Does anyone know of any trustworthy person in the Newark / Granville area that does pond treatment for pond weeds. Doesn't appear to be any accumulation of algae, but does have significant amount submerged pond weeds. Pond close to 2 acres, seems to have weeds in 1/2 to 2/3 of the pond. My experience with this has all evaporated with age and have a friend that need some work done. I had another friend several years ago that hired a guy (thank God I didn't recommend him) to take care of weeds in a pond and the guy did that … but also killed all of the fish in the pond. Let me know if anyone can help with some info on someone that is trustworthy and really knows what they are doing.


Thank You …. Garry-

Garry, have you thought about using grass carp AKA white amur to control the underwater vegetation instead of chemicals?

It should be cheaper and definitely safer for the fish.

Keith

Yes Keith, the owner has talked with several people about them and his reports have not been good. I guess they disturb nesting blue gills and bass by their rooting around and destroying the beds … so he has ruled that out

Garry-

Dr. Dave Smith of Freshwater Farms of Ohio at 2624 N U.S. Highway 68, Urbana, OH 43078, phone number (937) 652-3701, may do chemical treatments of ponds and if he does not, should be able to recommend someone reliable who does.

I have been there a number of times and both Dr. Dave and his late father seem like decent people.

They have the Ohio Shrimp and Fish Festival there every year.

Keith

Great..... my boss just put some in my favorite bass pond...

I still had plenty of stunted bass in my pond with grass carp.

One thing I have observed about grass carp … they do get rid of plants (weeds) in a pond. I compare the before and after to; a lush field of fresh clover and alfalfa before the carp …. to the Sahara desert afterwards. the thing many people don't realize is that you need a certain amount of vegetation in a pond, but must be kept under and be the right kind. When I lived in Florida I saw lakes 50 to 100 acres, that someone had put hydrilla in. If don't know what is, it is the stuff they put in a fish bowl when you buy a good fish. I was told by Game and Fish people in Florida that it can grow in the summer month from 12 to 18 inches in 24 hours. I have seen small lakes , where they sprayed it with strong herbicides, but it seemed to grow faster than it died. The have a large machine they run through some of the lake that chops it up and loads it into a barge and hauled away. They make pathways through it so people can fish it. The bad thing about cutting it is that each tinny piece that doesn't get loaded on the barge, starts a new plant growing. These lakes hold some very large bass, if you can get to the water. I caught a 14+ # bass in one of them.


Garry-

You just have to manage the number of grass carp, like you would cattle, sheep and goats in a pasture, to get the results you want. If pasture gets eaten down to much, you reduce the number of animals you keep in the pasture. If to much vegetation disappears from your pond, start hooking, snagging, shooting, spear or bow hunting grass carp, until the vegetation rebounds to where you want it to be. Ponds are best when they are well managed.

Pond Boss, my second favorite forum, is a great pond management resource.

http://forums.pondboss.com/

Keith

They sell algicide in most stores and it does a great job.Especially on that green slime that acculilates on everything. As for lilly's, weeds, and cat tails I used a mixture of Dawn dish liquid and weed killer. I think someone on here told me about it. the Dawn gets through the wax covering.

I treat it myself with Alligare Diquat herbicide....specifically meant for use in ponds without harming fish and amphibians . Costly, but worked great and I wished I had used it from the start (I tried a lot of different things to get the weeds under control before biting the bullet and spending the coin). Now I can manage it real well with ample pond dye as soon as the ice goes out.....have not needed to retreat with the Alligare.

Copper sulfate crystals. Spread by hand where you want the control, do it early. Unfortunately it kills the snails that eat the weeds.

Carp won't eat all water weeds. We got gator grass and my carp won't eat it at all.

Riverotter is correct. Grass Carp have preferred plants that they eat and other that they won't. In order to effectively and cost efficiently manage weeds, you need to know what you are dealing with from the start. I suggest contacting the Cooperative Extension for advice and recommendations. You could probably even take some of the plants to your local fisheries biologist for a quick ID of the plants and some recommendations.

