Adding 8,000 Fish to the 5 Acre Pond!

Folks at home welcome back to the Crimson Oak Pond where we had a lot going on this past week we had the fish truck showing up to deliver some fish we got Mobi attacking two mate and toads in the backyard pond and a visit from Greg the pond guy to help us plant some aquatic plants and tropical lies and we even had our first animals start showing up at the new squirrel house and you're not going to want to miss that but the fish truck is about to show up we got the farmers bailing some hay in the background but if you look down around the Pond's Edge you'll notice that dark green color is algae and this time a year when the water temps start to rise and we have longer periods of sunlight each day most Pines will typically start seeing some algae growth and this is a pretty normal type of filamentous algae but the one key as a pond owner is you have to take care of it before it gets out of control and we had a lot of success last year with two different methods the first was applying a beneficial bacteria that competes with the algae and actually starves it out but any algae that's able to make it past that will get cleaned up by the tilapia so the fish truck just showed up loaded down with several tanks of tilapia and the first thing we like to do is pump water out of the pond and into the holding tanks to help acclimate the tilapia before we put them in and today he's stocking a variety of different sizes but you definitely want to put those adult tilapia in that are too big to get eaten by the bass because those adults are where we get all the benefits an tilapia are known as prolific spawners and as soon as they enter the pond they're going to start spawning and we'll be getting thousands of baby tilapia every 177 to 20 days and adding these tilapia were hands down one of the most beneficial things we did last year because if you followed along with the channel from around July to November the bass fed heavily on them they would School up together cruise down the banks and those baby tilapia were easy targets and that helped our bass put on a lot of weight but by adding this additional food source you're also helping your smaller bluegill population and thread fin Shad populations which will be key to feeding the bass throughout the winter months but since you get so many benefits from them I decided to add a few to Cedar Falls as an experiment and the main reason is because the two pet bass we call Johnny and June have big appetites goal is to add three tilapia to help produce a reoccurring food source for them so we got three tilapia in the bucket here we're about to release and the tilapia are the exact opposite for most other fish and that the male typically grows much bigger than the female so the two little smaller tilapia that have the red fins We Believe are females and the bigger bluish tilapia is going to be a male this little guy doesn't seem to be shy at all and this is a first for me but since the tilapia are going to be in here with us the rest of the year we might as well give them a name so leave your comments down below for the three tilapia we're finishing up stocking the 5 acre Pond and if it's anything like last year I'll give you an update in a week or two and it's going to be a very noticeable reduction in algae but there are a couple of fascinating facts about tilapia and one of the reasons they can become invasive and spawn so frequently is because they can change sex so the males can become females and the females can become males and another really interesting fact is that there's a specific species of tilapia that is a mouth brooder and so what happens is after the females lay the eggs the males fertilize them and once the baby tilapia hatch the small tilapia will actually swim into the male's mouth and he'll carry them around protecting them as well as taking them to their food source so he'll bring them to the areas that are heavy in vegetation and algae and Plankton and open his mouth to let him come out and feed but the moment there's any danger in the area he sucks them back in to protect them so tilapia really are a fascinating fish and we had a handful survive from last year and it's very interesting how they're all albino but now it's time to check in on Cedar Falls Water clarity's looking good and Greg the pond guy is going to be stopping by to add some aquatic plants but it's that time of year where we have Tad poles in the pond from all the mating toads and they're a welcomed Edition because they're an excellent Cleanup Crew you can you see how good they clean the rocks and they basically feed 24/7 and then when they get big enough the bluegills will eat some before they turn into a toad and hop out of the pond but check out this other guest we had visit the pond it's the first snake we've seen in here and you all know I'm terrible at identifying snakes but this doesn't look like a venomous one but if any of you can identify it leave it in the comments down below but you can see the fish don't seem to be bothered by him at all I think he's a friendly little snake just looking for a minnow although it does make me question swimming in this Pond now but let's check in on two of the stars of the show are little Tiger Bass we call Johnny and June and here lately they've been very entertaining because we work as