Spawning mop

[MajorDan]

Well I made a test DIY spawning mop with some left over yarn from an Afghan my wife made and a cork from her evening libation. I am really disappointed in how it turned out ( see picture). The yarn just floats on the surface. Is there a trick or special yarn used to get it to hang down in the water?

I am in the market for some submersibles but there are not many legal in Alabama and of those not many can handle hard, alkaline water. Even some of my bog plants have expired I think due to these water conditions. So that is why I am exploring the mops.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

So is hornwort illegal in Alabama? I only checked the Pond Megastore site https://pondmegastore.com/pages/invasive-and-illegal-aquatic-plants-restricted-by-state ... I don't know how current their info is, but they don't mention hornwort being a no-no....

Hornwort is my favorite. I placed only about 5-8 bunches in last year and I got a beautiful forest of it in no time. And obviously it works as a spawning place, because when I put a few cuttings of it into our nano tank when I started it up last year, THREE goldfish fry appeared!

As far as artificial mops... If you want to continue with that, I'd say get some natural undyed yarn and tie it off to rocks.

 

[MajorDan]

How do you keep hornwort from getting into skimmer

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

How do you keep hornwort from getting into skimmer

Hornwort easily sinks to the bottom of the pond so it won't be floating around to get swept into a skimmer.

 

[Lisak1]

I've heard of people using actually string mops - you can buy them at the dollar store. What's your goal with the spawning mop? Saving eggs or getting rid of them?

My fish were doing the love dance this morning - first warm day and they've all got eyes for each other!

 

[MajorDan]

For the kids, we wanted to go through the egg to fry to small fish. Besides we only have five shubunkins in 1200 gallons so a few more would be nice.

 

[MajorDan]

I think mine are to small anyway. That are about 4-5 inches. And it has been warm for days with no unusual activity other than one always hiding under a lily pad...and always the same pad.

They were disappointed tonight. Green water, hard to see them if at all.

 

[mrsclem]

Soak your yarn in some hot water first. It will sink better.

 

[Stephen Noble]

Major,
It should be made our of wool if so, did you squeeze it hard to remove all of the air?

 

[Stephen Noble]

For the kids, we wanted to go through the egg to fry to small fish. Besides we only have five shubunkins in 1200 gallons so a few more would be nice.

You are good parents. Your kids will always remember this adventure. Hats off to you!

 

[MajorDan]

Hahaha. We have no kids of our own. Just all the neighborhood kids and friend’s kids who get to find out there are interesting things other than phones and games. My wife is really good with them. She has rules that they must abide by or they can’t visit Mr. Dan. LOL!

 

[MajorDan]

So back to spawning mop. I followed a DIY YOUTUBE video. Made it, boiled it, soaked it, cooled it, squeezed out the water and put it in pond and tied it to edge rock. It sank as I expected so I left it in. Came back later and it was floating as seen in picture. I think I will forget about mops and get some submersible plants instead.

 

[Lisak1]

get some submersible plants instead.

Good plan. And honestly any plants at all work. Mine were all up in the yellow flag iris and bog bean today. You could get a pot of parrots feather - we find babies in ours all the time. And toss them to the big fish for a snack. JUST KIDDING! Those suckers are hard to catch!

And I think it's way more fun to see the babies growing in the pond. The first time we spotted those tiny little things we were SO EXCITED! About ten rounds in and it was NOT AGAIN! Some will survive each time though - they can even hide in spaces between rocks or behind pots in the pond. Nature provides them with a survival instinct.

 

[Somethin' Fishy]

I think mine are to small anyway. That are about 4-5 inches.....

Don't let 'em fool you! Last season our fish were only 2-3 inches long and they spawned like mad! By Fall, at least 10 of the babies survived, doubling our pond population. This Spring I counted at least six before the water murked up. Two of the brightest white babies that I saw yesterday are about 1 1/2" long already.

Our adults are all double and triple their size now, and they were out there aggressively spawning again this morning.

Be careful what you wish for!

 

[MajorDan]

Uh oh. My water has been murky green since just after adding fish that are about 4” so I guess some activity took place. There isn’t any place for eggs to go except on bare bottom and some gravel so there may be no survivors. The water yesterday was clearing a bit so we could see we still had five fish. Hoping for continued better conditions. Ordering Hornwort this week.