Adding 8,000 Fish to the 5 Acre Pond!

Folks at home welcome back to the

Crimson Oak Pond where we had a lot

going on this past week we had the fish

truck showing up to deliver some fish we

got Mobi attacking two mate and toads in

the backyard pond and a visit from Greg

the pond guy to help us plant some

aquatic plants and tropical lies and we

even had our first animals start showing

up at the new squirrel house and you're

not going to want to miss that but the

fish truck is about to show up we got

the farmers bailing some hay in the

background but if you look down around

the Pond's Edge you'll notice that dark

green color is algae and this time a

year when the water temps start to rise

and we have longer periods of sunlight

each day most Pines will typically start

seeing some algae growth and this is a

pretty normal type of filamentous algae

but the one key as a pond owner is you

have to take care of it before it gets

out of control and we had a lot of

success last year with two different

methods the first was applying a

beneficial bacteria that competes with

the algae and actually starves it out

but any algae that's able to make it

past that will get cleaned up by the

tilapia so the fish truck just showed up

loaded down with several tanks of

tilapia and the first thing we like to

do is pump water out of the pond and

into the holding tanks to help acclimate

the tilapia before we put them in and

today he's stocking a variety of

different sizes but you definitely want

to put those adult tilapia in that are

too big to get eaten by the bass because

those adults are where we get all the

benefits an tilapia are known as

prolific spawners and as soon as they

enter the pond they're going to start

spawning and we'll be getting thousands

of baby tilapia every 177 to 20 days and

adding these tilapia were hands down one

of the most beneficial things we did

last year because if you followed along

with the channel from around July to

November the bass fed heavily on them

they would School up together cruise

down the banks and those baby tilapia

were easy targets and that helped our

bass put on a lot of weight but by

adding this additional food source

you're also helping your smaller

bluegill population and thread fin Shad

populations which will be key to feeding

the bass throughout the winter months

but since you get so many benefits from

them I decided to add a few to Cedar

Falls as an experiment and the main

reason is because the two pet bass we

call Johnny and June have big appetites

goal is to add three tilapia to help

produce a reoccurring food source for

them so we got three tilapia in the

bucket here we're about to release and

the tilapia are the exact opposite for

most other fish and that the male

typically grows much bigger than the

female so the two little smaller tilapia

that have the red fins We Believe are

females and the bigger bluish tilapia is

going to be a male this little guy

doesn't seem to be shy at all and this

is a first for me but since the tilapia

are going to be in here with us the rest

of the year we might as well give them a

name so leave your comments down below

for the three tilapia we're finishing up

stocking the 5 acre Pond and if it's

anything like last year I'll give you an

update in a week or two and it's going

to be a very noticeable reduction in

algae but there are a couple of

fascinating facts about tilapia and one

of the reasons they can become invasive

and spawn so frequently is because they

can change sex so the males can become

females and the females can become males

and another really interesting fact is

that there's a specific species of

tilapia that is a mouth brooder and so

what happens is after the females lay

the eggs the males fertilize them and

once the baby tilapia hatch the small

tilapia will actually swim into the

male's mouth and he'll carry them around

protecting them as well as taking them

to their food source so he'll bring them

to the areas that are heavy in

vegetation and algae and Plankton and

open his mouth to let him come out and

feed but the moment there's any danger

in the area he sucks them back in to

protect them so tilapia really are a

fascinating fish and we had a handful

survive from last year and it's very

interesting how they're all albino but

now it's time to check in on Cedar Falls

Water clarity's looking good and Greg

the pond guy is going to be stopping by

to add some aquatic plants but it's that

time of year where we have Tad poles in

the pond from all the mating toads and

they're a welcomed Edition because

they're an excellent Cleanup Crew you

can you see how good they clean the

rocks and they basically feed 24/7 and

then when they get big enough the

bluegills will eat some before they turn

into a toad and hop out of the

pond but check out this other guest we

had visit the pond it's the first snake

we've seen in here and you all know I'm

terrible at identifying snakes but this

doesn't look like a venomous one but if

any of you can identify it leave it in

the comments down below but you can see

the fish don't seem to be bothered by

him at all I think he's a friendly

little snake just looking for a minnow

although it does make me question

swimming in this Pond

now but let's check in on two of the

stars of the show are little Tiger Bass

we call Johnny and June and here lately

they've been very entertaining because

we work as a team they love it when I

stop by the pond because I spook all of

the golden shiners out of the shallow

pockets and they're waiting right there

in the deeper water to Ambush them and

Ed purposely designed this Pond to have

those shallow Pockets so the bait could

hide and get away but whenever they all

group up there I prefer to see some

fireworks and Johnny and June move so

fast it's hard for me to tell which one

it is but it's fun to

watch we even have Mr Snake over there

watching and learning a thing or two so

now let's check in on the prawns if you

missed our last video we stocked 5,000

prawns in the 5 acre Pond the Wetland

filter of Cedar Falls and the rest went

into this stock tank and I've been

feeding them a heavy protein diet and

they started out as post larvae and

they're getting big quick but I am

always amazed that they grow from this

size to a jumbo shrimp in about four to

5 months so I had this new idea since I

had these tiny protein pellets I decided

to toss some of them up in the waterfall

the same area that all the golden

shiners are hanging out and let that

current send those floating pets down

the stream and see if it would draw some

of those golden shiners out and right

away I could tell that it was working

and you can see the bass are locked and

ready got him so if you all recall this

big tree that they carve the seats out

during the pond build look what we have

down here near the trunk of it a new

tree is sprouting wouldn't that be cool

if a tree grew out of the base of this

tree so I might should have put a

tilapia up here in the Wetland filter

