Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain 3 Spine Sticklebacks in Trout Pond

Long-time PB subscriber. I am just about to realize a life long dream, as we are almost finished constructing a 1.75 acre pond on our property in Central Oregon. Excuse length of post, but, as I make the jump from wannabe to actual pondmeister, I want to give some background and context.

The pond is at 3,500' elevation. Out climate is very arid, with about 10" to 12" precipitation per year, mostly snow during winter and thundershowers during spring/summer. Fairly windy, with the pond exposed to prevailing winds. Water source is irrigation water that originates from snow melt in the mountains. The water comes in rocky ditches and is very clear and appears to be of good quality. At our elevation and with lack of cloud cover, air temperatures cool off pretty severely at night, sometimes up to 50 degree difference overnight. July is warmest month, with 62 or 63 degree average air temperature, with average daytime highs in the low 80's and nightime lows in the mid 40's. The highest temperature I have recorded in the canal water where we take our water is 67 degrees during a heatwave in August a few years back. I am planning to try trout and am hoping for year round survival - we shall see.

The majority of the pond will be between 4' to 6' deep with two deeper areas, one to approximately 8' and the other to 16'. These two areas together consist of about 1/8th acre, with the majority in the 16' deep hole. The pond is "dug and dammed" with a low embankment of about 4' tall on one side with a 3/1 inside slope. The deeper hole was blasted out of basalt rock and the resealed with clay. The blasted rock (several hundred yards) was used to riprap the sides of the pond and has created lots of nooks and crannies. The pond also includes a 1/4 acre island with approx. 300' channel that is about 12' to 15' wide and 3' deep. The bottom of the channel was filled with round gravel and the sides lined with rock. I may try to use it as a spawning channel for trout if I can get current flowing through it with a circulator or other pump - I do not believe they would likely reproduce, but the idea would be to help the large female fish drop their eggs and avoid becoming spawn bound, which, to my understanding, can significantly shorten their life span. It should be fun to see what I can do there.

My goal for the pond is to raise large trout and aesthetics (the pond will be below our house and between us and the mountains). I will try to post some pictures. If the trout do not work out, I will plan on a warmwater fishery, and might even consider a multi-species pond at some point with trout and warmwater fish, but would need to give that more thought.

This weekend I am going to allow the water to enter the pond to start filling. We ran a test last weekend in the deeper hole, putting in a couple feet of water. The contractor runnng the excavator mentioned seeing "50 or so minnows" swimming around in the water while he was doing some work on the slopes. This was from gravity fed water of about 70 GPM overnight through several hundred feet of PVC pipe. The water was later pumped out and has dried up, so no more of those fish. They are three spine sticklebacks, which I understand are not native to our area, but the irrigation canals are thick with them. Every fall when the water is turned off, you can see thousands of them left high and dry in the bottoms of the canals. They seem to run about 1.5" to 2.5" in length.

Most of the conventional sources I have found have said "no minnows or other fish with trout". I noticed in an article from Mike Mitchell several issues ago that indicated that forage fish can be positive if trying to raise large trout, which is consistent with my goals. From what I can gather on-line, the spines on sticklebacks are for protection and may offer some deterrent to predators. Apparently some types of sticklebacks are armored - the ones in our area do not appear to have any armor. Does anyone have any direct experience on the interaction between trout and sticklebacks in a small pond? Any concerns about the trout's ability to control them? Would feeding pellets to the trout likely have change the dynamic? Fly fishing would be primary means of fishing the pond, not sure how big of a nuisance the sticklebacks might be. Any thoughts and opininions regarding sticklebacks under these circumstances would be appreciated.

I understand that I will be required to screen my inlet as a condition to my permission from the State to stock the pond. Given the small size of the sticklebacks, I suspect that at some point, somehow, they will gain entry to the pond regardless of what I do to try and keep them out. I am hoping that sticklebacks might actualy be a positive given my goal of raising large trout, or at least not too big of a negative, and would appreciate any feedback if you have made it this far! Thank you.

Greetings. Is that the "high desert"?

No experience with trout (plenty here do have it) or sticklebacks (although I knew a family named Stickle back when I was in school) but I suspect that when the trout are big enough and hungry enough, the sticklebacks will be on their menu, spines or no spines.

Thanks Theo. Yes, our area of the country is part of the high desert - where the Great Basin meets the Cascade Mountains - juniper, sage brush, native clump grass...and no humidity.

The pond is holding like a jug so far (knock on wood)...I will plan on managing around the sticklebacks and see what happens. They stay so small that, even with the spines, I suspect that large trout (or other predator fish) should be able to keep a handle on them. Thanks again for your input.

From time spent in British Columbia and Northwest Territories working for Dept. Fisheries and Oceans, I had multiple occasions to see stomach contents of trout species containing different types of Sticklebacks.

They do not cause any problems to larger species and are mostly shore line, shallow water, species feeding on phytoplankton and micro-organisms.

The stickle part is not as much a danger to any fish eating them, I gather from readings that it’s a sign of sexual maturity for the adults to have their stickles showing and their coloration also becomes bright.

Another observation; I believe the three-Spined Sticklebacks "Gasterosteus aculeatus" are endemic to North America, so they are an indigenous species common to most areas.

I would not be concerned over sticklebacks myself!

my two cents...

jnapier,

Ditto to what M.Paris says. He's correct sticklebacks are consumed by trout in some habitats although I do not know which species. A forage species that the trout will eat and does not get too large for forage would be a plus in my opinion.

You may want to consider triploid trout that won't produce eggs or engage in spawning activity. That is if they are available.

Thanks guys. It sounds like this should work out okay.

Cecil, regarding the triploid trout, I had also thought about that. The problem we have in this area is that there is a parasite present in the watershed (and in our irrigation water) called "Ceratomyxa Shasta" that infects and kills salmonid species. I am not an expert by any means on any of the particulars - just that it will apparently decimate non-resitant strains of salmonids.

The native "Redside" trout in our area have apparently evolved with the parasite and have some resistance. Hatchery trout are apparently very susceptible to the parasite, particularly in warmer water situations. I have heard this from a number of independent biologists and is backed up from what I have found in my own research.

From what I have gathered, brown trout are generally very resistant to the parasite. My preliminary inquiries with the State Fish & Game is that they would not likely grant a license to stock brown trout because they are non-native.

The local wild fish are not a solution, as in Oregon catching and transporting trout for stocking into a private pond is prohibited.

A few biologists have mentioned a "66 strain" that is apparently a first generaton cross between a regular hatchery rainbow trout and a Deschutes River Redside (or so I understand). A fellow I met in the area stocked them several years ago in a 7.5' deep pond and had good success with them (other than the Osprey). His source was no longer offering them. After a lot of looking, I found a source for the 66 strain fish. I believe they are regular diploid fish and have not been able to find a triploid version.

Sooooo, a long winded explanation as to why it appears that I am pretty limited in my trout options and why I suspect I will not be able to find triploid fish to work for my particular situation (although please let me know if you have any suggestions there). This all led to my plan to see if I can help the fish live a bit longer (assuming they make it past the C. Shasta and Osprey!) by providing a small current and some spawning gravel. That is probably a year or two down the road. Thanks again for feedback.

Don't know about Oregon but here in Ontario our Brook Trout (speckled trout) and Browns both gobble stickebacks.....

It's apples and oranges, but I once released 100 feeder goldfish into a small pond infested with sticklebacks, and watched the sticklebacks chase and peck at the goldfish. Few of those goldfish survived, some had their entire tails taken off to the meat.