News from northern Florida
 

It's been brutal here. In the first part of January you may have
heard that it got cold here. Now it gets cold here every winter, and
it even drops below freezing a few evenings each year, but we aren't
prepared for it to keep on going for days and days, over a week!
Granted, it got well above freezing each day, and no ice or anything
ever formed on the pond, but it nailed a bunch of plants. Should be
an interesting spring.

One plant the cold didn't seem to bother is the duckweed. As a matter
of fact, it even looks healthier, if that's possible. In any event,
one of my "neighbors" said that next time he goes fishing he'll bring
me a bunch of carp from the Suwannee. Seems they aren't very good
game, though he swears they will clear my pond up right away, and he
says he's done it before with another pond. Shoot, if they came from
the Suwannee it doesn't seem like it would matter much if they wash
back down there, and as long as they're free it won't bother me that
much if I do wind up just feeding the otter.
..

News from northern Florida
 

Our triploid grass carp keep local ponds totally clear of vegetation.
My koi and goldfish think duckweed is a great treat. Local carp
could work well for you. A thought: Two can become more than two.
Would one do?

Jim

News from northern Florida
 

On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:31:15 EST, Phyllis and Jim
wrote:

Our triploid grass carp keep local ponds totally clear of vegetation.
My koi and goldfish think duckweed is a great treat. Local carp
could work well for you. A thought: Two can become more than two.
Would one do?

I need to make clear that what I know about fish could probably be
inscribed on the head of a pin with plenty of room left over. I was
under the impression that triploid grass carp were incapable of
reproduction. But that's really neither here nor there, because I
don't know whether they will be monoloid, diploid, triploid, quadloid,
or whatever-loid. As a matter of fact, if someone held a bass in one
hand and a carp in the other, I'd probably guess that they were two
different kinds of trout or something. Whatever fish my "neighbor"
gives me are going in the pond. (I put "neighbor" in quotes because
while he does live next to me, his driveway is a good 1/4 mile away. I
can't see his house, I only see him a few times a year, he's a trucker
and is on the road most of the time anyway.) If two fish become more
than two, I'll get some loaves to go with, feed the multitudes, change
my name, and walk across the pond.

..

News from northern Florida
 

"Galen Hekhuis" wrote in message
...
It's been brutal here. In the first part of January you may have
heard that it got cold here. Now it gets cold here every winter, and
it even drops below freezing a few evenings each year, but we aren't
prepared for it to keep on going for days and days, over a week!
Granted, it got well above freezing each day, and no ice or anything
ever formed on the pond, but it nailed a bunch of plants. Should be
an interesting spring.

We've had some seriously cold weather here too. My ponds are frozen
over. It's in the 20s today but at least the sun is shining.


One plant the cold didn't seem to bother is the duckweed. As a matter
of fact, it even looks healthier, if that's possible. In any event,
one of my "neighbors" said that next time he goes fishing he'll bring
me a bunch of carp from the Suwannee. Seems they aren't very good
game, though he swears they will clear my pond up right away, and he
says he's done it before with another pond. Shoot, if they came from
the Suwannee it doesn't seem like it would matter much if they wash
back down there, and as long as they're free it won't bother me that
much if I do wind up just feeding the otter.

A river fish that eats duckweed?
--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

News from northern Florida
 

Triploids are sterile. That is good. The Mississippi is in real
danger of being their conduit to the great lakes!

Local carp will not be sterile. Two and become more. I don't know if
that would be a problem.

Jim

News from northern Florida
 

On Sun, 31 Jan 2010 19:22:58 EST, "ReelMcKoi" wrote:


"Galen Hekhuis" wrote in message
.. .
It's been brutal here. In the first part of January you may have
heard that it got cold here. Now it gets cold here every winter, and
it even drops below freezing a few evenings each year, but we aren't
prepared for it to keep on going for days and days, over a week!
Granted, it got well above freezing each day, and no ice or anything
ever formed on the pond, but it nailed a bunch of plants. Should be
an interesting spring.

We've had some seriously cold weather here too. My ponds are frozen
over. It's in the 20s today but at least the sun is shining.


