Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Wanted to share SMB fingerling pic

I wanted to show a piece of my efforts of tank spawning and moving fry from hatch tank to grow out ponds.
esshup, after we talked today I grabbed a small 8' 1/16" mesh net and hit the corners and got about 200 in the 1.5-2" range.
These were placed in a well fertilized grow out 35 days ago, today. The plan was to remove and place in feed training tank at around 35mm. Most were over 1.5" so they grew faster than expected.
May seem trivial but getting to this point is quite exciting to me, with lots of lessons learned here.
All small fingerlings appeared very fat and healthy-acceptably uniform in size, looks like about 45mm in 35 days. If I can have the same success I had training YP this year, I think I can get 50-55mm a month on these.
A lot of blood, time, sweat and tears (money) got me to this point so I'm happy today.
I have 2 grow outs full of SMB fry, 10 days apart. I haven't sampled the younger fry/fingerlings yet.
I should also mention I moved probably 4000-5000 swim-up fry from pond from natural reproduction, so pond #2 will be interesting to see how growth rates differ.

Dang, those look great! The question is how many are there? i.e. did that growth come at the expense of brothers and sisters?

Nice! Looks great!

Excellent results so far from diligent study and work application. Hoping for more great news and results of your fishery adventures.

I'm in love....

Great work Snipe. Please keep us all posted on progress.

Kenny, very nice.

Hello.

Wow.

If I stayed near you, with your permission you would see me often.

Thanks for sharing.
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Tank spawning?

You can say that again!!!

Sunil.
I know, my English is not very good even with Google.

I meant I would like to see his installation.
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Yes Dave, I did both tank and natural reproduction this second year to see how it followed results from last year. I spent quite a bit of time with our Bass gurus at State hatchery to get some details figured out and there are things (as most know) that just aren't found in literature.
When I start moving fry inside, I will do some documentation of the process and post some pics of feed tanks and how that's all set up. The list of "do this" has grown some.. the list of "don't do this" has grown much faster..

azteca, you'd be welcome as would most PB'ers but I must say there are a few we would have to do security checks on. :-))

azteca, I understood you perfectly and agree with you! That's the meaning of "You can say that again!"

Just a teaser pic..

Hello.

Somes questions please,

Why the fence.

I suppose you have yours genitors inside,

Did you use your mat inside or outside.

If your genitors are outside in a pond, how do you get your larvae, do you have a trap for the larvae, I will make one next year.

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Couple other views...

Wow. What a set-up!

That looks like a building constructed just to be a fish-raising facility.

I know how cold you get in the winter, and how hot you get in the summer. Is that a climate-controlled building, or do you just keep the water at the correct temperature?

There's actually enough water volume the building stays about 55 in winter and looks like 82-83 in summer so far.

Hello.

wow, I love it.

I don't see any spot light above the feeders to attract the fry.

Or the big lights that I see on the ceiling are enough to attract the fry.
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Very nice rig. Does that blue vat look familiar?

Great set-up ! Hope you will keep us apprised of what is going on with them.

Nice well developed indoor tanks. Thanks for showing us your tank setup. They should work great for what you are doing. Good planning.

All 3 of them big blues came from Lusk..

These are all small fingerlings, 1.25-3".. I have lights at 4' on walls shining up so they can easily see at night without a direct source of light into the water.
The fry go into growing ponds for 35-40 days eating plankton, then move them in so I can convert the little dudes. I am absolutely dumbfounded at how big of item a smallie can eat at this size. A 2-2.25" smb will pound 1" FHM all day long, it's amazing to see it.