Hola,

Nice looking forum.

I hope that I am in the right forum. We have a stock tank on our lease that is eat up with bullheads and a few perch. Use to have some bass in it but we have not pulled anything out of decent size in 3-4 yrs.

We would like to stock it with bass and some cats but was advised to kill everything 1st at the beginning of spring wait 3-4 weeks then put in the bait fish and wait a year then the following spring stock with the predator fish.

I was wondering if there is a place to buy the chemicals our self to kill the tank this spring or is there more to it and we should hire someone?

Hola,

Its a fine forum with some very knowledgable, experienced folks that are straight shooters.

I suggest you do some homework first. Rotenone is the chemical that is often used for this...however it requires a certified specialist to apply it. It has been linked to Parkinson's so that restriction is probably well placed.

Here is a good link from TP&W worth reading.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_t3200_77.pdf

Other than that I can't add much since I only offer comments on what I have personal experience with....and I don't use or like chemicals myself.

My solution, because I don't like chemicals, would be to either totally pump out the pond and go from there...but you have to get all the water out and preferably the pond will set empty for a few days. Very difficult if pond is large.

The other way I've done this is to simply knock out a hole in the dam and completely drain the pond. I have the equipment to do this so its a good solution for me...but you can certainly hire it done.

I suspect both of my approaches are more expensive than chemicals but I sleep better at night knowing I did it the natural way.

Good luck and come back and update us.

I have.the same problem but I don't want to kill the fish.

Just wondering because I don't know anything about this, but couldn't you pull the fish out using nets or fish them out and relocate them or something along those lines?

Just does not work with bullheads in my experience. You just can't get them all, including any eggs that may be present. That's why I wrote earlier that if you drain the pond its best to leave it empty for awhile, preferably with the sun shining on it and zero water.

You may be able to control them by netting and/or predators, but doubtful you will eliminate them....and they will return with a vengence.

Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation.