Feeding pond catfish and where did they come from?

[oosik]

The feeding of pond fish. There is a definite advantage to having pond rushes or cattails. Places for dragonflies & damselflies to lay their eggs. These eggs hatch as aquatic larva and provide excellent food for pond fish. I, obviously, have both - with my five acres of cattails. Also another unknown larval type that the bass really appreciate. This "critter" looks like a Viking long boat - overturned and moving across the water. Some type of fresh water ferry shrimp.

Give your pond fish a treat. Find a big 'ol ant mound - shovel a five gallon bucket full of mound and ants. Run over and throw this in your pond.

Your pond fish will love you ..........

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I know that cattails have been used for decades to absorb all sorts of contaminants from water...including heavy metals; Radium, Thorium, Selenium, etc. Nature's pretreatment if you will.

 

[the old grind]

Bass, bream, & shell-crackers (bluegill & red-ear sunfish) spawn readily in my pond. This summer we saw or caught perch and white & black crappie that cannot spawn here.

Channel cats were too populous and out-competed the bass for food, so I've thinned their numbers. Cattails are my friends, muskrats my nemeses. Best natural baitfish cover if you trap 'rats out.

I took a lots of catfishs out and the bass fishing is much better, to the point of thinning and eating them now.

btw, if you have bullheads they pod-up when young, deterring predators. They are hard to keep down and do their best to dominate. (In a balanced system cats don't need to be fed)

 

[Tinhack]

I used to have gold fish in my air conditioner condenser pond. They grew to about 4-5" on nothing but bugs and mosquitos. That lasted about three years until the White Herring showed up one day. Now the Herring come back every time I mow the front field. They follow the tractor chasing all the bugs stirred up by the cutter. There's typically 20-30 that show up. They're darn near a pest sometimes by waiting until the last second to get out of the tractor path. Then they swarm behind the cutter like I just threw out feed for the chickens.

Ops, that's Heron not Herring. The big white birds.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Here in the PNW we call the white herons egrets.

 

[Tinhack]

Here in the PNW we call the white herons egrets.

I've heard them called that too. But I've never seen any with the distinguishing "plumage" that's supposed to differentiate them from Herons. :confused3:

 

[the old grind]

White-phase herons have yellow legs. Egrets have black legs. That's our easy button to distinguish them and is the best way.

 

[TnAndy]

Catfish in one of my two small ponds. They came as fingerlings from the fish truck. They leave as filets in my frying pan