Should You Use Grass Carp For Water Plant Control?
Governing the plant life in a pond, or in any other body of water is very critical. Why is this you say? Well, since for some reason or another, you’ve chosen that you don’t desire it to be there. Whether those plants have generated some sort of hindrance for swimmers, or have have simply stopped up the engine on your favorite motorboat, you wish them to be gone, and there are several methods of doing this.
Of course you can use chemical substances, plastic lining, freezing, manually pulling, or perhaps even dye, however those are fairly inconvenient, and there’s no promise that your pond, or even the fish, would actually be the same again after such an effort. So it’s time to look into alternative methods—techniques which will not break your back OR your pond.
In 1963, a brand new fish was introduced in to the U.S. ecology, and that fish was known as the Grass Carp. It was deliberately introduced into our ecosystem for one reason of eliminating aquatic plant life, and thus far it has lived up to it’s reputation. Within the US, the Grass Carp is commonly called the White Amur, probably because the phrase Carp has negative interpretations here in the United States., and the word “Amur” refers to the river which this fish originates from, a river that borders China and Russia.
The Grass Carp, is what’s referred to as an invasive species, indicating that it’ll multiply and overtake any ecosystem that it is introduced into (similar to humans), however science has progressed far, and while it required a lot of time, as well as lots of gene manipulation, sterilizing a Grass Carp finally became standard all over the world so that the introduction does not harm or eradicate the ecosystem.
An additional thing to take into account, is that the Grass Carp does not eat everything, naturally it loves plant life, and would eat the vast majority of it, but just like humans, there’s things that it prefers more than others. A couple of the things that the Grass Carp will enjoy, are:
Coontail
Spikerush
Smartweed
Bladderwort
Bulrush
Water hyssop
Eelgrass
There’s many additional grasses, and a visit to the library, a web query, or talking with a professional will immediately let you know the things a grass carp will eat.
When purchased in large amounts, Grass Carp is pretty inexpensive, ranging from about $10-20 per fish, which is perfectly reasonable considering the years of service it will give you; living for around 10-11 years.
In some states, you’ll be required to acquire a license prior to putting Grass Carp into any sort of water, even if it is your water. To discover if that’s necessary, talk to the game warden near you, or just examine the laws of the state, since that information is freely available to anyone who requires it.
Clearly, Grass Carp are an excellent alternate means to utilizing chemicals, or even lining the pond with a plastic cover, because not only are they great for getting rid of unwanted plants, you must also remember that it’s an interdependent relationship, you provide the thing that they desire, and then they provide a service to you, keeping you from having to do it on your own. Overall, this is a great trade.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 5:05 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.