Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Tryin to feed train LMB

But according to the 16 year TPW LMB study they don't necessarily end up the biggest fish for a number of reasons. Often in the fish world being overly aggressive gets you killed (as in a snack for larger fish).

Eric and Dave, I have trouble understanding how they can survive when they bite off more than they can chew.

Often they don't. I have a pic somewhere showing a 2.5 in LMB trying to eat a 1.5 in LMB. They both died.

Joey take a look at these 2 threads on the subject . They should help a bunch.

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=003474

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=003218#000004

Had a lot die yesterday. Not sure what is going on. I am suspecting water quality. I went fishing all day so I am not sure exactly what happened but lost almost half of them. Might have even been they went to long with no food. I fed the remaining this morning and they seen ok but who know what today will bring. The outlook looks grim.

Joey - I think increased deaths on April 18 are normal and due to starvation of those not eating. Your total death count when plottted on a graph will have somewhat of a bell shaped curve. Fish death rate currently is probably in the high part of be curve. As long as you are regularly making water changes your water quality should remain okay. The main thing to moitor for is ammonia. Are you making any tests for ammonia? If you are making regular water changes, I don't think they would be needed based on your set up and the size & number of fish.

This is a great thread! Bill and Dr. Willis have great advice and insight. Joey- keep us posted on the progress. This is something many of us can learn a lot about.

I lost a lot yesterday but today not many more died. I did a 20% water change last night just incase and will do another tonight. Well see, I dont feel real good like I did the first few days. Hopefully if I can get a few dozen past this next few day they may be ok. If not I will try this again when I see ball of new Larve/fry. One thing that may have contributed was 2 days ago we had a bad wind storm and my power was off for 10 hours, the water temp in the tank dropped and there was no filtration all that time, could have had something to do with it.

Joey, it's a tough job. Consider the tiny % of LMB fry that live through the age period you're training yours at - if a small # live AND are pellet trained, I would consider that a HUGE success, especially for a first attempt.

Joey, I firmly agree with Theo. LMB are probably very difficult to feed train at the larval stage which is why commercial operations start with small fingerlings. Larger start size leads to higher success rates. If you can get any trained consider you first attempt a success. PLus it is a learning experience and it is also teaching us.

I think they were extreamly fragile at this age. I bet when I took them they were a week old, 2 weeks the most. There are still a bunch so we see what happens. If it fails I could try to net a few a little older in a month or so.

Joey, I recall you estimating 200 fry when you began. How many would you guess are left at this point? Good luck.

There is only about 2 dozen. I dont think they had a real fair chance because I lost power for 10 hours and I do think this had something to do with them dieing off.

Power loss is something I dread right now. If I lose aeration for more than an hour or two, I'll have a 100 gallons of dead Redears.

Theo - You might have to have some emergency aeration drills for the family to teach them how to take turns hand splashing the water. I can see the rolling of eyes now. :rolleyes: Dad's lost it!

I was just glad the RES got fed and watered instead of filleted and eaten while I was in Arlington.

They would not try to reach in that tub but once. On second thought they might try to reach in a second time with a hemostat to retrieve their missing finger from the first attempt. Those RES are mean.

Well I am down to 6. i am doing a 10% water change every day now. The 6 that are left, 4 are growing and are double the size when I put them in, there are 2 that dont looks so good.

Not sure what went wrong. I am sure like you all said some died of starvation but more then that I am questioning water quality and the fact that I lost power for 10 hours. I had the water at 76 degrees and it was very cold that day and it dropped almost 10 degrees. That puts a hurting on grown fish so I imagine it did a number on the babies.

I am waiting to see more fry so I can try it again with a new batch.

Hopefully I can get the remaining 6 threw the next few days, then hopefully they got a good chance.

Joey, As long as the remaining few are eating they should live. Expect the 2 poor looking fish to be sticking out the mouth of one or two of the faster growing fish.

Its down to 2 baby bass. I dont know whats wrong. I have to deem the first attemt a failor.

I went out and bought 2 pregnant guppies, I bought them for a few reasons. I want to see if the tanks water is good enough to support babys and if the guppys survive and then the babys do also I can consider the water good enough for the bass. If the guppies make it, I will try with more bass larve.

I believe the 10 hours of power loss doomed the bass. They get very stressed and get ick with a drop in temp that fast. I am guessing this had a lot to do with it, along with there being so young ontop of the fact it is hard to do anyways.

And then there were none. A total failor.

Not exacty sure the reason but it didnt work and they were eating.

Will make some ajustments let the tank settle out and try again, after I see the baby guppys doing ok

I have my suspisions, 1 the mass drop in temp during the power failor, 2 the tank is not settled yet and the huge excess food of feed training overloaded things enough to kill the baby fish.

The school of hard knocks is a good teacher. The experience wasn't a total failure, you learned a few things.

Good point, Bill. Even when we think we've failed, we've at least learned.

Joey- I hope you try it again soon. I've learned a lot from this thread, and I'm sure you can do it successfully the more you try it.

Joey were you using tap water or pond water for your tank? If you were using tap water then try again with water from your pond for startup and for partial changeouts. I am curious if it will make a difference.

Was using water from the tap, but its well water. Basically the same ground water/springs that feeds the pond.

I will try it again. I have loads of fry/larve right now in the pond. Waiting for 2 things. One to see if the baby guppies survive and letting the larve bass get just a tad bigger.

This batch I took were maybe one or two days older then swim up stage. But I really point the finger at the power failor. will try again.