Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
Phase One: The Spawning Pond
Fill a spawning pond with clean salty water. Ideally the salinity should be at least 5 but no more than 30 parts per thousand. How much you use is based on the size of your phase one spawning pond.
Remove all wild fish and vegetation from the water you filled the spawning pond with. Often this can be done as the water is being pumped into the spawning pond by using filters. Wild fish can eat the bull minnows in each stage of their growth.
Lay spawning mats in the pond for the bull minnows to use to lay their eggs on. Spawning mats are usually vinyl-coated wire mesh filled with spawning media like coconut fibers or treated Spanish moss. There should be room underneath the mat to allow spawning to take place there, too.
Phase Two: The Hatching Pond
Fill a second pond area with clean brackish water that has been filtered as you did in the first pond. If any wild fish or vegetation slip past the filtration, remove it before introducing the eggs into the hatching pond.
Treat the second pond with insecticide to control the aquatic insect population. Use an insecticide recommended in your area that doesn't interfere with or harm fish. Use the directions on the insecticide container and the known size of the second pond to determine the amount to use.
Fertilize the pond with 12-12-12 fertilizer with a ratio of 40 lbs per acre of pond. Another alternative to the commercial fertilizer is a ratio of 250 lbs per acre of dried chicken manure.
Stock the hatching pond with the eggs from the spawning pond by placing the spawning mats into the second pond area. The eggs will be safely tucked away in the mesh of the spawning mats. Place new spawning mats into the spawning pond for the next batch of eggs in two weeks.
Feed the baby minnows, called "Fry" finely ground minnow meal with at least 28 percent protein. The ratio for feed should be at 5 lbs per acre per day.
Phase Three: The Grow Pond
Prepare the third pond as you did the first two ponds. Fill with brackish water. Filter out wild fish and vegetation and treat for insects.
Transfer the young fry from the second pond to the holding tank. Raise the small-mesh seine from the second pond. The seine is a net of metal with high sides and handles. At the holding tank, the fry are graded according to size. All fry small enough to slip through the holes in the grader are restocked into separate ponds.
Stock the grow pond with the largest minnows after the smaller ones have been removed. Feed these fish twice a day by providing five percent of their total weight in food. Calculate an approximate weight for each minnow and multiply by the approximate number of minnows in the grow pond.
Harvest the grown bull minnows for bait when they are just under 10mm long. Use a seine or net or drain the pond until the population of minnows is more dense to allow for easy catching.