30th Aug 2009
Should You Use Grass Carp For Aquatic Weed Control?
Mastering the plant life within a pond, or in any other body of water is extremely critical. Why you ask? Well, since for some reason or another, you have decided that you don’t want it to be there. No matter if these plants have create a type of nuisance for swimming children, or have just simply stopped up the motor on your favorite boat, you want them to be gone, and there are several methods of doing this.
Of course you could utilize chemicals, plastic lining, freezing, manually pulling, or perhaps even dye, but these are fairly strenuous, and there’s no guarantee that the pond, or fish, will actually be the same again following such an effort. Therefore it’s time to have a look at alternative means—techniques that won’t damage you OR your pond.
Around nineteen sixty-three, a new fish was placed in the U.S. ecology, and this fish was called the Grass Carp. It was purposefully integrated into the ecosystem for one purpose of eradicating aquatic plants, and thus far it’s done a great job. In the US, A Grass Carp is often referred to as a White Amur, presumably because of the fact that the phrase Carp holds negative interpretations here in the U.S., and the name “Amur” is a reference to the river that the fish comes from, the river which borders China and Russia.
The Grass Carp, is what is referred to as an invasive species, indicating that it’ll multiply and take over the ecosystem which it’s introduced in (similar to humans), however science has come far, and while it required some time, and a lot of gene manipulation, sterilizing a Grass Carp became standard procedure everywhere in the world so that it’s integration doesn’t hurt or eradicate the ecosystem.
An additional thing to take into account, is that the Grass Carp doesn’t consume every kind of grass, naturally it loves plants, and will eat most of it, however as humans, there are things that it prefers over others. A couple of the things that the Grass Carp does enjoy, are:
Coontail
Spikerush
Smartweed
Bladderwort
Bulrush
Water hyssop
Eelgrass
There’s several additional grasses, and a visit to a library, a web query, or talking with an expert will quickly let you know what the grass carp will consume.
When purchased in large amounts, Grass Carp is pretty cheap, ranging from about $10-20 per fish, and that is perfectly reasonable when you consider the years of service it will give you; living for about ten to eleven years.
In some states, you will need to get a license prior to putting Grass Carp in any body of water, whether it is your water. To find out if this is necessary, talk to the game warden near you, or just check the regulations of your state, since that info is freely available to any person who needs it.
As you can see, Grass Carp are an excellent alternative to utilizing chemicals, or even lining the pond with plastic, because not just are they great for getting rid of unwanted plants, you should also keep in mind that it’s a symbiotic relationship, you give the thing they want, and in return they give their services to you, preventing you from needing to do this yourself. Overall, this is a good exchange.
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