Stocking my little pond

[wushaw]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( OK, I don't know a thing about ponds, but don't they fed with fresh water from a spring or artesian well or something? What keeps the water fresh and oxygenated for the fish? I would love to put a small pond in one area of my property that is slowly turning to wetland/marsh, but thought they needed a more regular water supply than rain.

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif )</font>

Plant life in a pond is a big source for oxygen.

 

[SPIKER]

THE THING ABOUT THE CHANNELS CATS (cap lock sorry) is that they sture up the bottom some, I would add a few bass too 25 or so smaller ones, the blue gills oh yes add more /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif red ears, and hybrid greens are great eating & fun catching. grow FAST too. they will help keep the pond clean, though that red texas clay is hard to keep from being suspended into the water, some slight wind & lapping waves & you;re water is all red. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

anyhow the cats will keep it red now. keep some food in there for a while too so they get a good start. fish food or even low quality dog food. SMALL size bites for them...

mark M /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

The guy at Tyler Fish Farm said the fish will grow about 50 percent faster and bigger if we fed them. I said that I wasn't intersted in feeding the fish and was jsut gonna put them in there and forget about them.

WRONG

Steph said she wants to fee the fish ALLOT!!!

Thanks Jinman. hahahahaha

Ever since we visited Jim and Kathy at their place for a TBN get together, Steph has wanted to have some fish to feed in our pond with the hope that one day we can re-create the same experience we had there. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

50 pounds of floating catfish food costs $12. Two bags will fit in a 40 gallon garbage can.

The picture is of Steph's son as we get ready to feed this evening.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

This pond is part of my entrance into the RV Park and will have a white three rail fence surrounding it with a few Texas Longhorns in it. No guests will be allowed to fish it or have access to it. This is one of the reasons for the stocking stategy too. Bass would need to be thinned where the catfish will just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Muddy water isn't a concern with this pond too much. It's in a really great spot to catch your eye as you enter the Park and aproach the store.

Here is Steph and the kids getting food for the fish.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

The area of this small pond is in the middle of a bowl. There is enough watershed that I get ten inches of water for every inch of rain. Water levels do fluctuate with the heat and evaporation, but I'm digging a well to suppliment the water level during dry periods.

That's one of those projects I had planned for last year, but build my home instead. Allot of projects got put on hold because of that. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Now that there's fish in there, the well will be a bigger priority.

The picture is of Steph's son feeding the fish. We use a big plastic coffee mug for throwing the food out. Two scoops a day!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Both kids get exited when it's feeding time. This picture is of Steph's daughter. She thought she was done playing outside for the day when we told her we were going to feed the fish.

She's in her robe!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Since the fish are so small, it's almost impossible to see them. THe mud colored water doesn't help either. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Steph really enjoys seeing them and watches them feed until the food is gone, or it floats to the shore. She will walk around the little pond until all the action ends!!!

This picture shows one of the fish, but I have no idea what it is. Kind of big for a minow, but small for a catfish and for some reason it doesn't look like a bluegill either. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

It's the first time I've actually captured one on film since letting them go on Monday. Dozens and dozens of pictures later, I finally captured one. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Eddie

 

[TBDonnelly]

The lake I live on is a clay bottom. Without water clarity the sun does not penetrate deep enough for weeds to grow. Without weeds growing on the bottom there nothing to keep the clay from stirring up and clouding up the water.

Several years ago 'zebra mussels' found their way into the lake. They covered the rocks along the shoreline, posts on the docks, water intakes. Not many good things to say about zebra mussels except, they do filter the water and make the water noticably clearer.

Don

 

[SPIKER]

tbdonelly:

yes that is true about the zebra musselx, they DO surely filter the water, there was lots & lots of speculation about them when they invaded lake erie, none have paned out, mnow the dan ASIAN GOBIES are reaking havock with many of the species there. the zebra muscles made the purch fishing better though you have to go out farther, and may make th ePIKE fishing petter too. the walleye fishing declined some mostly due to the water clarity has made them go out deeper and not come up to shore so much. one side effect is that they are covering over a LOT of the polution that sets on the bottom, making large covering masses of muscel shells make the sand silt cover over the old mercury & lead posons out there... they first thought that they would eat all the food that the small fish need seems that they let the light get down farther so more zoo plancton can now grow in the light in deeper water colume and hense actually MORE zoo plancton that was prior to the zebras...

anyhow the small mouth fishing sure has gooten GOOD /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

markM

 

[Panache]

Eddie, get a good stand of grass growing around your pond and you will stop most of the sediment clouding. I had problems with water washing down my road and bringing clay into my pond. I put several water bars across my road directed onto relatively flat grassed terraces. this stopped all but the worst runoff into the pond.