a team they love it when I stop by the pond because I spook all of the golden shiners out of the shallow pockets and they're waiting right there in the deeper water to Ambush them and Ed purposely designed this Pond to have those shallow Pockets so the bait could hide and get away but whenever they all group up there I prefer to see some fireworks and Johnny and June move so fast it's hard for me to tell which one it is but it's fun to watch we even have Mr Snake over there watching and learning a thing or two so now let's check in on the prawns if you missed our last video we stocked 5,000 prawns in the 5 acre Pond the Wetland filter of Cedar Falls and the rest went into this stock tank and I've been feeding them a heavy protein diet and they started out as post larvae and they're getting big quick but I am always amazed that they grow from this size to a jumbo shrimp in about four to 5 months so I had this new idea since I had these tiny protein pellets I decided to toss some of them up in the waterfall the same area that all the golden shiners are hanging out and let that current send those floating pets down the stream and see if it would draw some of those golden shiners out and right away I could tell that it was working and you can see the bass are locked and ready got him so if you all recall this big tree that they carve the seats out during the pond build look what we have down here near the trunk of it a new tree is sprouting wouldn't that be cool if a tree grew out of the base of this tree so I might should have put a tilapia up here in the Wetland filter because we have some algae here as well but check out these new little fish that hatched I'm not 100% sure what type they are but I'm sure Truman the little bass fry that we added up here is happy to see them but here's two that couldn't be happier with the addition of the new tilapia and that's the pair of bald eagles they feasted on quite a few this past winter and already have their eye on them but look who showed back up it's one of their babies and you can see this juvenile bald eagle starting to turn colors and we hadn't seen him in a few months but man his color patterns are all over the place he's got white splotches on his back his tail and his head so we're happy to see him stop by for a visit but we got a new visitor and I'm not 100% sure what this is look at that hair so my guess is it's probably a haulk but it's kind of hard to tell with this lighting it's for sure not an osprey it's probably only half the size of an osprey but I'm guessing it's some variety of Hulk using the eagle Tower when they're not around if you missed our last video we added this volcano pump to help out with the pon ation and it provides a ton of benefits but I did have several questions about things like energy usage so with a pond diffuser with those you can turn them on and leave them on all year long but these surface air Raiders provide most of their benefits during the hours of the day where the pond water has the least amount of dissolved oxygen and a lot of people think that that's when the sun is highest and it's the hottest part of the day but it's actually the opposite of that pond water has the most dissolved oxygen late in the afternoons because the sun's been shining all day and the vegetation has been producing oxygen but the moment it gets dark out outside everything starts consuming it and that's typically the time your fish could be at risk so with this volcano pump we're turning ours own a couple hours before the sun goes down and then turning it back off about an hour after sunrise and today's video is brought to you by element after long hot days out here at the farm it's important to stay hydrated and hydration doesn't just mean more fluid it's about getting the right amount of electrolytes and electrolytes are basically just minerals that have an electric charge when dissolved in water an element has formulated the perfect amount of sodium pottassium magnesium and zero sugar in each pouch to keep you hydrated and the right amount of electrolytes can help you maintain steady energy improve cognitive function have fewer headaches and muscle cramps and also keep your skin hydrated so whether you're an athlete fasting on a low carb keto or paleo diet element can help you stay hydrated and at Peak Performance and it's used by profess professional athletes Special Forces Health experts and everyday heavy sweaters so if you're interested in checking them out go to drink LM .com/srobiyt out and stay salty my friends so one of Greg's friends named Thomas Holt shipped Us in this package of aquatic plants that we're not going to be planting in the Crimson Oak Pond but rather Cedar Falls so I stored them right here in the waterfall stream while we wait on the experts to get here and at first sight one of my favorite things they shipped are these tropical lily pads and it took all of one day for the Toads to get in here and use the lily pads you can see that string of eggs right there so more Tad poles coming and there's some more those smaller fish hanging out down there with Truman but one of the lies they sent is called a Victorian Lily and this thing can grow to be massive the lies can grow 6 feet wide and even support a small human so we might try that out with Oliver lighter this year so the reason that we put the