Thursday, August 11, 2011

A fishy story


This weed is taking over our pond in the back 40 6.  I'm not quite sure what it is so if any of you pond owners out there know, please tell me...thanks!  A friend said it was duckweed, but I don't think it is.  Whatever it is, I am opposed to chemicals in the pond and so we ordered a few grass carp, which are used for aquatic vegetation control, to put in our pond. 


Here is a grass carp just released into the pond.  The water looks cloudy having been stirred up by the newly deposited fish.   I hope they will eat this stuff!  Eat, baby, eat!!


We have noticed numerous ponds in our area have moss or some kind of vegetation on them.  Some are worse than others.  Ours has gotten to the "worse" stage.  It is very unattractive to say the least, but more than that, there isn't a place to throw a line out should we want to go fishing.   And we do like to fish now and then.  And eat our catch!

I remember the ponds/lakes on my dad's farm.  He never had the moss or vegetation that is seen today.  He did have grass carp in all his lakes, though.  So I have high hopes for these little guys.  We got 6 and they were only 6-8 inches in length.  It's said that they can grow up to 30 lbs.  That's a big fish!

Well, the fish are in place.  It remains to be seen if they will like our variety of aquatic vegetation.  It they don't work out, the only thing left to do besides removing this stuff with nets or seines, is to use chemicals.  And I just don't like to think about putting chemicals in our pond where we have lots of fish and often geese and ducks.  I've never thought chemicals are as safe as they (whoever they are) say.

And that's my fishy story for today.  Until next time...

13 comments:

  1. It will be fun to follow along to see if they make a difference for you. Sure hope they do!

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  2. Oh, I hope the carp take care of things for you. Be sure to let us know!

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  3. I had to check them out and found they are edible. Hope they do what you want and don't effect your other fish.

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  4. We had a pond put in this year and are trying to do it right. We even went to a pond management seminar sponsored by the Soil and Water Conservation Commission and Department of Conservation, several years ago. I would suggest you call them. I'll bet they would be glad to come look at your pond and make suggestions.

    Good luck!

    Deanna

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  5. It's not duckweed. I suspect the green scummy stuff is caused from fertilizer runoff.

    As soon as our neighbor quit fertilizing their field each year, the pond cleared up.

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  6. Wow, if you do get fish that are 30 lbs; that will be awesome.
    Blessings to you and keep on enjoying the moments!

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  7. There aren't alot of ponds here in the desert, but we do have our share of weeds :) I hope the carp work. The only think I know about them is that as kids, we always threw them back in if we caught one when we were fishing.
    Glad to hear your hubby is doing better. I've been absent from blog land this summer too :)
    Blessings,
    Marcia

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  8. We had grass carp for awhile, but I'm assuming 'something' (otters?) cleaned them out too...
    when they ate up ALL of our catfish two years ago :( I don't like using chemicals either. I hope your GC do the trick! -Tammy

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  9. How fun to have a pond with fish! :D

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  10. it's called floating primrose-willow. we have it here in our Texas pond too (although it's not doing well this year due to the drought).

    thank you for stopping by my blog today and leaving a comment. i really appreciate it!

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  11. How nice to get an answer about what it is. Here we have something called milfoil and it's terribly invasive. Boaters have to clean off their propellers after being in the lake. Even the least amount will contaminate an entire pond or lake in no time. Hope those new fish are hungry because it looks as if there's a lot of the stuff.

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  12. Hope your new Carp do the job in your pond... Keep us posted.

    How's hubby?
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  13. Jill: I hope they are hungry and go right to work on that vegetation!

    Dianna: They looked pretty small to me, so they have a lot of eating to do to reach 30 lbs and rid our pond of this pesky stuff.

    Patti: I didn't know they were edible, but this particular fish is sterile and will not reproduce!

    Deanna: Good idea to get in touch with the conservation dept. to see what best to do. Enjoy your new pond!

    gld: You're right, not duckweed! We don't fertilize our pasture, so I don't think that is the cause.

    LeAnn: Thanks for stopping by. I'm still slow about getting around to all the blogs I read. I hope to see yours soon.

    blessedmom: Thanks, Marcia! Good to see you, I know it's been a busy summer. Can you believe it's August and fall is knocking on the door?

    FlatCreekFarm: Oh no! I hope we don't get otters, we have some muskrats that my hubby gets the rifle out for.

    Julie: It would be more fun if we could get a line out in the water to fish! :D Those pesky "weeds" have got to go!

    TexWisGirl: Thanks for coming by and letting me know what the stuff is! I looked it up online and it does look like our weed!

    Vee: There is a lot and it looks like hubby and I will have to wade out into the pond and manually drag some of it in. That is, when he feels up to it! He's doing better all time.

    Betsy from TN: I will, and hubby is doing great...thanks!

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