Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Bluegill are prolific breeders, i was able to spawn bluegill in my 100 gallon aquarium. It's uncountable but most likely between 10 and 20k larva in the pictures i posted on the following thread viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17712


I lost this whole spawn because i was not prepared to feed fish so small. They need algae greenwater to support rotifers and then larger zooplankton as they grow.


Only a very small percentage of each spawn will survive to adulthood in the wild as they will be food for larger fish, even bluegill.


Bluegill are the backbone of the aquatic food chain in southern US freshwater bodies. They are only considered pests in places where they are invasive species and encroaching on a native species' niche.

They can easily be controlled with proper pond management and balanced number of predators.


I do think you are going to have problems with algae and aquatic vegetation. In addition to dilution, algae is going to have much more convenient access to the pond nutrients. The general rule of thumb that many people use is to turn over your fish tank every hour. This is not possible for you. I am concerned you will not be able to get the majority of the nutrients to your plants before they are absorbed by something else. I do think plants will grow, I just think they will be starved and will not grow fast or produce large healthy fruit.


How do you plan to manage and harvest the fish population in such a large body of water?

brian

To manage the fish population I was thinking to follow the pondstockers.net strategy of fish population.

http://pondstockers.ybsitecenter.com/cs ... 2012:26:49

my that's a big link... The theory here is to have largemouth bass to thin out the bluegills and redear sunfish. With such a small pond introducing channel cats or carp seems redundant. For the time being I am playing the waiting game as things come together in my life. I may take a while to get around to anything, and I might make a new pond in a more convenient spot on the property.

Also when I pulled the water sample there was a nice thick coat of duckweed covering the water, and throughout the water was a thick green algae soup, so I think the conditions are good for nursing some fingerlings to panfish. Thanks for your information as I am a total newbie at this.