fertilizer near the bottom is because you're going to lose the fertilizer through the top because it has a couple of drain holes in the bottom but you know the fertilizer is not going to leak through the plastic the fertilizer is going to come out the top here so I bet you the roots are already in this yep look at how root bound it already is and this has been growing for how long oh my goodness one month one month and look at that and so most people keep the lies in containers this big and in the first month that's what the roots look like so we're going to break a little bit of the roots right yeah now this may have a um I'm going to pull this out here this is the plastic tray the little plastic drain tray I'll pull that out of there now the roots will be able to run a little bit more but look at the difference in the size of the containers this by the end of the season will look like it with the roots the same way it looks right now that's correct in that size of a pot you're just imagine how much more nutrients you're getting because of the size of the container okay and then there you go plants man okay also the width of the pot is more important than the depth of the pot to the beach to the beach the edge of the beach so Greg the pond gu is going to show a lot more of this on his channel so make sure to check that out but there's one thing that's certain anytime Ed or Greg shows up they bring the rain and I'm not talking about just a little bit of rain when Ed was here it rained for 2 days straight during the pond build it was a big reason we had so much dirt and mud in the Wetland filter and now that Greg's here we've got a major flood coming so some of our planning got cut short but I always like watching the storm footage and it'll let me know if there's any areas we have runoff coming down into Cedar Falls because remember we're trying to keep this Pawn crystal clear but if you pay close attention just above the pond there's a ditch that carries a lot of water down into a drain and that drain redirects the water into the Crimson Oak Pond but it is wild that during some of these heavy rains that huge drain can't handle that amount of water flow and here you're seeing some of that water actually flow out of the top of the drain but fortunately the storm ended before it could get out of hand and unfortunately it dired up the water just enough to where we can't see the fish but you can see when the pond water level gets high we have it overflow down these rocks and into the 5 acre Pond and that's working perfectly as designed but one of the cool things about what Thomas sent is some of these lily pads have blooms that come out during the daylight hours and others have blooms that come out at night so right as the sun's starting to set they'll open up and stay open all night and even the first couple hours of daylight so Liz was really happy when she saw these guys show up and they're known as a redwinged blackb bird but these colorful males will spend most of their day competing with the other males and whistling little birdie songs trying to lure the females in and they're very competitive and one of the traits they have is they like to get up high and for those that were on the eagle Tower that's about as high as you can get but they'll Flex those wings out and try to call the ladies in and they're not the only ones using the eagle Tower we had an osprey show up and he's having a fight the winds and rain probably not going to be doing any fishing today there's one fish out here that's not too happy with all these mating toads and that's Mr Moby so we're going to be giving you an update on him the backyard pond and all the fish that are in it and we're also going to be doing a spring cleaning as you can see every year these plants will get out of control if you don't do a little maintenance and cut them back some so there's a quick beforehand look but also let's check out the waterfall area and there's a noticeable difference between this waterfall and the new one at Cedar Falls and I love how all the natural mosses and ferns have showed up gives it that big time nature look like you see down in the creek in the woods so if you have one of these ponds and you don't have a good vacuum I'd highly recommend it I'll give you a quick example of how good it works on these aqua blue stones you can see it pulls that brown stained dirt look right off the rocks and you can see that natural blue color but someone that's not happy with this invasion is one of the Ninja Turtles but while I was going through pulling some of the weeds out I heard the big bullfrog so let's go see if we can find him there he is and that's actually not the biggest one and he hopped right back into the waterfall we finally found the big boy he's been eating golden shiners out of our pond for the past 3 years and is a giant Mr Dove stopping by to drink a sip of water so the next part of the cleaning process is suctioning all that dirt and sand and debris out of the bottom of the pond so we got a pump down in the bottom and it's pumping through the hose over here and this goes down to a drain but you can see that dirty water coming out got the waterfall off it's also got a lot of algae in there that needs cleaning and believe it or not M and the rest of the fish are down there in that mud puddle but this is about as