FrankenPond revisited.
OK so if you have any doubts about whether this is a doable scenario ... check out what SOLitude did with this .9 acre pond with a female only pond. There is an article on it in
Pond Boss Magazine. The stocking rate and standing weight is at insane levels. These fish eat so much that the pond is not able to produce the forage needed. They are fed forage that are supplemented and they mention the conversion is 2 to 3 times the "industry standard" 10-1 one ratio.
I think the piece they are missing is that forage needs are separated into maintenance and growth needs. A fish will not grow unless it is maintained. If it eats enough for maintenance ... then additional food is converted into gain. The female only spreadsheet above demonstrates this, the total gain annually is 30 pounds per acre per annum but the forage requirement for combined maintenance and growth is 675 pounds per acre per annum. The mean FCR is then 22.5 lbs per pound gain.
The bigger the fish get .... the more forage it takes to gain a pound due to increasing maintenance. I added an additional column to the SS to determine the FCR based on assumptions of 5lbs/lb for Maintenance and 10lbs/lbs for growth and got the following FCRs if it interests you.
GROWTH...................................FCR
1 lb to 3 lb in 1 year....................12.5
3 lb to 5 lb in 1 year....................17.5
5 lb to 7 lb in 1 year....................22.5
7 lb to 9 lb in 1 year....................27.5
9 lb to 11lb in 1 year...................32.5
If I have any issues with their particular approach it is that all of the Female LMB are of the same year class and their doesn't seem yet to be a plan yet for recruitment through stocking and normalizing to a sustainable system. But the trophies are there. Some of them are approaching 10 lbs in three years which for Northern strain Females stocked at .45 lbs/individual is little short of amazing.
