Thanks for the vocabulary challenge JP...I had to look up "instar". I am going to stick with my bet that the vast majority of the 3rd instar craws become forage for the smaller HBG and return the berried mothers to the pond. I never (almost never) see any craws smaller than 2.5 inches in the traps or at the pond edges during feeding time (Yes, I feed them). I take this to mean that once they get larger than that I do not have large enough fish in the pond that target them.
JP, what do you mean by "Though it is possible standing weights would be comparable either way"?
If I leave the berried females in the pond until the youth are on there own (third instar as I have learned) and those YOY get eaten, all the while trapping out the males and non-berried females...my standing weight should go down. That is my goal after all.
