Why havent they stocked Somerset with Mangrove Jac

[1300]

I am about to move out to Coominya which is right in amongst all the dams, I have been an offshore fisherman at heart. But wish to give the fresh water seen a go.

I have fished Awonga dam in Gladstone and the Barramundi are going very well, I think they have also stocked Mangrove jack. But why havent they stocked local Brisbane dams with Mangrove jack ?

I can understand the temperature restrictions with Barramundi, but just the introduction of Mangrove jack or even Sooti grunter would be a great help to promote the fresh water seen.

[lordy]

Its a possibility for the future. They are conducting stocking experiments in the northern lakes at present. Given Tinaroo was/is stocked with them there is absolutely no valid reason to believe Wivenhoe and other SEQ dams won't be. We will have to wait for the experiments to finish before anything takes place down south, probably 4 years. Even then it could be another 4 years before breeding is up and running at 100%, add in another 1-2 years for growth.

It will be awesome when they do arive but it will probably be 10 years before anything happens. 5 at the earliest.

[bobby777888]

which dams have been stocked with jacks? ???

[Kuhlia_R]

There only one private hatchery that can currently spawn MJ's and for our more southern impoundments brood stock would have to be obtained from water ways which derive from those impoundments. As far as sooties are concernd im afriad it just wont happen becuase of they just never belonged here indemicly, so if u want sooties im sorry but you might just have to move a little farther north.

[bobby777888]

or do what i did, turn your old swimming pool into a fish tank and catch sotties and bass wenever you want!!

bobby

p.s. the swimming pool is surrounded by glass and shade cloth so the fish cant get out in floods. ill try and post some pics soon.

[Jeremy87]

do yourself a favour and figure out an efficient way of cleaning it. Did the same thing filled it with bass silvers and barcoo grunter. After a year or so the algae grew to much and we had a serious fish kill, ie all of the buggers. A regular pool filter isn't enough, we used a marine safe flocking agent which kills the algae and sinks it to the bottom, problem is this acts as more food for the next algal bloom and so forth, so basically you have to find a way to physically get the muck out of the water.

[Kuhlia_R]

There are a number of diferent filter method you could use but the key unit would be a biological filter witch is basically a seperate tank filled with a suitable material such as shade cloth to act as surface area for bacteria to grow and deal with the waste. Algae can be good and bad as the process of photosynthesis and respiration can have an effect on your dissolved oxygen levels, maintaining a Ph of 7-8 is important as it can effect your water chemistry turning amonia into amonium as well as your nitrate - nitrite shifting capacities, stay away from chemical quick cures as these can be toxic to fish and humans. and be warned of the waste managment issues involved. as far as pools are concernd especially heated ones your looking at one of the most ineficient mothods of aquaculture.

[bobby777888]

so your saying i need a tiny bit of algae in there but not too much? me and my dad wer thinking of buying one of those giant algae plecostimus catfish in there, but i think he might get attaked. maybye my only option is to drain the pool, elaocate the fish temporarily and start again. also, we have just introduced mullet into there, will they help keep the algae down?

[Jeremy87]

thats the jist, i also tried making a biofilter but to no avail. I'm not to sure how effective the catfish will be cause all its going to do is eat the algae and crap it out again leaving almost the same amount of waste.

[lordy]

Have you tried watering your lawn with the hose sucking of the gunk from the bottom? might need motorised pump. old water out, new water in.

[Kuhlia_R]

Yes draining the pool\pond is required every 9 months ideally, but u could probably get away with once a year and doing so around summer would probaly be better as the nutrients collected during the year would create an algae explosion in the warm weather and might get a bit on the nose. If you can remove the benthic matt, the layer of gunk off the bottom regularily with a modified creepy crawly or such and remove a majority of the physical waste then this will put less pressure on the filter. Maintaining a respectfull amount of turbidity ie suspended particles which in this case is algae achieves a number of things mainly, 1) it provides a means of waste management as it grows it uses nutrients and 2) Keeps the fish calm and less flighty, if you cant see them they cant see u. You can make a simple tool called a secchi disk which is bassically a broom stick marked with 1cm intervals and a white ice cream container lid which u paint black in 2 quadrants of the lid (Like the checkerd pattern on a chess board) Nail the lid to the bottom of the pole so that when u submerge the device lid first you r looking at the checkers, then by slowly lowering the pole till the point where you're unable to differenciate between the black & white contrast you look at the pole to determine youre sechi depth. you ideally want to maintain a reading of between 25-45 cm to suit youre needs. any thing over 50cm and you might want to consider doing a 50% water change. if you have a bit of land at your dissposall with a bit of gradient might i suggest building an artificial wetland below your pool that way you can just syphon the waste water into the wetland where it can naturally be dealt with.

[Kuhlia_R]

Sorry, I ment to say under 25 cm do A 50% water change, any thing over 50cm Is great.

[bungie]

.

[Richard]

One early thing coming out of the research from Tinaroo is the restriction of where Jacks can be stocked.

There will most probably be an altitude component in where they will be allowed to be stocked.


Richard

[bobby777888]

i heard that tinaroo is producing legal size mangrove jacks now!!?? can anyone confirm on deny this?