Nuisance Fish

[gsgator]

Anyone dealing with nuisance fish in their ponds? For about 2 1/2 weeks now I've been trying to rid my pond of Armored Catfish. I noticed the first one because they build an upside bird's nest on top of the water. They tuck their eggs up underneath the nest and protect it visciously. I've been catching them with a net, killing them and destroying the eggs. Supposedly these are immigrants from S. America. Anybody have advice on ridding ponds of fish like this?

 

[PineRidge]

Armored Catfish are quite small, but they really do looked armored! They have the whiskers, mouth, spines and coloring of a regular catfish, but instead of the smooth skin they have what looks like armor plates! Here is a variation of one.

 

[Jagmandave]

So, why get rid of them, do they eat the "good" fish? And, what are the "good " fish in a farm pond? Bass? Perch? Crappie?
My pond has lots of catfish (and frogs!), but I haven't seen anything else. Are they what's keeping it clean?

 

[SPIKER]

that photo that Mike (aka PINERIDGE) posted looks just like a catfish sold at pet stores as Alge Eaters. I had them in fish tanks and are rather expensive at that size as breeding stock. they require wood to survive as that is part of their diet. leaves lots of stringy stuff in youre tank too /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif I had several over 16" long and 5~8" high dorsal fins. in my Big fish tanks... I never had any lay eggs or have babbies though one did survive over winter in my sisters gold fish pond. less than 30" deep but we kept it covered with a small floating heaters in it. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif


It would be intereesting to see photo of the fish in you're pond though.

MarkM

 

[PineRidge]

I have always heard that Perch and Crappie are not considered desirable pond fish. At least that is what the State folks told me here in Ohio when we stocked our farm pond.

Yet fishing just 4 years after we stocked the pond we caught a BIG Perch. Birds most likely brought the fish eggs into the pond where they hatched.

 

[billbill1]

Bluegill, what we call perch in Kansas, are stocked in ponds to feed the black bass and catfish to get them to eatin' size. Black bass perfer crawfish and bluegill in that order. Bluegill will overstock a pond in a hurry if there aren't preditor fish to eat them. A couple of flathead catfish will clean it up in short order though. Big bluegill are a blast to catch and very good eating if you can stand to clean them. Carp and gar are probably the trash fish here in the land of Oz. Add bullheads to that list too.

 

[slowrev]

I have always heard that Perch and Crappie are not considered desirable pond fish
//
What!!?? Crappie is perhaps the tastiest fish one can ever eat.

Ben

 

[MossRoad]

Ohio and Indiana are very similar in their pond management. They stress a proper balance of bluegill to bass. The bass keep the bluegill in check(in theory, anyway). Catfish are also recommended, but will not reproduce well unless you have hiding places like tiles and pipes so that the bass cannot eat the whole ball of young cats(they tend to stick together) in one bite. They also discourage bull heads because, unlike channel catfish, bull heads turn up the bottom and make the water muddy, limiting the amount of light than can penetrate the water.

They discourage perch and crappie because they are more open water type of fish and lay massive amounts of eggs, especially perch(something like one female laying 60,000 eggs is not uncommon). So you end up with millions of really tiny perch consuming all the nutrients in the pond. None of them get a big enough share to gain any size, so they stay small. The way it was explained to me is this...

A body of water can only support so many pounds of life based on the nutrients it receives. So if you have a body of water that can support 1000 pounds of fish, you can have:

One 1000 pound fish.
Or
Ten 100 pound fish.
Or
One Hundred 10 pound fish.
Or
One thousand 1 pound fish.
Or
Ten thousand 1.6 ounce fish.

 

[getut]

It must differences in location, but I thought perch was a salt water fish... but it may be the same thing that we call bream around here. Does anyone know?

There isn't much of anything more fun than finding an old farm pond overflowing/overstocked with bream (hungry) and catching them with light tackle. Their one of the biggest fighters for their size out there and it is great fun... and great eating also.

 

[PineRidge]

Moss I see you are having fun with the calculator again. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

We have more than a few 10+ pound catfish in our little pond.