BrianL I admire your restraint by doing this stocking thing on the slow train program! Way to go!
You are going to love this phase now. You know that you have a huge playground for the fish and all they need to do is swim without fear, eat, make eggs, spawn, repeat. You know that you put in a great starting forage base and you are going to train the fish while there is no predators lurking to ambush them at the feeder.
Your pond water looks good, 20" on sechhi is good.
For many of us, these are the 'good old days' of our pond journey, kind of like when your kids were young and innocent and didn't know what the big bad world was about yet.
I may be having an issue with my stocked CNBG. I am starting to loose some to a fungus(I think). I have noticed the larger ones have the fungus mainly along back and dorsal fins, and the < 2" their tail will get covered. I have found probably 30-40 since the orginal stocking a couple weeks ago. Any ideas?
Last edited by BrianL; 07/17/1701:07 PM.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
its my understanding handling stress on newly stocked fish can cause some morts due to fungus and other issues as a result of the stress and fin/scale damage incurred during the process.
typically its not a large percent of the fish stocked unless they are really over stressed.
Goofing off is a slang term for engaging in recreation or an idle pastime while obligations of work or society are neglected........... Wikipedia
Right now I'm thinking about 10% of the large CNBG have died from this. After a search of PB this morning, I found this Saprolegnia fungus is a fairly common thing. Although I hate seeing dead fish, I'm glad it's not likely something in my pond doing it, which was my first fear. I just hope water warms up, and this stops soon.
Last edited by BrianL; 03/01/1605:16 PM.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
#s of fish dying seem to be getting less. Only found 3 Tuesday and 2 yesterday. None this morning. Hope with the warmer air temps in the 70s, maybe it will stop.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
Ok, with the amount Of rain that we are getting I need to be able to divert the water coming off the terrace, and not let it get to the pond. I have thought about a gate and culvert, flashboard and culvert, and just a large gate without culvert. Anyone done something like this, any pictures? Thanks
Last edited by BrianL; 07/17/1701:09 PM.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
All the FA is gone for some reason. Not sure if it is the crayfish, minnows, temp, or winds but it is gone.
I built a couple of minnow PVC spawning things last night. not sure how many of these that I need, but I have used up all the used 3" PVC that I had laying around. There is 20 foot of pipe per. I built them so they would be easy to remove or relocate when water level changes. Hope they work.
Last edited by BrianL; 07/17/1701:45 PM.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
Also I have added a couple of brush piles with larger cedar trees. I pushed these down on my place, and they are around 30' long. Since pond filled before I could place them out with tractor I had to figure out another way. There was a learning curve, but finally got it to work. I tied the wife's cheap kayak to it just in case it didn't float:)! But it did, and the kayak kept it up till I could float it to where I wanted to put it. This job needs to be done with little to no wind! I used my kayak to float it to where i wanted to sink it, then just cut it loose..... Well I spent one day fighting the wind never getting it done, but with no wind it was pretty easy.
Last edited by BrianL; 07/17/1701:46 PM.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
Wow, great work! I'd be curious to know if the FHM like the PVC pipe for spawning. It seems like they would love it and it would work great, although many of the posts on the forum suggest they need flat surfaces.
You have the ability to pull them out anytime and look for eggs on the inside of the pipes. That is going to help us all learn if flat or curved really matters as long as there are cavities they can go inside.
This is what gave me the idea. They will use it in an aquarium, but will have to see if they will in a pond. It will be easy enough to check. I sure hope they do!
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
I was wanting something that would be easy to move as water level falls. Right now, water is backed up in the terrace area, and seems to be were the FHM want to hang out. They have been spawning in the shallow water, guessing they are just using clay bottom. Not sure if there will be much survival like that.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
I tried to take some pics but they didn't really turn out. The PVC seems to be working great. FHM are all over it, under it, between it, and inside it. Only thing I see that I should have done different is allow a little more space between the pipes. They really seem to prefer those gaps. There are at least 7 or 8 guarding that I can see.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.
I pulled out one of the pipes out yesterday and they are loaded with eggs inside and underneath! They work. Found some more old pipe in the barn this weekend so I'm going to make one or two more.
1.8 acre pond with CNBG, RES, HSB, and LMB Trophy Hunter feeder.