Stocking home dam

[sari96]

So my rents have just bought a house in the Mt Cotton area and on the property there is a dam and I was just wondering if anyone on here knows the drill on how to stock bass and yabbies and how to look after them as they settle into the dam, also where I can get the bass from?

[sari96]

By the way in these photos the dam is low and is usually a lot fuller

[Binder]

Just ring any of the fingerling suppliers.
/>http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/freshwater-fish-stocking/obtaining-native-fish-fingerlings

Link on left of that page specifically discusses stocking for private dams.

Think about silvers rather than bass for a dam that small, you can feed them. (They are allowed even though not native)

Chuck a couple of bails of straw in there now, get the micro system going.

[elops]

Step 1 What lives in there now ?

[crazywalrus]

i would be a little concerned if it is not full this year that it may have a leak. You could waste your money.

[sari96]

Just ring any of the fingerling suppliers.
/>http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/freshwater-fish-stocking/obtaining-native-fish-fingerlings

Link on left of that page specifically discusses stocking for private dams.

Think about silvers rather than bass for a dam that small, you can feed them. (They are allowed even though not native)

Chuck a couple of bails of straw in there now, get the micro system going.

Thanks for the link, but may I ask what the straw would be for? What is this micro system?

[sari96]

Step 1 What lives in there now ?

There's nothing in there at the moment.

[sari96]

i would be a little concerned if it is not full this year that it may have a leak. You could waste your money.

I'm pretty sure that its low because the owners use it on there gardens and around there house so that's where the water goes, but that won't be happening while I'm living there.

[tugger]

Lucky bugger that looks great when the weather is crap you don't have to leave home for a fish

[elops]

Nothing no weeds,lilys,small fish nothing but water?

[sari96]

Nothing no weeds,lilys,small fish nothing but water?

Sorry haha firstly I don't think there is any fish or yabbies. There is some vegetation around the dam and going into it but my dad is going to get some machinery in there to clean all the weed up so he can submerge some big logs and have some Lilly beds growing around the water edges.

[Binder]

The straw gives the small organisms somewhere to live, promotes a bit of algae growth for them to munch on etc etc. Basically gets all the small critters multiplying before you put something bigger in there so there is something for them to eat.

If your father is going o delve the dam, I would bother putting anything in there until at least a month after he is done. Give the mud a chance to settle out of the water.

[elops]

Step 1 ie the first step, what you do first, the first thing to do, do this first.

Don't worry about straw nature will already have taken care of that

[getrigged]

I'm picking elops has the driest sense of human known to man?

Just saying

[sari96]

does anyone know if you need water to be circulating? or would a dam this big be big enough that i wouldnt need water circulating? you can get an idea of how big it actually is by looking at one of the photos witht he picnic bench in it.

[aussie123]

As Steve has already mentioned,you do not need to add bales of hay.

The dam is old and has obviously been established for a very long time so it already has created its own micro eco-system and bethnic communities.

I would throw in a few fine meshed bait nets and see what is in there.

Hopefully it will have a supply of glass shrimp and maybe some small fish like mosquito fish or firetail gudgeons,ect.

Regardless if there is a food chain or not,you can always hand feed the fish exactly the same way they do in a fish farm.

Aquaculture food is very cheap for natives to buy at most produce shops in 25kg bags for around $100 bag.

You can get some cold water fish and but them in a floating trap for a while to see how they go.

If they die you know there is a water problem,if they survive you can start looking for some fish and some food to feed them.

Oxygen should be fine as that dam has a good surface area to help oxygenate the water.

Every time the wind blows and ripples the water it will replenish the oxygen and also let any bad gasses out.

Have fun as that will be an exciting project to get up and running.

[tiotony]

As for getting the ecosystem happening, when I was a kid my uncle had a property at Greenbank (before it became a suburb), and had a large turkey nest dam on there. I 'stocked' it with yabbies, shrimp, little fish etc from nearby Oxley creek using a scoop net and it didn't take them long to build up their numbers in the dam- maybe 12 months or so.

Have you considered putting in naturally occurring natives local to the area that will breed in there? I'm thinking tandanus and spangled perch. Apparently if you regularly cull the spangled perch you end up with small numbers of large fish instead of large numbers of small fish, and I think it would be pretty cool to sit on the bank of your own dam night fishing for tandanus (with alcohol and a campfire probably mandatory!), catch a tandanus and cook it on the campfire- sounds like a Friday night well spent to me. You could also of course chuck in silvers or bass too, but at least the local natives would be self-sustaining

[faulked]

http://www.ausyfish.com/

do lots of reading first to save your money