on bla winter days.

Here are some cage reared YP from my pond that started cage culture in April at 4.5-6" and ended the season at 7.8"-10.5"; thus they are two yr old fish.

YP activity in cool water is well documented and they prey well on small BG who are cold and slow. It is still a blast to watch fish feed like that. I wonder if YP exhibit the same preparatory to winter fall feeding frenzy as do LMB and BG? Bruce did the YP seem to be feeding normally or was the level elevated?

Bill, try removing the blank space between the first and last "[IMG]" and the actual link text.

Sunil - Thanks for the help; your advice worked. I removed the photo that you had here to avoid duplication.

Oh, ok...gotcha. Still pretty cool, and I'd love to see the ponds. I don't have a pond myself....doesn't look like it's gonna happen any time in the near future either. However, ever since I've come across this site, I've been absolutely fascinated by the idea of having and managing a pond. I've always loved to fish and have always been drawn to the scientific/analytical side of everything. This has proved to be an interesting intersection of the two.

Until I get a pond of my own, I'll continue to live vicariously through all you pondmeisters out there.

At Bruce's request I am posting a Cecil Envy inspired project that I am documenting on the Inside Fish-Trout thread. http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000013;p=2

This is my first time raising gamefish (indoor or outdoor) and my first pond-like experience. I dug a 1/10 acre pond this fall and instead of waiting for spring to purchase the fish, I decided to purchase them now and overwinter them inside.

I bought 100 3-5" perch and 25 5-7" Rainbow trout. I lost 10 trout right off the bat, because I underestimated their DO requirements. I rushed out at 10pm when I noticed them gasping at the surface and purchased the biggest air pump and airstone that Walmart had.

My homemade system includes 2 110 gallon tuff tub stock tanks (they had more surface area than rubbermaid), two air pumps, a 300 watt water heater, a shop light with 2 bulbs that are supposed to stimulate plant growth, and a bog filter.

Here is a post from the thread that describes the filtration:

I finished putting in a homemade bog filter last night and it really cleaned up the water. It is simple with water flowing through boxes of gravel that I will plant over the next week. The gravel holds waste-eating bacteria and traps particles in the water to improve water clarity. I am planning on using this type of filtration for my 1/10 acre pond.

Here is the system.

Pic of the hole spacing on bog pvc drain.

This is the filter half completed.

Filter draining into the trout tank.

You can see some of the perch by the pump. Before today I had to drain the water to see them.

Here is the whole rig. I had to use hardware fabric to filter the water coming in from the trout tank as there was too much FA coming in.



I also moved the submerisble aquarium heater placing it horizontal. When the perch crowd the bottom of the tank to get near the heater they dont touch it now, which I think killed about 8 perch since I put in the heater. No perch have died since I changed the heater orientation.