fish pond ecology

[JB]

I have resurrected a small pond (about an acre) on The Hideout to use as a nursery to later supply Lake Sunshine with stock.

This pond was a wonderful little fish pond in the early 90s. Major changes in neighboring land cut off the runoff flow and she went dry. I have arranged to have water pumped to her from Lake Sunshine before the gas drillers get their "frac" pit filled.

Now I need to recreate a proper woodland pond environment. Getting several species of minnows, bluegill, bass and channel cat is no problem. I dumped 50 shiners in there this afternoon.

I think I can get local "Tom Sawyers" to find me some crawdads, bullfrogs and maybe even a few water snakes.

So, what is my question? What other manner of wildlife do I need to plant? Where/how do I get it?

I think kingfishers, egrets and herons will just appear from other local sources.

This is what she looks like. Really reminds me of the pond I fished as a little tad that I have written about in The Review.

RATZAKRATZA!! Gotta be under 97KB. My camera takes several megabyte pix.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: fish pond ecology

What about shoreline cover JB? as far as things that swim, beside the crawfish I think you already planted as much as you need to. If you build it, they will come. You can lookup Ray Scott, he got lots of info on pond management.

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: fish pond ecology

JB your fancy megapixel camera should have a VGA setting on it mine does that may help if not shoot me a PM and I will give ya my email addy and host the pic for you . least I can do after all your help over on the Starcraft forum .


Rick

 

[dwco5051]

Re: fish pond ecology

If you were in the Northeast I would recommend the following publication from the PSU website. It is a 36 page PDF download on pond management.

http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/uh137.pdf

In the Southwest "your milage may vary"

Check with the U 0f T website through their co-operative extension service. They sould have a similiar publication more suited for your area.

Took me a while when visiting my sister when she went to school in Norman, OK to get used to some of the local terminolgy. While hunting on a ranch owned by one of her friends father he kept calling them "tanks" but they looked just like ponds to me.

 

[JB]

Re: fish pond ecology

A "tank" is just a pond built specifically to water livestock. They will sometimes have fish in them but are typically managed more like aquaria or "fish farms" than complete environments.