How to Grow your Fish Population
Let your pond or lake's ecosystem reach its highest potential. Enhancements include cleaner balanced water, ample food and habitat, and adequate oxygen levels. These improvements lead to healthier fish with better survival rates, increased productivity, and larger game fish.
Lake Water Testing
Testing water should be your first step before making any major changes to your water body. Why? Before treatments are added to the water you should know what you're up against. A treatment plan can be modified based on the specific needs of the pond or lake. Water testing can present unique circumstances that will impact more than just the effectiveness of a treatment.
The unknowns of your water quality can ultimately lead to a false idea that all of your management practices are ineffective or yielding minimal results. Water concerns can pivot treatment frequency or treatment type but also give insight to issues that may arise down the road.
Artificial Fish Habitat
Fish habitat is necessary to establish and maintain a thriving aquatic ecosystem. Essential fish habitats include places for fish to seek shelter and protection, food, and for spawning.
Natural shelter/protection include large rocks, stumps, brush, plants. Plants like water lilies attract insects and amphibians making it a great feeding area for young fish. These young fish are food for larger game fish.
Natural habitats and shelter aren't always available or the best fit for the pond/lake owner. Artificial habitat can be installed to improve conditions for fish. These fish habitats will become part of the ecosystem over time, growing algae and vegetation on them.
Game Fish Food
Killing weeds and algae impacts the food chain at the lowest levels. Ample food is required to maintain and grow healthy largemouth bass and other sport fish. For invertebrates and forage fish to survive, algae, weeds and insects are needed to eat. If the complete food chain isn't maintained, supplemental feeding should be utilized.
Grow big bass at a faster rate with premium feed in an automatic fish feeder. Having feed readily available presents easier food options. When fish have feed in front of them, they don't have to burn unnecessary energy on their meal. Easy food increases growth potential.
Improve Water Quality
Growing and maintaining healthy fish requires "healthy" water. To keep water clean and balanced, easy proactive treatments can be used. Clean water with Pond Cleanse and Phosphate Eliminator. Muck Remover can also be utilized as a tool to keep organic waste to a minimum.
While the above treatments target cleaning water, Calcis is meant for balancing it. Keeping pH and total hardness in check is one of many benefits. Pond liming with Calcis can also increase fish growth rates. This is because limestone raises the pH of the water, which makes it easier for fish to absorb nutrients from their food. Additionally, a higher pH can also help to reduce stress levels in fish, which can further improve growth rates.
Dissolved Oxygen for Fish
As you can imagine, oxygen plays a key role in fish growth and survival. An aeration system is the easiest way to ensure your fish have adequate dissolved oxygen levels. Lake and pond aeration increases the habitable area available to fish. In aquatic ecosystems with ample oxygen, fish thrive resulting in lower mortality rates, better growth rates, and better reproduction rates.