Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bucket stocking fish

I just came from a 2 day conference on lake management and had an EUREKA moment.

Here's what it was.

I was called last Fall to stock Triploid Grass Carp in a 1 ac pond. The owner had plants growing in the pond and tried treating them with Diquat and Copper Sulfate. He was able to rake out a bunch, but couldn't seem to get them under control and now they were growing up out in MUCH deeper water. It was at the end of the growing season, and I said that I wasn't sure about what type of plant (or algae) it was, and I wasn't sure if TGC would be the answer. He said "stock them anyway". O.K.!

It looked like Chara, but I knew it wasn't. To me, it looked like a type of algae, but I couldn't find it listed in any of my resources, at least not anything that was listed as being in this area.

Well, yesterday I found out what it was, and it's not good news.

It seems that he was fishing in a local lake, (Lake Wawasee, IN) and he bucket stocked some fish into his pond from there. He was adamant that he didn't bring any plants into the pond with the fish because the water came from the livewell in his boat.

Well, Lake Wawasee has Starry Stonewort in it, and it's an algae. It can be propagated by oocytes, so just a bucket of clear water could move it from one BOW to another. http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/GreatLake...te=&HUCNumb

I talked to the INDNR manager that is overseeing the treatment of it in Lake Wasasee and he said that keeping it under control, let along eradicating it is proving to be very difficult. He said that they can give it a chemical haircut, but they can't seem to kill it completely, and they have to keep re-treating the areas. He said in some areas it is growing 3'-4' thick on the bottom, effectively cutting the water that is useable by fish in half, going from useable water that is 8' deep to water that is only 4' deep. This is some nasty, nasty stuff, and it is a royal PITA to treat, and it will cost $$ to keep it under control in a BOW.

SO, if you are thinking of bucket stocking your pond from another pond or lake, DON'T DO IT.

This guy did most everything right. He looked at the fish that he stocked, correctly ID'ing the fish, checked for external parasites, made sure that he didn't transfer any plants or pieces of plants to his pond and still got something in his pond that will cost him a LOT of $$$ to treat annually.

thanks for the warning, Scott.

I was thinking about bucket stocking some grass shrimp, but now have second thoughts.

He originally said that he didn't bucket stock any fish in to his pond, but upon further questioning, he did, but it was almost 5 years ago. He wanted to know that if it was that long ago, why didn't it show up earlier? The reason is that it probably did, but it was in such a small number that it wasn't a problem until it reached the tipping point and started spreading like wildfire.

His pond is an acre and a quarter. It is 18' deep in the middle. So, that means that he has approximately 11.25 acre feet of water in his pond.

His treatment options are as follows:
1) Use Nautique at 0.8 ppb dosage and re-apply at 14-21 day intervals until all signs of it are gone. That is 27 gallons per treatment at a chemical cost of $1,225.00.

2)Use Cutrine Ultra and Hydrothol 191. 2.4 gallons of Cutrine Ultra and 1 qt. of Hydrothol per AC/Ft of water and re-treat every 14-21 day intervals until signs of it are gone. That is a per treatment chemical cost of $1,142.61

3) Use Clipper at the rate of 200 ppb and do not re-treat any sooner than 28 days from previous application. That is a per treatment chemical cost of $2,037.26. One thing that is not factored into that price is any pH adjustments if required.

So, that just goes to show you how bucket stocking can go wrong in a big way. Even if you do your due diligence and try to do everything right.

The only thing that he could have done to further minimize his exposure to transferring an invasive species to his pond would have been to do a triple rinse of the fish (i.e. take them and put them in a stock tank filled with his pond water, net them out and put them in another stock tank filled with his pond water, do that a 3rd time), then do a salt dip/bath to the fish. In all those instances, do it far enough away from the pond so none of that tank water reaches the pond when the tanks are emptied.

Even after all that there are no guarantees that none of the oocytes would be present.....

So now I strongly recommend against any bucket stocking of any kind, after seeing what he will have to spend to try to eradicate it from his pond. Trying to save a few bucks on fish backfired and bit him in the butt in a BIG way.

Iv used the algae killer & parasite killer that is for aquarium use. Iv only used it for fish, havnt tried it on crustaceans or mollusks yet, but it has worked great and Iv had no problems.

How long have you been using it, and have you bucket stocked from BOW's that had invasives in it?

About 10 years ago we had some algae that took over a couple of our ponds. It was a nasty mess, so thick a rock would float on it. It was eventually taken care of with grass carp, herbicide for it, and copius amounts of raking the muck out. I have used the tablets since then and have not had a problem, after the fish have been in the treated water for 24 hours I move them through a series of cattle tanks before the ponds.
I can't remember the brand name of the tablets but they come in a box with little foil packages like medication would. The box has a picture of some kind of tropical fish on it. Each tablet treats 10 gallons and you can mix the algae and parasite killer tablets without hurting the fish.

Iv treated all kinds of fish. All kinds of sunfish to Redfin pickerel and Gar and redeye bass. Havnt tried it with any cats/bull heads or trout though. But I wouldn't foresee any problems.

You've stocked gar? I've always thought they were a very cool fish, especially the big alligator gar, but hadn't heard about stocking them in a pond. Did you have a problem with too many stunted bass and wanted a predator?

I think Scott's point is very valid and straight forward.

We work very hard to manage our ponds. Being penny wise and pound foolish could have possible consequences I do not want. For the price of one treatment to START controlling a problem my bucket introduced, I could buy a lot of fish from a reputable source.

I think in terms of "best value," long term.

Just a few (3) longnose to play with my ultra light tackle with. i don't think you could get them started in a pond that already has a LMB & BG in it. It takes years for them to reach a spawning age, grow slowly, and the fry and fingerlings are slow swimming and dwell on the surface during warm periods.

Just curious, what are the standard industry procedures that fish farms follow that prevent contamination when they deliver fish to a farm?

Is it possible to get undesirable plants/animals from a fish farm or fish delivery truck?

I'm sure they take precautions. Just curious what precautions are somewhat standard for the industry?

Snrub, as far as I know, there are no standardized precautions.

What I did was use one bucket to take water out of the hauling tank, pour it into other buckets and use those other buckets to put fish into the ponds. I leave the buckets apart and they dry out on the way to the next stop. I am looking into a different method starting this year after the conference.

None of the "pond" buckets are used to dip water out of the tanks.

Many of the fish farms hold fish and haul fish for retail delivery in well water. This often provides a rinse and water dilution of contaminants that were brought in when the fish were seined. Many small fish farms buy all their fish such as RES, HSB, CC, grass carp, trout, etc. from large producers. Small fish farms when they sell out of one fish species will buy fish from whoever and wherever they can find stock. Rearing fish pond water gets traded all over the country.

Big fish farms buy from several smaller ones also....

LAT88, many aquarium chemicals can be quite hazardous to humans if the treated fish get eaten. Precious few chemicals are allowed for use where fish may get consumed by humans.

I talked with the PB and Am Sportsfish guys who stocked my pond with RES/CNBG and FHM. They indicated that salt was added to the water tank to reduce stress & disease.

Yes, salt is almost universally used to reduce stress and help stimulate the slime coat, but unless the salt is a much higher concentration it won't help with external parasites.

I don't know (at this time) what can be used to prevent the spread of algae.