One plant the cold didn't seem to bother is the duckweed. As a matter
of fact, it even looks healthier, if that's possible. In any event,
one of my "neighbors" said that next time he goes fishing he'll bring
me a bunch of carp from the Suwannee. Seems they aren't very good
game, though he swears they will clear my pond up right away, and he
says he's done it before with another pond. Shoot, if they came from
the Suwannee it doesn't seem like it would matter much if they wash
back down there, and as long as they're free it won't bother me that
much if I do wind up just feeding the otter.

A river fish that eats duckweed?

That's what he says. He said he used river fish to clean up a pond
like mine not too far away.
..

News from northern Florida
 

Phyllis and Jim wrote:
Triploids are sterile. That is good. The Mississippi is in real
danger of being their conduit to the great lakes!



I will admit that my last geography lesson was over 50 years ago, but
does the Mississippi have a conduit into the Great Lakes? The head
waters are in central Minn, can't be the Missouri, it heads west, the
Ohio goes east. Does the now backward flowing Chicago river enter the
Mississippi?

Chip

News from northern Florida
 

Does the now backward flowing Chicago river enter the
Mississippi?


Point well taken. It has headwaters right next to the great lakes to
the West, but the Great Lakes drain to the Atlantic rather than to the
Gulf! I know the grass carp are working their way north and that folk
are concerned about them getting into the Great Lakes. Maybe not by
that conduit.

I will have to take a look at the map again.

Jim

News from northern Florida
 

Wikipedia makes a remark...about the redirected flow. It does go to
the Mississippi, but that still does not connect the Mississippi to
the Great Lakes.

"The Chicago River is a river that runs 156 miles (251 km)[1] and
flows through Chicago, including the downtown. Though not especially
long, the river is notable for the 19th century civil engineering
feats that directed its flow south, away from Lake Michigan, into
which it previously emptied, and towards the Mississippi River basin."


Jim

Further data on the Mississippi, the Great Lakes and invasive species
 

A bit more reading suggests the Mississippi and the Great Lakes are
connected via Chicago and that there is discussion of re-serarating
the systems to prevent the spread of invasive species Quite a
learning venture. Here is what I found:

Recently, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign created a three-dimensional, hydrodynamic simulation of the
Chicago River, which suggested that density currents are the cause of
an observed bi-directional wintertime flow in the river. At the
surface, the river flows east to west, away from Lake Michigan, as
expected. But deep below, near the riverbed, water travels west to
east, toward the lake.[8]

All outflows from the Great Lakes Basin are regulated by the joint
U.S.-Canadian Great Lakes Commission, and the outflow through the
Chicago River is set under a U.S. Supreme Court decision (1967,
modified 1980 and 1997). The city of Chicago is allowed to remove 3200
cubic feet per second (91 m³/s) of water from the Great Lakes system;
about half of this, 1 billion US gallons a day (44 m³/s), is sent down
the Chicago River, while the rest is used for drinking water.[9] In
late 2005, the Chicago-based Alliance for the Great Lakes proposed re-
separating the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins to address
such ecological concerns as the spread of invasive species.[10]

News from northern Florida
 

"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
.
...
Triploids are sterile. That is good. The Mississippi is in real
danger of being their conduit to the great lakes!

Local carp will not be sterile. Two and become more. I don't know if
that would be a problem.

Jim
==============I may be wrong but duckweed grows in ponds and still waters, not
rivers. If carp are from rivers, it wouldn't be part of their diet.
--
RM....
Frugal ponding since 1995.
rec.ponder since late 1996.
Zone 6. Middle TN USA
~~~~ }((((* ~~~ }{{{{(ö

News from northern Florida
 

They learn!

Jim

News from northern Florida
 

"ReelMcKoi" wrote:


-snip-
I may be wrong but duckweed grows in ponds and still waters, not
rivers. If carp are from rivers, it wouldn't be part of their diet.

In the Mohawk river there are loads of carp in the backwaters--- and
loads of duckweed which they can be seen vacuuming up.

Jim

News from northern Florida
 

I didn't know that. Live and learn. :)

I wish I had a nickel for every new thing I have learned on this
group!

Jim

News from northern Florida
 

===============
I may be wrong but duckweed grows in ponds and still waters, not
rivers. If carp are from rivers, it wouldn't be part of their diet.

Little shiny plastic lures aren't part of a trout's diet, yet they try to
eat them. ;-) I'm sure any carp will taste most anything that plant-like
(think lettuce or spinach some feed their koi) and go Yummy when they taste
duck weed. ~ jan :)
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us