Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Grass Carp - 1/4 Acre Pond

Ok I have tossed the idea around and not sure if I should add any grass carp and how many to my 1/4 pond.

It seems that some sort of pond weed had started growing pretty well once the FA disappeared. Of course I am not sure what it is.

I think it may either Naiad, Milfoil, Chara, Coontail or a mixture of this stuff.

My thoughts are since the pond is fairly new should I wait before adding some carp so the BG and other fish can have the safety of the weeds or just get them in to start working now?

Is this a good time to add the carp or is spring better?

Would it be ok to just add 1 now and see if that would help or would it be able to eat most of the weeds leaving my bait fish vulnerable to the LMB?

Thanks

Well, it would be pointless to add them at any time if the weeds were on their "I hate this stuff" list. So, do your homework first and identify the weeds.

I was really wanting to know how much damage just one carp would do if I added it.

Obviously if it likes the vegetation that was in there then I guess it would not help at all, but if it is by chance a favorite food, would just 1 fish wipe it out?

Since I like to fish I hate weeds as they are a pain to cast through, but I also know they are good for the BG and others to hide in.

I have read many stories on here that people regret putting them in after they clean up the pond and do not want that experience.

On the other hand if the weeds are too thick then I can't fish anyway.

Seems like a double edged sword to me.

Add a couple, if they become a problem, shooting them is fairly easy.

Esshup is right - identify what you have first to see if they'll be of any real use to you. I think that, in general, if you put in one fish, you will not have a devastating reduction of aquatic plants. I'm going to be adding 3 to my 1/2 acre pond next week. I had a lot of American pondweed this year, which I don't mind so much, but between that, a lot of chara, and what I believe is also some Sago pondweed, I suspect that 3 will do a nice job of generally keeping it under control. And if it get to be too much control, I'll have fun trying to get rid of one of them. Consider giving 1 or 2 a try, but first verify for sure what plants you have or it will be a wasted effort.

That was what I wanted to do, I am not sure what plants for sure they are and the pics I took are terrible so can not really tell.

Would they feed at all this time of year or is it too cold already?

I figure one fish will cost be $8-$15 and if he likes anything in the pond he will eat all of it, if not it may either go hungry and die or be forced to eat a little of something else.

Either way I figure I am out the $15 rather it works or not, but my concern was for the carp to clean up my pond completely and there not be any weeds.

As Brier mentioned though I guess if it cleaned too well, once it was big enough I am sure getting it with a BOW may be challenging and fun.

Then I guess I would have to figure out how to prepare it so I could enjoy my $15 investment.

Just remember if you have weeds and no FA now, with the weeds gone the FA will probably grow. What's the lesser of the 2 evils?

Well I think the FA will probably not come back until next spring or summer when it warms and I plan to add some Tilapia to help with that.

But then again who knows for sure if they will eat it and not the pellets.

But I am with you which one is worse to fish through.

I've had FA grow when there was ice on the pond - it's not strictly a warm season algae.

That is nice to know, it pobably will grow then I am sure most is still there just at the bottom of the pond or suspended somewhere.

I guess that is one nice thing about the good old cattle ponds I have, they do not have FA or weeds, Well I guess one of them has primrose but the cows keep it down as well.

Just makes the fishing stink.

I have a 1 acre pond and I originally added 7 grass carp. A couple of them were only 5 inches long they may have gotten ate not sure on that?? I almost had no pondweed this year and I was 60 percent covered. What they didn't seem to even touch was the Chara. I had a ton of it still so I added 3 more that were 11 inches long. So I now have 10 if they all lived. So we will see how things go this next year. I don't mind having some Chara but it was 70 percent all over my pond.

RC51
Thank for the post.I'm adding 4 in my 3/4 acre pond here in south Texas in the next few weeks. Pond weed getting out of control due to no rain and all the sunshine. Here in Txas they have to be 12" long when stocking. Permit the whole thing. Just waiting on the paper work for the State.

No problem Rick I just took my time when adding them. I saw results the next spring with 7 on my pond weed but like I said 1 or 2 of them may have gotten ate as they were kind of small. So 4 should be a good starting point at the 12 inch size. You should see a difference next spring. I did. I added 3 more in hope maybe they will take care of my Chara too, but I have heard different things about GC and Chara so..... Not sure on that one. If I see a difference this next year I will let you all know. I think one of the other reasons I noticed it so bad this year is because of the lack of rain we have had. Man we are way below average right now and our whole state has been in a burn ban for weeks.

Later,

Ya my pond down about 2ft. A couple of the bigger bass was dragging a water hose toward the pond just the other day.

I may try to get a Grass Carp tomorrow if I can confirm they will have some available.

Just to try it out, if one does not work may add another later, if that does not work then they may just not like what I have.

If they eat too much, the Bow Fishing will commence.

One of the problems with GC is that some pond owners feed their fish pellets and grass carp will eat them as well. So you may not see as good of results if you feed your fish. It may take a little longer. As I believe the GC will eat your weeds if there is nothing else for them to eat, but if your feeding they will try and hold off and eat your pellets first. Just FYI.

Gents;
I'm interested too in one of MRHELLO's original questions: any difference or preference in stocking the carp in fall vs. spring?

Thanks;

Joe

In my opinion, I am not sure I would spend the money on the grass carp. I've got a couple in my 1/3 acre pond and I can't say that they have made much of a difference at all. If they ate FA, I would be more apt to recommend them.

If I had it to do all over, I would save my money. They have gotten large, and I see them when feeding pellets!

I'm going to use Tilapia from Rex starting next spring to control the FA and put some food on the table. Again, just my opinion. YMMV.

I'd love to go the tilapia route as well, but cannot stock in VA. Just wondering if I should stock the carp now with the onset of winter, or wait until spring.

Then another question I have is when do you need to take them out if you can catch them?

At what size do they tend to become ineffective at eating the weeds, I think I have read on here that they do better when about 8-12 inches and then just swim around not doing much.

Is this correct if so please let me know so I can be prepared to watch for size or age to pull them out as well?

Thanks

Joe, for what it's worth, I'm hoping to add 2 to my pond this Friday. Obviously there's not a huge need for weed control (or maybe not so obviously, but in my pond, weeds aren't bad right now) at this time of year for many folks. But, my thinking is just to go ahead and get them in now so they are well-acclimated with the pond by spring when stuff starts to emerge and they can start doing their thing. I dosed with Whitecap this summer and it did a pretty nice job of finally eliminating all but the last bits of watermeal I was after and cold is finally getting those that are hanging on. The Whitecap, though, knocked everything else out, too, so no weeds issues. The chara is starting to grow back and is probably a couple of inches tall now, but I figure its days are numbered with the seasonal change coming on. The GC will have some of that work on if they wish and otherwise, will have to wait for spring emergence, but they'll be in place for when it begins.

Mrhello, I understand that the 8 - 12 inch range is when they finally start becoming interested eaters that can actually begin to have a positive impact (however you choose to define that) in your pond. They stay effective for a number of years, but it appears that conventional wisdom says that by the time they've reached torpedo size, they've begun to lose a bit of their effectiveness and prefer to float near the surface a lot of the time just sunning themselves. So, I guess my point is that you should have at least a few years of good weed control expectation out of them, if not longer.

They say GC are most effective the first 7 years after that they start to become less and less effective. So just write down somewhere when you put them in and about that time 7 years later you need to start to replace them. I did as Todd said I put my original stock in around this time of year. That way they still had some weeds to chew on and had them ready for the spring already in place.

My plan are adding 3 in my pond in the next few weeks.( 3/4 acre) When the pond cleaning is done so are they. My bow hunting gear tied to 20lb test line should help in thier removal.