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  • Results 1 to 7 of 7

    Thread: Getting rid of bugs in mud pond?

    1. #1
      Andrew Hoag is offline Member
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      Getting rid of bugs in mud pond?

      I've got thousands of bugs in my mud pond which I also have koi fry in. I know they are eating the fry as I have watched them do it. Does any one have any suggestions on how to get these bug numbers down? The bug in the highest numbers is one I think is called a common backswimmer. Sits at the water surface, but quickly swims down and catches the fry.

      Any help would be appreciated.

      Andrew

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    2. #2
      EricT is offline Koiphen Kid
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      I haven't found a good way to get rid of them yet with out harming the koi. When you find out, let me know please.

      -Eric

    3. #3
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      sundan is offline Senior Member
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      Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Hoag View Post
      I've got thousands of bugs in my mud pond which I also have koi fry in. I know they are eating the fry as I have watched them do it. Does any one have any suggestions on how to get these bug numbers down? The bug in the highest numbers is one I think is called a common backswimmer. Sits at the water surface, but quickly swims down and catches the fry.

      Any help would be appreciated.

      Andrew
      should have put all the fry in a 4 x 4 mesh net pen ( 1/32 netting so fry cannot swim out) in mud pond. Once they get big enough can releash them into mud pond and they will eat the bugs. Write this year off as a learning lesson, you still may have some fry left. I have the same problem each year but it is tadepoles, frogs. Throw some plants, material for the fry to hide in and hope for the best for this year. Any chemicals you use would also kill the fry.

      One trick is a MONTH before adding fry to mud pond is to add a 25 -50 lb bag of lime. Lime will jump ph up to 12 and kill everything in pond. Add water and then keep checking ph to see it come down to ph7.
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    4. #4
      tnoble is offline Supporting Member
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      The pond should be drained and dry a week or more before spawning takes place. that way there are no waterbugs present to kill the fry. I've had good luck this way and the survival percentages are really high.

      If the pond is started to fill the day the fish are spawned, within 5-7 days the pond will be teaming with rotifers when the fry hatch and they can be placed into the pond.

      I've also used PP(potassium permanganate) at 20x standard dosing before fry are introduced trying to kill off some of the water bugs with limited results.

    5. #5
      andrew davis's Avatar
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      Yup, nuking a fry pond before hatching eggs makes sense, as well as having nursery bags floating within the pond, covered with window curtain net to stop dragonflies laying eggs into the the nursery bags... when the eggs hatch within the nursery bags, toss the tobies into the pond... let the nursery bags raise the nicest tiddlers...

      Regards, andy
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    6. #6
      Andrew Hoag is offline Member
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      Interesting, I just made some floating baskets ( 3 ) and I also emptied by second fry pond and treated it with PP.

      I've heard of using oil on the surface of the pond, but have no idea how to do it or if the oil would cause the fry any harm.


      I put 2500 showa fry in the pond. I'll let you all know how many survived when I do my 1 st cull in a few weeks.

      Thanks for the help. Any other suggestions would be great!

      Andrew

    7. #7
      NA_PT is offline Junior Member
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      big mesh

      just get a large mesh that covers the entire pond and lay it over. Make sure there is at least 1 inch of water covering the mesh but not too deep or will arm the fish. Assure that pond margins are all covered. Leave it for a day. Backswimmers need to breath and that way they will drown.
      A large mesh maybe costly, but since backswimmers are good flyers, they will come back every year, they only reproduce once a year, so if you kill them all, you're free of backswimmers for a year.

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