transferring fish...expertise?

[SRanney]

Acclimation to a new water source is key. If the temperature difference is greater than 2-3C, you're going to have some unhappy (and even some dead) fish.

1) Hook-and-line sampling, though fun, is a large stressor to fish. Fish go into their anaerobic metabolic system for energy during the "fight" and must reduce that oxygen debt as quickly as possible if they're not to go into lactic acid shock. Establishing as high a dissoved oxygen (DO) content in whatever container you are transferring them in (through the use of an aerator as mentioned earlier) will give them great success.

2) When stressed heavily, fish excrete a great deal of salts. Osmoregulation (the balance of blood salts in their blood and in the surrounding environment) can become a huge energy expenditure during transfer or other periods of high stress. Often times, creating a 4g/L salt solution will keep the fish from losing so much of their interior salts, providing them with less physiological stress.

3) Tempering their holding water with some of the new pond water is great advice, especially if you've added some salt. Ideally, you would gradually replace their transfer water with the new pond water slowly, say over a period of 1.5 hours. Dumping them directly into the new pond is NOT a good idea.

4) HABITAT. Before you move them into their new homes, make sure you're putting them into an area that has AMPLE aquatic vegetation. After you've stressed the fish that much, they're going to want to sit tight and do nothing for a LONG time and the best place for them to do that is in aquatic macrophyte beds. Weeds, and lots of them. They probably won't eat for at least a day or two so don't worry about getting food in the pond immediately.

Like someone mentioned earlier, nature has a way of working itself out. That could mean that your bass die off and the minnows (what will you be "stocking", by the way?) establish such a huge population that they eat EVERYTHING leaving nothing for any other species. It could also mean that your bass flourish, your minnows die, and you get a hundred bass that never get to be over 6in long. Pond management is literally a science.

All of the above said, it is never a wise move (and is sometimes against the law) to transfer species of fish across watersheds. Often times, if you call your state DNR, they'll stock your pond for free with a good ratio of predators:baitfish. Just make sure that your pond has ample habitat for whatever you plan to stock and you should be good.

Steve "getting his MS in Fisheries science, who just started his largemouth bass feeding trials after transferring 28 fish from a hatchery into a recirculating water system" Ranney

[TMurphy]

SRanney,

You obviously are the sort of person to ask about this...

I am considering starting a salt-water aquarium sometime in the not-too-distant future. I have had freshwater aquariums before, with success (my last one went great until my heater blew, making the water smokey and killing my fish ), but salt water is an entirely different beast (obviously). I'm up to the challenge, but what would you suggest to start with? I'd like to start small, maybe a 10-20 gallon tank with 3-5 small fish. Any advice would be helpful.

[SRanney]

BTW, what does it take to have a career like yours?

Doc

For starters, passion. A tolerance for exceptionally low pay doesn't hurt either!

TMurphy, I'm a freshwater biologist. My knowledge of saltwater systems is limited to the basic ecological tenets that are shared between the two systems. I would imagine, though, that a 20 gal aquaria would be a perfect way to start with some hardy fish (don't ask me which kinds - I don't know). Stop by your local aquarium supply store; I'm sure they've got not only the resources you'll need but also the expertise that I do not possess.

What kind of FW fish did you have?

[tbn.al]

Steve "getting his MS in Fisheries science, who just started his largemouth bass feeding trials after transferring 28 fish from a hatchery into a recirculating water system" Ranney

Damn! I'm impressed! You really were going to class after all. Maybe I should forward this to Tim. He wouldn't believe this came out of the mouth of a tuba player.

[TMurphy]

When my wife was around 20 years old, she did a saltwater aquarium...

...She just read some little 20-30 pg. booklet that she found at the pet store, and all worked out well.

Today, there's the internet...

bloke "who really appreciates the wide-ranging expertise of TubeNet"

Agreed, TubeNet, and the internet in general, can be a great resource. I've done a fair amount of research on the net about salt water aquariums, just thought this might be a good chance to someone who really knows their stuff. So close.

As far as I can remember, the freshwater tank I had included a small danio (hardy little sucker, too....he lived a full 2 years in that tank, even a few weeks after the heater blew and smokified the water), an orange and blue Gourami, a clear bodied catfish of some kind, and I think a swordtail Molly. All the fish seemed to be doing well (except the Molly, who had died not long after he was put in the tank), but once that heater blew, it was curtains for the lot of them, save the Danio, who died a few weeks later, even after I cleaned everything. I enjoyed having the tank, kinda wish I still did...I didn't have the desire to start over when I lost the last one. I do still wanna try salt water, though.

[Tom Mason]

I would have thought that the idea of going to a game and fish comission place and buying some would be a better idea.

I admit that the numbers will be quite different, but when my parents and I stocked our ponds, we went to Arkansas Game and Fish to get our fish. We were able to buy minows of smallmouth bass, bream, crappie, flathead and channel catfish in almost any quantity you desire.

To give you an idea of the scope of the efforts, we stocked a 30 acre surface and a 50 acre surface for less than $1000.00. This included a count of about 1,000,000 fish divided into the aforementioned species.

I would assume that you want a far less number, but there should be a fisheries place somewhere close that could handle your needs. If I remember your surface area correctly, (I think you mentioned 5 ares before), then maybe between 1,000 to 5,000 might be a better number.

Tom Mason

[SRanney]

Damn! I'm impressed! You really were going to class after all. Maybe I should forward this to Tim. He wouldn't believe this came out of the mouth of a tuba player.

Yeah, it's definitely been a long, strange trip (sometimes literally) for me, huh? Sometimes I wonder what it would've been like if I hadn't transferred from ASU to IU so long ago, but then I realize that I absolutely love what I'm doing now and wouldn't change it for the world.

I can always play tuba, even if my skills aren't what they used to be!

SR

[SRanney]

Bloke,

A year later, what's the status of your pond? How are your fish? Algae still under control? Seen any other wildlife making stops during the migration?

Inquiring minds want to know!

SR

[tbn.al]

Here is a recent picture of the famous pond that bloke posted. I also think I remember seeing a fish pic somewhere. Maybe bloke will chime in.

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=21ca8gy&s=3