can carp help rid a pond of weeds?

[boddah]

my pond is very hard to fish due to the overgrowth of different weeds, would introducing a couple carp help with this??

[Burning Babies]

Amur (grass carp) will eat weeds, and are an option. Common carp will muddy the water by foraging, which will reduce light penetration and ultimately weed growth, but a muddy pond isn't ideal either. They also consume gamefish eggs.

 

Other options are also available. The best option is to prevent them growing in the first place, by limiting nutrient inputs with a buffer strip of natural vegetation. Physical removal of the weeds can also help, because you are taking the nutrients stored in the weeds out as well. Chemical applications are available, both to limit plant growth by darkening the water (eg. Aquashade) or killing the plans outright (copper sulfate). If your pond is overly shallow and plants are growing throughout it, dredging it might be necessary to reduce the proportion of the bottom that receives enough light to grow weeds. We recommend limiting weed growth to 25% of your pond area.

[Beats]

What ever you do, I would not ever, in any circumstance, add carp to any body of water EVER. Carp, especially in numbers, can devastate a body of water in no time. The smaller the body of water the greater their effect. They are like living trash compactors. They can survive off eating anything they find. There are so many in the Thames here in London that there are basically no plants at all in the river. No plants = no lm bass, no pike, etc. I would add any type of sucker or catfish well before even contemplating carp. Carp are an evasive species and I grew up with people who would catch them and use them as garden fertilizer. No offense to people who catch them for fun, but they aren't supposed to be here and have had a devastating impact on many, many bodies of water and the species of fish that naturally should be in them.

[gone_fishin]

they may be an evasive species, but they've been here since the 1800's... that being said i still wouldn't add them to a pond... they will ruin it... unless that's what you want to fish for... they will overtake whatever is in there now in less than 10 years for sure! there will be a natural die off of weeds mid-summer, just like in every lake in southern ontario. but if it's THAT bad, and can't be tolerated, i would say that dredging would be the best option, it's natural (no chemicals, no introduced fish...)

[Photoz]

Yeah h h h . . . . . carp sure can be EVASIVE . . . . they evaded me all day yesterday. (Heh . . . heh!) The main reason that other fish disappear and you eventually see only carp . . . . 99% of the time . . . . WATER QUALITY! Carp could almost live in a cesspool . . . they don't require much oxygen, and as the water quality diminishes, other fish disappear. I fish carp in many places where bass, pike, pickerel, muskie, trout whitefish, panfish of all types flourish . . . but as per usual, there are 'old wives tales' aplenty, and carp are FIRST to get the blame anyplace the other fish start to disappear! (Lots of 'em also leave the area in big 5 gallon pails!) Many cottagers buy maize (cattle corn) and toss it around the access to their docks all summer, it brings the carp in, and keeps the weeds down . . . perhaps Big Cliff can attest to that?

[rhare]

throw a bail or two of barley straw in the pond tied to a tree. works great to keep the green crap off the pond.

As far as the weeds, maybe it needs a clean out???

[Victor]

i'm not sure if common carp (what we have in all our waters) will be able to keep the weeds down. However, grass carp is an invasive specie and it is illegal to transport a live grass carp.

[Rich]

What ever you do, I would not ever, in any circumstance, add carp to any body of water EVER. Carp, especially in numbers, can devastate a body of water in no time. The smaller the body of water the greater their effect. They are like living trash compactors. They can survive off eating anything they find. There are so many in the Thames here in London that there are basically no plants at all in the river. No plants = no lm bass, no pike, etc. I would add any type of sucker or catfish well before even contemplating carp. Carp are an evasive species and I grew up with people who would catch them and use them as garden fertilizer. No offense to people who catch them for fun, but they aren't supposed to be here and have had a devastating impact on many, many bodies of water and the species of fish that naturally should be in them.

 

If you look back far enough in history, your bass and pike shouldn't be there either. The Thames should be a premier trout river.