I suggest staying away from chemicals. They can be quite effective for controlling weeds but if too effective, they may kill the weeds all at once depending on your specific situation and cause an oxygen sink in which the fish will all die or get stressed. Triploid Grass Carp run about $10.00 each generally speaking for 8-10" fish. Recommended stocking densities are about 10-15 per acre of water. Recommended weed densities for good fishing is somewhere in the ball park of about 25%. This means 15 to 22 fish would be needed (for a 2 acre pond) depending on how aggressively you want the weeds controlled. The good thing is it would continue to work for a few years.

The other alternative that might not do much good now but could for next year is to lower the pond level in the early winter and let the frost hit the pond bottom. We did this routinely in PA years ago and it would knock the weeds back from about 80% coverage to about 20%. We did this on a 2 year rotation. It also helps control the fish populations.

As far as Grass Carp disturbing bream and bass nests goes, I wouldn't be too concerned. Just about every pond I've seen that has a great bass and bream fishery have grass carp. It doesn't seem to bother them much.

Grass carp do work. We introduced 18 juveniles into a 3.5 acre pond. The water was muddy from their feeding..for two years. Eliminated half of them and went back to using copper sulfate. Have to be careful using it. if too strong the copper sulfate will kill every thing in the pond. I have tried the scatter method along the shore. results were not good. Best results that we have had is Gramps old recipe. Use so many pounds per acre of water (he measured it with a coffee can). Put the copper sulfate in a burlap bag, hang off the back of the boat and tea bag the thing behind the boat staying close to the shore line.

Stunted bass are usually the product of a pond that is out of balance. Set a size limit on the bass of say 12-14" and fillet or make bait out of everything under that release the larger ones. Fish for the small ones aggressively until you cannot find anymore then add bluegill, fathead minnows, shiners, threadfin shad, tadpoles, crawfish or any combination as long as the bluegill are a part of it. Harvest is a critical part of pond management, if the bass are allowed to overpopulate, they will eat all the available forage and just like you and me we tend to lose weight when the groceries run out. We use feeders to help feed the bluegill to keep them fat and fertile, producing more bass food.

Diuron/Diurex will take the floating algae mats out pronto. Sprinkle lightly around the edge or make a solution and spray with a garden or backpack sprayer.

I have never experienced grass carp muddying the water. That sounds more like common carp. The grass carp we put in the lake here, have been doing a great job of both eliminating weeds and eliminating the use of chemicals. The lake is safe to swim in. We have several ponds, a newly enlarged 40 or so acre lake that was about 10 acres for most of my 18 yrs on the job. Lot's of experience and interaction with the fisheries folks.

As the grass crap get bigger they do get a little on the lazy side. My big ones rather hang out at the fish feeders then earn their keep.

You have a biological concern, excess vegetation in a man made pond. Fifty to 70% vegetation about double what many aquatic specialists like to see in lakes and flowages (20-30% vegetation). This is not a naturally occurring body of water and thus does not have natural inflows, out flows, seepage etc and thus will tend to be eutrophic in nature and want to revert back to its natural state.
Do you want to control a biological issue with a biological remedy? Weeds and fish, both now that need to be managed.
One does not have to treat the whole pond at one time so the O2 consumption could be minimized. Also at what depth is the vegetation growing and how clear is the pond? Most common vegetation will be able to grow at 1.7 times the light penetration. I.E. that means if the water clarity is 5 feet that vegetation can grow to 8.5 feet etc. The longer or taller the vegetation the more biomass one has that needs to deteriorate.
Also if there is a lot of Phosphorus and Nitrogen available for plant growth and you eliminate much of the vegetation those nutrients can be used to grow algae that is not growing in the pond now.
In some cases putting in some inorganic material like gravel, small stones etc. may minimized plant growth in areas where that is easy to do if those areas are a muck or soil base now.

Bryce

When we first got the grass carp, I was told that they would become inefficient as they got larger and would need to be replaced. The young ones at 12-14" would eat their weight in vegetation daily. The 30-40lb bruisers would only consume about 10% of their body weight daily. Well the big boys have been keeping up with the weeds so that's my only concern. If it becomes more than they can handle, since we enlarged the lake, we will have to get them some help. We lost a few when transferring them from the original lake into the new addition but the addition is extra deep with very steep banks. Very little habitat for weeds.

Thank you for the help … It isn't my pond so I have relayed to the owner and will decide how he wants to handle it.

Garry-

Good information - Thanks