Major Ice Storm possible in the plains and parts of the midwest

[taxi1]

Somebody's going to be covered with ice for up to three days. Sure hope it doesn't get this far north. I have an inverter and battery but not for that long.

I could lose 2000 brook, brown, and tiger trout fry in the basement if that happens. OTOH I may have to get creative and put them in an outside tank if necessary temporarily.



Haven't been able to ice fish as I have to feed the little stinkers up to 8 X per day.

Here's what they looked like before they used up their yolk sacs. For those of you that don't know they are known as alevins at this stage.

[walleye wil]

nice to see all them, hope you get to release them all being my big brown came from your hatch back in 2008. nice mount you done on my brownie 10 pounds 5oz. thank you!

[taxi1]

nice to see all them, hope you get to release them all being my big brown came from your hatch back in 2008. nice mount you done on my brownie 10 pounds 5oz. thank you!

Actually this is the first year I've hatched my own. Previously I  bought them 6 to 8 inches from a supplier in Michigan and planted them into the pond and grew them out.

You are? (You can PM. me). I've done so many fish for people over 3 decades I can't remember them right away.

[taxi1]

Thanks for sending the P.M. I remember your fish caught out of Clear Lake. Big female full of eggs. Caught on election day 2008. Planted by NEITA (now defunct) and was planted at about a half a pound. Original source was Crystal Springs N. Muskegon, Michigan. 

None of my fish go into public lakes.

[ftwwalleye]

What kind of circulation does your pond have to keep trout alive? Natural spring?

[taxi1]

What kind of circulation does your pond have to keep trout alive? Natural spring?

The outside pond gets well water during the warmer months of the year. I am blessed with a very good groundwater supply on the property. Static water level in the well is 30 feet even though the well is up on a hill, and is saturated all the way down to the bottom of the well at 88 feet. Not sure how much deeper the aquifer is, but I've been using the well for about 10 years and no issues except a worn out well pump.

My household well, which I am using presently for the trout fry, has a static water level of 16 feet and the water level goes down to at least 60 feet, the depth of the well.

[river_scum]

as usual, cool pics taxi.

sounds like you need a generator system for emergencies.  you got a lot riding on that power.

[taxi1]

as usual, cool pics taxi.

sounds like you need a generator system for emergencies.  you got a lot riding on that power.

I have an inverter that I can add several deep cycle batteries to in parallel, but at $120.00 each that adds up fast. I usually use two large deep cycles but hope to have four in the near future.

[Fishking83]

I tie some flies that look just like the fry in the bottom pic and they work excellent on spring steelhead.  Pretty cool to see them in that stage.

[taxi1]

I tie some flies that look just like the fry in the bottom pic and they work excellent on spring steelhead.  Pretty cool to see them in that stage.

Oh I'm sure they are nice little easy snacks for them and other species.

I'm surprised how quickly the fry can move now. Won't be long I'll have to put some netting over the tank to keep them from jumping out. I moved them to another floating mesh basket and sprayed off the gook from that basket. Them moved them back and cleaned the other basket. Will wait a few days to redistribute to both baskets as too much handling at this stage is a big no no even with a fine mesh net. As soon as they are all up in the wear column of the basket they will be liberated into the tank itself and I can remove the baskets.

Adding another 4 cubic feet of biofilter media this week. Ordered it today. Due to the cold temps the bacteria that detoxifies the ammonia and nitrites isn't keeping up for the most part. Have been adding an ammonia and nitrite detoxifier on a daily basis. Can't wait to get the second 55 gallon biofilter drum on line. Hopefully it won't take too long for the bacteria to colonize it.