The cloud of young bowfin were approaching the size that they begin to disperse from the mass/ school that they swim around in for their first several weeks of life and I decided that we should get them penned in a smaller portion of the breeding pond so I can get too them when they do reach a size where I feel comfortable selling them. Here is a couple pictures from before we caught them and their dad and penned them in...
the cloud close up
dad guarding the cloud
the cloud again
Then with a pair of dipnets a friend of mine and I cautiously waded in toward the group (a couple of days earlier we witnessed the male charge and bite the head of a female that got too close). The male flared his gills and charged at my legs straight into my dipnet. I handed that net to my friend and he gave me his and I quickly scooped up as much of the cloud as I could. We then got a seine and ran through the area a couple times to finish the job. We then quickly erected an enclosure made of window screening and released all but about 50 of the young into the pen. We then released the male and 50 young on the other side of the pond in hopes that he will continue to guard those and not try to ram his way into the pen. Here is a picture of the male in the cooler while we set up the enclosure and the enclosure.
The next day I began to feed the young since they are now not free ranging in the pond and they readily ate freeze dried food and I've made arrangements to get some pellets for them soon. Once I'm confident they are showing growth while being fed (hopefully within 2 weeks) we will start to sell them.
I also have a male redspotted sunfish who already has fry hatched out in his nest and he's defending them from the other three adults in his pond. They actually spawned in a cattail pot rather than the gravel beds I provided.
if you look really close you can see tiny fry in the bottom of the pot (I need an underwater camera for this...)
I also noticed I was successful in moving the johnny darter eggs out to a pond from my tank that I pictured a while back. They seem to be rather plentiful in that pond and are now about 1" long and I'll add them to the available species list.
and lastly for now at least here is one of the little pickerel in the bowfin/pickerel pond...
Hope you all enjoy, and I'll attempt to provide other updates on activities around here as the summer season goes on.
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