Thread: Stocking fish in dam

The fish will want some cover, try tossing in a few old logs, etc (or an unwanted, or unwatched, Toyota!) Friends up near Stanthorpe have had success with Silver Perch. Their dam does have some overhanging trees (mostly willows) and a few snags, too. He had heard that Silver Perch will pretty much live anywhere yabbies can.

I’ll second some artificial cover for them. They need to able to hide from birds 🦅 ducks 🦆 etc, and it also may be that you do actually have other fish there, but don’t realise it (?).
We stocked our spring fed dam with trout after we discovered we had Redfin in it already. I never caught any trout, but we did have some very tasty Redfin
We have plenty of natural cover in ours with reeds etc, but mum decided we, well she, needed Water Lillie’s in it as well.

So you recon I don't need to artificially add oxygen to the water.... that would be a relief. I've just started a small jetty and have added a duck house, and will add a few more hiding places in the next few months and try again...

Any advise on minimum size I should get?

thanks

I went to a silver perch aquaculture project near Gloucester in NSW.
She put lots of silver perch in.
Then the egrets found it.
No more perch
She now covers it with fine mesh.
Regards Philip A

Silver Perch would be my choice.
You need cover, Another artificial hiding place is to use old tyres, tye them together in the shape of pyramids. I would put a few of them in. Hollow logs is another good idea
More hiding spots for them the better

do you recon the fish will be ok and hide out of instinct or is it just pure luck with the birds?

If the dam has had yabbies in it - is it still muddy from them? They still in there? The mud the yabbies dig up can asphyixiate fish. Dad had this issue decades ago with his dam and had to rid the dam of them before stocking it with trout - quite sucessfully too.

IIRC a bag of alum was used - this both sorted the yabbies and settled the silt, but not sure if this is PC these days and what period he left it after the deed.

If there is no plant life in the dam, I’d steer more towards Golden Perch (Yellowbelly). Silvers tend to rely more on the green plants/algae for their food, whereas Golden’s will go for the Yabbies. I have maybe a slightly smaller dam than yours, just south of Canberra, stocked with both Golden’s and Silvers, the Golden’s have thrived and are at a good dinner plate size. Never seen a silver to this point after a few years of stocking. Whatever you choose to go with, they will only grow to a certain size in regards to the size of the dam, you won’t be catching any monsters like you see in impoundment dams.

As has been said before, a few artificial reefs will work wonders for the fingerlings, I remember sinking some big pvc pipe with hole saw cuts down the length of it, even some old tree limbs will work well.