I put Koi and rosy red minnows in a pond that was almost that big once. They are doing really well. it will take several years for 10 koi and 50 rosy red minnows to get too big and over populate the pond. Then you get a gar for your home tank and you will have an unlimited supply of feeder fish. When the gar gets too big for your tank put it in the pond.
Looking for Farm Pond Ideas in Iowa....
- Thread starter Chronic Apathy
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I'd rather to not let the carps get overpopulated that its too late to use predators to lower their numbers.
Not if you tank raise them first from fingerlings and they get used to you feeding them, both Gar and Bowfin will respond by learning certain feeding times and schedules.
Paddlefish can be taught to eat pellets.....but by nature theyre still filter feeders and need a lot of room for movement and eat a lot.....almost constantly.
Why would I have to find them? Lol, I know where they are, theyre in the dang pond....all I gotta do is get their attention which will not be hard to do if theyre tank raised and used to certain feeding times and stimulus; fish can sense vibrations and they can smell in the water, and a 3/4 acre pond isn't Lake Michigan....they'll come if theyre hungry.
War mouth, this is a fishing pond, not a pet pond. The "pet" fish may get hooked accidently and will lost that trust with the person who feed them. But then again there's natural forage fish in pond already so its waste of time to put pets in large pond that you will never see them again.
So pellets and natural food items are not enough for the paddlefish? And 2/3 acre pond is enough large for them. Lot of adult paddlefish are raised in less than acre ponds nowadays.
Wow some people can take the fun out of anything. People have been keeping Koi and gold fish in ponds for a long time. This is not a new concept. If the fish get too big put a net in the water and give them to friends. Or even better start to sell them. Or even better feed the fish to bigger fish. The heron will help thin the numbers.
Theres several assumptions that you and I are making, 1st is that this pond is going to lose a lot of the stocked fish when he deepens it, 2nd that its still going to be used as a fishing pond, 3rd That if you wont be able to find or get the Gar and Bowfin to come to you because they'll be eating the stocked fish that you would be able to get a Paddlefish to come to you.
At Fellows lake, and at the Lake at the zoo in Springfield Mo, along with a large farm pond near Doniphan mo I used to visit during the summers as a youth, I have seen fish in the wild (catfish, bullhead, bass, carp,Bream and Bowfin) get used to being fed by people and to appear when food is thrown into the water (primarily from docks and decks); maybe, just maybe Im wrong in my belief that tank raised Gar and Bowfin can be trained by tapping on the glass and feeding by sound and smell, and maybe Im wrong that they'll still want to eat foods like trout pellets, cut shrimp and smelt once a day while in the wild......but I kind of doubt it.
