How Many Species Of Fish In Our Lake?

[blast from the past]

The only way to reduce the number of the red devils would be to pond raise really big, adult giant snakeheads (pungee) - not the "northern" snakehead, but the "giant snakehead" - just grow them to maturity (they grow very fast if they are allowed to) and then release a substantial number of them (like, 15 to 20-pound adults) into the river. A good start would be about a hundred of them, released in both forks and in the main lake. A 20-pounder can actually eat (chomp it to bits) a full grown red devil. They will just bite chunks out of any kind of fish, even large aggressive fish like red devils.
There would have to be a fully 100% catch and release protection for the pungee, so that they would have time to continously eat many red devils, and start spawning new numbers of pungee. By the way, the pungee are awesome fish to catch with a topwater lure! (including topwater cork flies with flycasting gear). The only other fish capable of the same outcome is the Wolf fish.

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

Other creatures seen of the lake: frog tadpoles (that was a long time ago) and ducks.

[BASSTRACKER]

yes and whos goin to train the 15-20lb snakehead not to eat the 1lb bass and 2-3lb tucs??? i recall a great idea from the past about mongoose to control rats too.im all for getting red devils out of the lake but not by putting in bigger predators!!

[Ca_Bass]

There's at least one video on youtube showing a fish tank with a snakehead in it, the owner dropped in a bass that was about a pound and the snakehead bit it in half....one bite!

[roadwarriorsvt]

If you're looking at species that may compete for food with the LMB/Tucunare shouldn't the red neck sliders turtles be included or would their impact be considered negligible.

Someone told me that if a fish actually gets eaten by a turtle, it deserves it! I didn't consider it at first, but after thinking about it, what quick little bait fish is actually suceptable to a turtle?


BTW, I haven't heard back from the biologist yet. Last time I checked in with him, he was on the road traveling. I know he's prepping for their annual conference in MO. After that, I'll give a gently reminder. Keep in mind he's doing this for us for free.

[Crash]

[/quote]

Someone told me that if a fish actually gets eaten by a turtle, it deserves it! quote]

That's funny, I totally agree.

[Bass Monkey]

Don't forget the freshwater gar fish

[Ca_Bass]

I had some red ear sliders as a kid, and they were actually fairly crafty and mobile predators. But natural selection definately has it's place! I've heard theories that lakes that receive a lot of fishing pressure become more and more difficult because a lot of the fish willing to bite fake lures get caught and eaten leaving the more cautious and weary fish. Same theory applys to the bigger fish, they didn't get big by being dumb. I don't know how true this is but it makes sense to me.

[roadwarriorsvt]

Don't forget the freshwater gar fish

You're probably referring to the needle fish listed.

[Ahnkochee]

Don't forget the freshwater gar fish

You're probably referring to the needle fish listed.

I wish there were Alligator gar in the lake.

[blast from the past]

Yes, full grown pungee will eat anything and everything, INCLUDING red devils. The mature pungee are not "trainable" to eat only one kind of fish; tens of thousands of years of instinct and design means only one thing - they will predate on any fish it can eat, even if they were fed solely red devils until maturity - loose in a natural environment they will eat all kinds of fishes. Must not forget; larger bass, bluegills, tucunare and a host of other kinds of fishes will also predate on the pungee's fry as well (there are checks and balances that occur naturally, if the mature pungee spawn). In addition, there could only be so many large mature pungee at any given time frame; and those numerically small number of fully mature pungee could only eat so many fish each (even per YEAR), while there may be many hundreds if not well over a thousand spawning bass and tucunare every season. The idea is to introduce a fish that is ABLE and CAPABLE of consuming large red devils (to offset an "overabundance problem"). The red devil is a territorial, stubborn, aggressive cichlid; it will not run away from a predatory, mature pungee - this will certainly assist in many red devils ending up on the menu of mature pungee (the 7-10 pound pungee). The lake/river at one time in the recent past had no red devils at all; but lots of bass and tucunare, literally tens of millions of tilapia and bluegill, and many mature pungee - all occurring in balance. The bass, little did many of us know then, were eating a lot of juvenile tilapia, and there was a very good bass fishery then. Another solution would be to pour fish-eradicating poison into the lake and start the fishery over again from scratch; that would be a good survey question...I wonder how many would vote for poisoning the lake. In addition, the mongoose ate rare birds and their eggs; and a number of other rare island animals; the largemouth bass is not a rare fish - they are bred and stocked as a common gamefish; the same applies to the tucunare; it is not rare - it can be stocked, introduced or re-introduced with ease. There is no comparison nor correlation.

[Bass Monkey]

Don't forget the freshwater gar fish

You're probably referring to the needle fish listed.

Or needle fish listed refers to freshwater gar

[Ken]

Yes, full grown pungee will eat anything and everything, INCLUDING red devils. The mature pungee are not "trainable" to eat only one kind of fish; tens of thousands of years of instinct and design means only one thing - they will predate on any fish it can eat, even if they were fed solely red devils until maturity - loose in a natural environment they will eat all kinds of fishes. Must not forget; larger bass, bluegills, tucunare and a host of other kinds of fishes will also predate on the pungee's fry as well (there are checks and balances that occur naturally, if the mature pungee spawn). In addition, there could only be so many large mature pungee at any given time frame; and those numerically small number of fully mature pungee could only eat so many fish each (even per YEAR), while there may be many hundreds if not well over a thousand spawning bass and tucunare every season. The idea is to introduce a fish that is ABLE and CAPABLE of consuming large red devils (to offset an "overabundance problem"). The red devil is a territorial, stubborn, aggressive cichlid; it will not run away from a predatory, mature pungee - this will certainly assist in many red devils ending up on the menu of mature pungee (the 7-10 pound pungee). The lake/river at one time in the recent past had no red devils at all; but lots of bass and tucunare, literally tens of millions of tilapia and bluegill, and many mature pungee - all occurring in balance. The bass, little did many of us know then, were eating a lot of juvenile tilapia, and there was a very good bass fishery then. Another solution would be to pour fish-eradicating poison into the lake and start the fishery over again from scratch; that would be a good survey question...I wonder how many would vote for poisoning the lake. In addition, the mongoose ate rare birds and their eggs; and a number of other rare island animals; the largemouth bass is not a rare fish - they are bred and stocked as a common gamefish; the same applies to the tucunare; it is not rare - it can be stocked, introduced or re-introduced with ease. There is no comparison nor correlation.

Snakeheads can certainly coexist with largemouth bass and peacock bass....but they may not solve the red devil issue though. An example is the Florida canals. Cobra snakeheads are found in a lot of south Florida canals where largemouth bass, peacock bass and midas cichlids are also present. Even then, despite what everyone often accused, the cobra snakeheads are not killing the fishery. Like you mentioned, there will be a balance struck eventually.

My first hand experience in the Coral Springs canal recently is that cobra snakeheads are pretty weary predators. In the same canals I also saw 1-3lb bass swimming about with lots of juvenile bass present that would be a fitting meal for a snakehead. There are also a lot of sunfish present and some exotic cichlids. Add to that there were about 5-6 large grass carp in this 300 yard stretch. I would say the snakeheads are only a small part of this diverse ecosystem.

The red devils are certainly detrimental to the successful spawning of largemouth bass...but it also doesn't help that the deeper parts of the lake is likely hypoxic such that the available habitat is restricted to only shallower regions of the lake.