 

By the way, bass and pike fishing is great in the Thames. I've caught bass to 3lbs in downtown London.

[Beats]

It may be true that way, way back bass and pike were new comers to waters around here but if you consider how long they have been here compared to how short of a time carp took to change their environments its a no brainer. Some things , fish or plants, are introduced to bodies of water and have positive impacts or at least don't affect too much around them and are not much of a concern. Some things like gobies, carp etc can totally change bodies of water for the worst in a very short time frame. Pike and bass certainly didn't have a fraction of the negative effects that carp have caused. It's not so much a matter of all new species are evil, rather its a matter of looking at the proven signs of how things used to be without said species and how things are with this species now here. Pike can most certainly take a nice trout pond and turn it into a pond full of pike very quickly. In that regard they cause damage. The thing that pike and bass don't do, however, its take out the physical environment the way that carp tend to. They may go from being a small percentage of the fish population to being the populated fish, but they don't rip up all the vegetation doing so.

 

The Thames in London is by no means a good pike fishery. There are tonnes of pike in certain sections of the river , especially out of town branches like near Woodstock and trout creek/Wildwood , but I don't know anyone who can go out and catch pike on demand within London. You are certainly right about the bass though. There isn't nearly enough water for them to get big here currently but you can catch a dozen in an hour or so whenever you want in the downtown area. I caught dozens last year and the biggest was 1.5 lbs. A 3 lb'er in the city limits would be huge to catch downtown. The white bass are all bigger than the biggest sm's I find.

Edited July 2, 2008 by Beats

[bassjnkie]

Go to a trout pond there is a liquid they add to the water that clears up the weeds. Sorry can't remeber the name of the stuff. It does not harm the fish in any way.

 

Daniel

[boddah]

i guess i stirred the pot.................................. ok so how about one carp?... one cant really have that much impact, can it? ... a small one, a few pounds and no reproducing, any harm in that?.................. do they really eat fish eggs?

[boddah]

does it turn the water blue/green?

Edited July 2, 2008 by boddah

[bassjnkie]

Stays clear. You could add the blue or green

[Burning Babies]

However, grass carp is an invasive specie and it is illegal to transport a live grass carp.

 

Interesting. I was unaware of that. Probably the smart move.

 

I fish carp in many places where bass, pike, pickerel, muskie, trout whitefish, panfish of all types flourish . . . but as per usual, there are 'old wives tales' aplenty, and carp are FIRST to get the blame anyplace the other fish start to disappear!

 

Sure, there are plenty of cases where carp do not have significant impact on other species. However, to quote scientific paper in Oikos (a very well respected aquatic journal I might add), "Introduction of the benthivorous common carp (Cyprinus carpio) has been identified as one of the main causes of loss of biodiversity and water clarity in numerous shallow lakes and ponds worldwide." The negative effects of carp have been well documented.

 

Go to a trout pond there is a liquid they add to the water that clears up the weeds. Sorry can't remeber the name of the stuff. It does not harm the fish in any way.

 

Daniel

 

Sorry, but in a pond with that level of nutrients, the oxygen levels are almost certainly too low to support trout, and the summer temperature is probably too high.

 

i guess i stirred the pot.................................. ok so how about one carp?... one cant really have that much impact, can it? ... a small one, a few pounds and no reproducing, any harm in that?.................. do they really eat fish eggs?

 

One probably won't make a big difference, except to muddy the water a bit. But why would you want one? I can think of three scientific papers documenting them eating fish eggs. Here's one: http://www.sgnis.org/publicat/jfe12_32.htm

 

does it turn the water blue/green?

 

Aquashade turns the water green. Copper sulfate just kills the plants. Be careful if you use the copper sulfate during the summer - killing everything at once will lead to oxygen depletion as it decays, killing your fish. Treat small areas of weeds at a time.

Edited July 3, 2008 by Burning Babies