THIS IS MY RESPONSE FROM AN LSU AG PROFESSOR WHOM I WAS DIRECTED TO FROM THE WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES.

Ms. Anderson:

Dr. Reigh forwarded your e-mail to me since I do most of the recreational pond extension work here at the Aquaculture Station.

The possibility that grass carp in your subdivision pond will eat vegetation required for spawning is not a concern. Such beds of vegetation are not required for bass, bream or catfish, and in fact few other pond fish, with the exception of carp, would utilize vegetation for laying eggs. Bass and bream will nest on open bottoms, and this habitat is actually preferable. One concern with fishing would be the loss of cover provided by submerged vegetation, but as a rule of thumb no more than 10 percent of the pond bottom should be vegetated, even for cover for fish. In reality, much less cover is usually desirable to prevent bream from becoming over-populated. I would stock the grass carp, and initiate a program to also provide some artificial cover in the pond. Lots of tips on how to do this are available in our farm and recreational pond book, at the following link:



http://www.lsuagcenter.com/en/crops_livestock/aquaculture/recreational_ponds/Management+of+Recreational+and+Farm+Ponds+in+Louisiana.htm



Hope this info helps in your discussions.



C. Greg Lutz

Specialist and Professor

Carp

Great work Janette...

Thank you for researching the Carp issue further so that ALL of us can have a better understanding of the lake and the fish that inhabit it.

I went to the website and it really gives you a boat load of information on our kind of lake and the up keep of it...

Nikki

Carp is not good

This is from the site that you posted.

Fish to Avoid
Crappie: (white perch, sac-a-lait, flathead
catfish (Opelousas or yellow cat), green sunfish,
bullheads (mudcats), carp, buffalo or other rough
fish should never be stocked into recreational
fishing ponds. All will eventually overpopulate
and ruin fishing.

Triploid Grass Carp is Good...

Further reading from the same website.

As with people there are good ones and there are bad ones... These are good ones...


Biological Control

There have been many attempts to control

aquatic plants with biological control methods.

These include pathogens, insects and herbivorous

fish. For the average pond owner, the use of

herbivorous fish like triploid grass carp is the only

biological control method available. Triploid grass

carp are functionally sterile, meaning they cannot

reproduce in ponds. The Louisiana Department of

Wildlife and Fisheries has developed a permit to

allow farm pond owners to use these fish to

control vegetation.

The number of grass carp that should be

stocked depends on the type of weed, condition of

the ponds and severity of the weed problem.

Triploid grass carp prefer submerged plants, but

some emergent species are also controlled.