Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I just got some exciting news in sourcing yellow perch near my home. A friend of a friend has some ponds that he has stocked with trout. Yellow perch have invaded and become a competitive force for his trout as well as a pain for his guests trying to catch them. He says I can have as many as I can catch and haul for free!

My hope is to develop a relationship with this fellow so that I can use his ponds as the source for my fingerlings to grow out and to restock. With a small barbless hook and line and the help of some friends I should easily be able to obtain the 100 fish that I am going to start with.

Feed training?

Anyone have any experience feed training "wild" fish or Yellow Perch? My hope is to get fish in the 4-6 inch range and grow them out over the course of 10 mos to a year and see what size I can get. I will be using a standard trout pellet that can be obtained from a local feed store, supplemented with some local critters (worms, fly larva, bug lamp) for diversity.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

get a good quality fish feed.. perch need high protein food..silvercup is a good one as is purina game fish chow..pellet size should be smaller than the eyes of the fish
hydrate some pellets in a zip lock bag with water, in a fridge overnight..
give the pellets a little bit of a squeeze so that they sink..
gradually introduce dry pellets with the wet ones after the fish start eating them, and increase the amount of dry as you go.. pretty soon, you should be able to use just the dry pellets..
bugs are a good supplement but won't supply all their nutritional needs..
the perch won't like the water temp above mid 80's and will stress..cooler water will give you the best growth,, my 2 to 3" yp from last july are now about 7" (10 months) oh,,, and they love minnows.. cheapest i found is pet smart rosy reds.. bait shops aren't too bad on price and the minnows are usually a little bigger than pet smart's.. good luck and let us know how its going!

I am hoping that the fish recognize them as food. Thought I might soak them in some chopped up worms (aprox. fish pellet size) as well and slowly reduce the % of worms.

Might possibly get 20 or so fish as a trial run next weekend. System is working on cycling but can't seem to get more than .25ppm in ammonia with the little gold fish.