Should I stock with grass carp?

If you already have a pond with a fish population, I wouldn’t recommend it.  If you are at a golf course or pristine lake, they might be perfect.

Will grass carp make my pond muddy?

A common carp yes, but grass carp, no. However, if you have a shallow pond, when they swish their tails, the organic matter might surface up and create the appearance of mud.

Will grass carp eat algae or fish food?

They can lead to algae blooms due to excess nutrients in the pond from grass carp devastating the ecosystem. If there are game fish in your pond, the grass carp will steal their food, resulting in higher fish food costs.

How many should I buy and what do they cost?

You would want to stock about five to fifteen grass carp per acre. They will need to be about twelve inches long if you want them to help control your aquatic weeks.

They also need to be that big so they can defend themselves in case other big fish are hungry (looking at you, largemouth bass). The cost of a twelve-inch grass carp in North Carolina or South Carolina averages about nine to twelve dollars each. Whoever is selling you the fish might give a discount if you want to purchase a lot.

Facts about grass carp:

They are sterile and won’t reproduce

They only eat plants and will not eat eggs or young fish.

They are dormant when the water drops below 68 F degrees in the winter.

They live for at least ten years.

It’s possible they could live longer where the water stays a little warmer

They can get to be over 60 pounds!

They are pretty hard to catch with typical fishing techniques.

They typically take a few years to control aquatic weeds.

They only eat a significant amount of aquatic weeds while they are “teenagers.”

They typically are not effective for at least two years.

FREE Grass Carp Information Sheet pdf

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