Picking up some grass carp tomorrow.

[GeorgeHaddaway15]

I am picking up some triploid(cannot reproduce) grass carp from my local fish hatchery here in Colorado. I will let you guys know how it goes! Super excited because they will turn into monsters FAST! I've heard they'll hit 20 pounds in a year. I don't know how true that is, guess we'll find out. In Colorado we do not need permits for them luckily. Otherwise it would be nearly impossible to get them. Attaching some photos of what they look like. Definitely not the prettiest fish but cool nonetheless. Photo taken off the internet.

 

[GeorgeHaddaway15]

Will post pictures once they’re at my house. I picked up 5 grass carp, around 10-12” long. Along with 2 large koi. The biggest koi is 18”. 3 huge yellow perch that I couldn’t resist getting as well. One is full of eggs which will either become fish food if I don’t get to them fast enough or I will grow them out. And 3 8” channel catfish.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

What monster tank/pond are they going in?

 

[GeorgeHaddaway15]

They’re going in my 3000 gal indoor pond. After they get bigger, they’ll be going in my half acre outdoor pond, so I can fish for them once they’re 30 pounds. It’s been my grand plan for a while, to grow out sturgeon and other large growing cold water fish and then fish for them and enjoy watching them once they’re huge. Pets, but at the same time, not pets.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

cool! I would love to do that! There are infact sturgeon in southern California, 3o minutes from where i am. Never seen one, but wanted one...until I saw the care lol.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

My father in law has a dozen he put in his pond to control oxygen weed. They had unlimited food for the first 2 years until they cleared out all the oxygen weed and I don't think they hit anywhere near 20lbs in that time. Been 5-6 years now and they're probably up around 2 feet.

 

[GeorgeHaddaway15]

Here’s one I caught 2 years ago. This was on a fly rod and the manager of the golf course told me he stocked them at 12” and they grew to be 20-30 pounds in 3 years. That’s with them being under ice for half the year. There is fish feeders feeding them a constant supply of high protein fish food which is meant for the other fish but the grass carp get most of it in the summer. I think it’s because they are eating fish food made out of other fish and high protein ingredients that get them this big. Some of the ones I’ve seen are so obese they can barely swim and just sit there. I’ll try to get a picture once the ice melts. I’ll send some articles that talk about growth rate.

 

[GeorgeHaddaway15]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0044848680900861

 

[GeorgeHaddaway15]

http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/BENEFICIAL/MISC/Ctenopharyngodon_idella.htm
Apparently in Florida, which is super warm, they are growing 2 lbs a month on vegetation. The water is much colder on average up here in colorado and in the winter they sit at the bottom and hibernate is what I’ve observed. So that’s almost half the year where they don’t eat or eat very little compared to the summer. I think it has something to do with the people feeding them bread on a constant basis as well as the fish eating all the protein packed fish food.

 

[GeorgeHaddaway15]

cool! I would love to do that! There are infact sturgeon in southern California, 3o minutes from where i am. Never seen one, but wanted one...until I saw the care lol.

Are they white sturgeon? I would totally buy some from you if you could ship them to me!