So what do you guys do with extra fry?

[brad_A]

Two from my comet trio spawned this year (first year I have had fish). I think there were two spawns as there are fish at least 3 times the size of others. I plan to drain the pond this fall so I fished out some fry and put them in a 40 gallon breeder tank. I have 20-25. I will most likely add to that population later. I plan to put the adults in later. My pond is only 1000-1100 gallons so if they all reached adult size it would be too many. I don't know how big they will get next spring so I may put them back in next year and hope for some predator to thin them out. They may be too big if I were to kidnap some painted turtle that may be trying to cross a road next year. I don' know what to do. Pet stores have plenty of feeders.

 

[addy1]

lol no clue, I am hoping my pond just balances out, those guys are breeding like rabbits. And unless I drain the pond those suckers will be hard to catch.

My pond in arizona just balanced out, the population never got out of control in over 7 years.

 

[HARO]

We used to be able to get 3' and 4' square dip nets (smelt nets) here, but I haven't seen any in a long time. Mind you, I haven't been looking either! These have spreaders to keep them flat; you tie a rope to the eye in the center, the other end to a pole of some sort, and lower it to the pond bottom. Wait a few minutes, then raise it as fast as you can; the sides of the net come up faster, so the fish automatically swim to the center. Used to work well for minnows! John

 

[fishin4cars]

You can try listing on craiglist, you can ask your local nursury if you can put up a ad. in the store for anyone intrested in baby comets, You could set up a fish tank with a Oscar or other predator fish,(they will then become feeder fish) Some pet stores will take them and not sell them as feeder fish if you ask them. there are options, But if possible try and hold on to them as long as possible, You really don't get a chance to even see what the potential fish will look like until they get 4-6" or bigger. Might just have some really cool fish that haven't fully colored out yet.
Not certain on this but from what I have read and if I understand correctly if your kind of overstocked come next spring and you don't do heavy water changes, the fish put out pharmones, if the pharmone level is high in the pond it reduces the likelyhood that they will reproduce again next spring. Again this is my understanding and my guess this is why Addy's pond in AZ balanced out.

 

[addy1]

Most likely fishin, the pond in arizona did not get a lot of water changes, more of top offs rather than true changes.
The pond here gets great water changes, so that means babies forever.

 

[sissy]

fish fry addy LOL

 

[CometKeith]

Hi Brad_A, by fishing out the fry you are increasing their chance of survival. If you want to keep your population of fish under control don't do anything and it will happen naturally.

 

[sissy]

Find neighbors and convince them to put in ponds and you will give them free fish LOL

 

[JoaniePA]

Larkin - you said something about the fry not having a chance to "color out" yet. I have one fish we discovered this year that is about 2 1/2" long now (without tail). He is so dark that the only way we find him at feeding time is the whitish inside of his mouth when he surfaces. Then we can see that he also has a lighter belly.. but not much lighter. Do you think he will change color? Not so crazy about a brown fish.. can't enjoy 'em much.

 

[CountryEscape]

Joannie, I have had 3 spawnings this year, also my first year for my pond. Fish weren't put in until mid June (goldies and shubunkin) and first week of July (Koi)., I'm pretty sure all my babies are goldies, but they are all red and white, or calico, except for at least one from each size group, which is black. However, the oldest black baby turned from black to orange in about a week's time! So, don't assume that black baby is going to stay black, it won't. And, most of my babies that were definitely calico, have lost most if not all of their black, but they are speckled up really pretty and all have different patterns. Have sizes from 4" down to 3/4" babies (2) that I saw last weekend. And, yesterday, saw the 2 boys chasing my Shubunkin (she's the mom of at least 2 of the spawnings) into one of the lily pots. Poor girl, they would not let her out, until they saw food and got hungry. So, I guess they keep spawning all summer and into the fall, but the babies won't have much of a chance with the water temps at 65 I would guess. I only have maybe 7 from the first spawning and 2-3 from the next 2 sets, at least I'm calling them different spawnings because of their sizes. Maybe there are 50 more in there hiding, but so far when the get to be about 2" long, the start hanging out with the group and come up to eat shortly after that. Good luck!

 

[JoaniePA]

Thanks for the info.. I really hope he does lighten up a little. Now I wonder what else is lurking down there!

 

[brad_A]

Update:
I have been netting them out over a course of a couple of weeks until a couple of weekends ago where I drained the entire pond out. Now I have like 40+ fry and the 3 adults in a 40 gallon breeder tank. Way too much.

 

[sissy]

fish fry comes to mind LOL some sell them through local ads and some give them away and some have garden centers that take fish

 

[lovinglife]

I had to drain my pond like three times to get all my unwanted fry out, still missed one. Now I just have Koi so if they spawn I will keep the nice ones and the rest will probably end up like all the comets, chicken food. I know, you all hate me....but MAN they can really reproduce! There must have been 500 in there and by the way.....they eat a lot!

 

[CountryEscape]

Loving, I had to laugh about feeding the excess fish to your chickens. I used to have chickens, and they loved me. I would feed them all the rotten tomatoes, stalks of corn, grubs that I found in a compost pile (the grubs were the size of my thumb, and there were over 50 of them!), etc. and I never hated letting things go to waste in the garden, as the chickens would eat anything and everything. I would sit on an upside down 5 gal bucket and some of them would literally jump onto my lap or roost on my shoulders. The way I look at it is if you have fish that you can't get rid of, you might as well feed them and not waste them.
I'm extremely fortunate as all the fry that have lived are a total of maybe 10-15 this first year of my pond. And, there are a total of 3 black ones (the oldest of which is already orange), but the rest are beautiful, red/white or tri colored. I could literally name each one of them as they are that different. It's been a treat to watch them grow up. I can't imagine 40 of them in a 40 gallon tank! Not sure how big your 40 fry are, Brad, but my oldest ones are almost as large as their parents, which are 6-7" long. The size of my fry are 4-5" from the first spawning, (there are I think 7 or 9 of them) and the smaller ones are anywhere from 3/4" to 3".
Good luck with whatever you do with your excess! I plan to net out the short tailed goldies next year and all the orange ones, and just keep the "prettier" ones with long tails. In time, I may remove all the goldies and only have koi, but for now I'm sure enjoying the pretty babies.
Patti