low as we ever drain it just to keep from harming the fish and here's the results got the pond water back Crystal Clear got all the plants cut back so we can actually see the waterfall now and we have a happy Moby down there yep it's that time of year where you hear those high pitched screeches from all the mate and toads and I think that's why Mobi was getting a little unhappy he's probably just tired of hearing them but it does bring back good memories because back in 2019 we had the same thing happen with Bonnie and she attempted to eat the toads and they played dead and then after she left they swam off there was one other time where Bonnie and Clyde both tried to get one of the toads but he narrowly escaped and I think that they put off some scent or poison that keeps the fish from eating them but now let's take an underwater look to get an update on all the fish in the pond you can see there's a pair of Ninja Turtles that are still here as well as a couple of the Blu gills and Outlaw the crappie this video does not do it justice on how big these fish have gotten this bluegill that I believe we called Sunny has got to be pushing 2 lb and just for size comparison you can see Outlaw in the back and last year when we caught Bonnie and Clyde we accidentally caught him in a net and I picked him up and was blown away at how big he had gotten and now I think the Blu gills are as big or bigger than him so that's what a steady diet of golden shiners will get you over the course of a few years is fat healthy fish so if you missed the last video Nate built this squirrel house and we got it installed and stocked it with some nice treats so let's see who shows up and the first one to show up was a big mouse and I can only imagine what he was thinking but he starts off by inspecting the living room area and then he's happy to find all the nuts and treats we left him on the table so the moment I showed this to Sarah she immediately wanted to name the big mouse Gus Gus like the mouse on Cinderella So Gus Gus had a nice dinner inside the new squirrel house and it was entertaining watching him because a couple of the nuts fell off the table and in the these tight locations that he was too big to access so he spent most of the night trying and then eventually gave up on it and that's where Gus Jr enters the scene and the funniest part about it was within seconds of Gus Jr entering the house he acquired the nuts and left and he came back a little while later and got the last one but if you remember in the last video after we stocked the table and kitchen area we decided to put a few bonus nuts in the refrigerator to see if they'd be smart enough to to get him out and Gus Jr has good intuition and knew that they were in there but his time got cut short when he heard a predator coming and it's one of the Bandit raccoons and there's something funny about this angle it almost makes it look like a Godzilla movie where an oversized raccoon is peeping in the front door but after he left Gus Gus came back and acquired the bonus nuts so we also set up a camera on the outside of the house to see all the animals that stopped by but couldn't get in and I'm sure it looks crazy to all the wildlife because during some parts of the night there's a light on inside the house so you can actually see light coming out the windows but Nate specifically designed it so raccoon and bigger animals couldn't get in it and get trapped in there but just like the nut bar and all the other stations we put up the raccoons were very curious and were going to attempt from every angle but after a while he eventually gave up and I've always said that no matter what George Jones The posum always finds a way to make it on camera and I have no idea what he's doing this high up in a tree but he found the house now let's see what he decides to do oh no it looks like he's going to try to enter the doors and the last thing I want to do is show up to a trapped possum inside the squirrel house but it looks like George is going to test out the waters and he actually made it in and he also got back out so we're good Gus Gus checking up on the roof for any remaining snacks so now let's see what happens with the squirrels that we actually designed this for you can see he's like this is nice but I'm not sure what to think about having a grass lawn up in a tree but unfortunately Gus Gus and the rest of them ate all the nuts last night so the house alone wasn't quite enough to Temp the squirrel in so I think what I'm going to have to do is get up early in the morning and replenish the nuts so when the squirrel stops by there will actually be some there for him before they get eaten at night so it's time for a fish feeding and today we're going to be feeding the bass a bigger size golden shiner this is about twice the size of the ones we typically feed them but the first thing you'll notice when you're looking down at the water is you'll see that it's starting to get that plankt and Bloom and as the algae and other plant life die off it'll allow that fertilizer to create that plankt and Bloom which is perfect for all The Bait fish so as soon as we get the bloom established we're going to restock the pond with thread fin shad and that's because Plankton and phop Plankton are the sole food source for all the thread pins and so without that they struggle to survive and it's hard for them to live and get established in Clear Water ponds and lakes so the green tent is great and means it's time for another load of thread fins but speaking of algae I took this drone shot a couple weeks ago and all of that green on the bottom of the pond is filamentous algae so we got the tilapia added in and the second part is adding that beneficial bacteria to starve the algae out all righty folks about to use a product that worked for us last year on some algae if you look right here on the bank you can see we're starting to get some algae growth and it hadn't gotten out of hand yet but if you let that go for too long it can completely take over a pond so this product works in two different ways there's a liquid formula and then you just to some of the sacks out and the shallow parts of the pond this is probably the worst spot on the pond right here so perfect place for one of the sacks so here's one last look at what it looks like today I'll give you an update in 2 weeks and we should see some noticeable results so about a month ago I showed you all a project I was working on called the field bot and we've been setting these up here at the farm to help automate some of these daily tasks and I just want to say a quick thanks to all of you that reached out to help we got a ton of good feedback and are even working with some of you to finalize the product but today I'm going to be showing you an update on the smart Farm app and you can see here on the left it's got all of our internal sensor data starting with the temperature humidity barometric pressure which is good to tell you if the fish you're biting Luminosity infrared and UltraViolet and and then over here on the right we've got our alarms and then some commands where we can turn things on and off like the fish feeder the pumps and we're even going to set it up to where we can control the camera feeds right here within the app so we got the microphone which helps us know if the fish feeders are going off or if the water's flowing and then we're designing a couple of user interface screens to make it extremely easy and simple for everyone to use you also have a motion sensor if you want to put these at a farm entrance gate to send you a notification when some one shows up and you could even tie an output into the field bot which would allow you to open the gate if you wanted to give someone access but I just wanted to give you a brief update and I'll continue to give you guys updates as we finalize the software and the hardware and get the filled Bots ready for production all right time to catch a few of these bass see how big they've gotten I think I'm going to start tagging the second generation of bass now they're getting up over a pound so we'll use this little pit tag injector and I may make a separate spreadsheet for those guys there we go nice one oh really nice look at there wow giant check that out fish is almost as big as the goat been eating good that is one healthy fish all right this fish is 571 1258 and it weighs 3.63 lbs he love to see him like that so this fish is named Poseidon and check that out we caught him almost exactly one year ago and he is more than doubled in weight a good sign that those prawns and tilapia are helping that's one of the pets for sure see which one it is it's been caught 57 0827 and it weighs 1.8 got to catch the pets every now and again just see how big they got and this fish is nam unit and we hadn't caught him since last August but he's made a little bit of weight gain since [Music] then there we go nice one right here dark all right this fish is 69 660 weighs 2.79 all righty we're going to call it a night on that one and here we have kiwi and over the course of one year another fish that's doubled its weight so that's always good to see this may be the most valuable Implement on the farm the Flail Mower I can't tell you how many hours it saves me from weed eating the Pond's Edge because as you can see it offsets off the back of the tractor and you can tilt it based on the slope of the pond bank got to love it but speaking of mowing we got the farmers out here and it's time to bail some hay so as you have seen in the past we've done peanut crops but in the winter time we planted winter Ry grass and this will help feed all those hungry cows out there but I find there's some something pretty calming about bailing hay you got the mower that goes through cuts it puts it in a nice neat pile and then the Bor rides right over the top and Scoops it up and out plops the bail so with the right equipment you can make quick work of it and there's no telling how many cattle these Bales will feed so this is typically the part of the video where you would see us feeding Mr Tiger but I got some exciting news Tiger has been transported out of the 300g aquarium and into Cedar Falls but you're going to have to wait until next week to see that happen so make sure to hit that subscribe button because I'll have to say it's it was really cool watching how he interacted with Johnny and June but more to come on that next week hope yall enjoyed this video and we will see you all next time [Music]

Channel: BamaBass

Views: 714,004

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Id: Kp0TpnJvpNE

Length: 26min 56sec (1616 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2024