because we have some algae here as well

but check out these new little fish that

hatched I'm not 100% sure what type they

are but I'm sure Truman the little bass

fry that we added up here is happy to

see them but here's two that couldn't be

happier with the addition of the new

tilapia and that's the pair of bald

eagles they feasted on quite a few this

past winter and already have their eye

on them but look who showed back up it's

one of their babies and you can see this

juvenile bald eagle starting to turn

colors and we hadn't seen him in a few

months but man his color patterns are

all over the place he's got white

splotches on his back his tail and his

head so we're happy to see him stop by

for a visit but we got a new visitor and

I'm not 100% sure what this is look at

that hair so my guess is it's probably a

haulk but it's kind of hard to tell with

this lighting it's for sure not an

osprey it's probably only half the size

of an osprey but I'm guessing it's some

variety of Hulk using the eagle Tower

when they're not around if you missed

our last video we added this volcano

pump to help out with the pon ation and

it provides a ton of benefits but I did

have several questions about things like

energy usage so with a pond diffuser

with those you can turn them on and

leave them on all year long but these

surface air Raiders provide most of

their benefits during the hours of the

day where the pond water has the least

amount of dissolved oxygen and a lot of

people think that that's when the sun is

highest and it's the hottest part of the

day but it's actually the opposite of

that pond water has the most dissolved

oxygen late in the afternoons because

the sun's been shining all day and the

vegetation has been producing oxygen but

the moment it gets dark out outside

everything starts consuming it and

that's typically the time your fish

could be at risk so with this volcano

pump we're turning ours own a couple

hours before the sun goes down and then

turning it back off about an hour after

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out and stay salty my friends so one of

Greg's friends named Thomas Holt shipped

Us in this package of aquatic plants

that we're not going to be planting in

the Crimson Oak Pond but rather Cedar

Falls so I stored them right here in the

waterfall stream while we wait on the

experts to get here and at first sight

one of my favorite things they shipped

are these tropical lily pads and it took

all of one day for the Toads to get in

here and use the lily pads you can see

that string of eggs right there so more

Tad poles coming and there's some more

those smaller fish hanging out down

there with Truman but one of the lies

they sent is called a Victorian Lily and

this thing can grow to be massive the

lies can grow 6 feet wide and even

support a small human so we might try

that out with Oliver lighter this year

so the reason that we put the fertilizer

near the bottom is because you're going

to lose the fertilizer through the top

because it has a couple of drain holes

in the bottom but you know the

fertilizer is not going to leak through

the plastic the fertilizer is going to

come out the top here so I bet you the

roots are already in this yep look at

how root bound it already is and this

has been growing for how long oh my

goodness one month one month and look at

that and so most people keep the lies in

containers this big and in the first

month that's what the roots look like so

we're going to break a little bit of the

roots right yeah now this may have a um

I'm going to pull this out here this is

the plastic tray the little plastic

drain tray I'll pull that out of

there now the roots will be able to run

a little bit more but look at the

difference in the size of the containers

this by the end of the season will look

like it with the roots the same way it

looks right now that's correct in that

size of a pot you're just imagine how

much more nutrients you're getting

because of the size of the container

okay and then there you go plants man

okay also the width of the pot is more

important than the depth of the pot to

the beach to the beach the edge of the

beach so Greg the pond gu is going to

show a lot more of this on his channel

so make sure to check that out but

there's one thing that's certain anytime

Ed or Greg shows up they bring the rain

and I'm not talking about just a little

bit of rain when Ed was here it rained

for 2 days straight during the pond

build it was a big reason we had so much

dirt and mud in the Wetland filter and

now that Greg's here we've got a major

flood coming so some of our planning got

cut short but I always like watching the

storm footage and it'll let me know if

there's any areas we have runoff coming

down into Cedar Falls because remember

we're trying to keep this Pawn crystal

clear but if you pay close attention

just above the pond there's a ditch that

carries a lot of water down into a drain

and that drain redirects the water into

the Crimson Oak Pond but it is wild that

during some of these heavy rains that

huge drain can't handle that amount of

water flow and here you're seeing some

of that water actually flow out of the

top of the drain but fortunately the

storm ended before it could get out of

hand and unfortunately it dired up the

water just enough to where we can't see

the fish but you can see when the pond

water level gets high we have it

overflow down these rocks and into the 5

acre Pond and that's working perfectly

as designed but one of the cool things

about what Thomas sent is some of these

lily pads have blooms that come out

during the daylight hours and others

have blooms that come out at night so

right as the sun's starting to set

they'll open up and stay open all night

and even the first couple hours of

daylight so Liz was really happy when

she saw these guys show up and they're

known as a redwinged blackb bird but

these colorful males will spend most of

their day competing with the other males

and whistling little birdie songs trying

to lure the females

in and they're very competitive and one

of the traits they have is they like to

get up high and for those that were on

the eagle Tower that's about as high as

you can get but they'll Flex those wings

out and try to call the ladies in and

they're not the only ones using the

eagle Tower we had an osprey show up and

he's having a fight the winds and

rain probably not going to be doing any

fishing today there's one fish out here

that's not too happy with all these

mating toads and that's Mr Moby so we're

going to be giving you an update on him

the backyard pond and all the fish that

are in it and we're also going to be

doing a spring cleaning as you can see

every year these plants will get out of

control if you don't do a little

maintenance and cut them back some so

there's a quick beforehand look but also

let's check out the waterfall area and

there's a noticeable difference between

this waterfall and the new one at Cedar

Falls and I love how all the natural

mosses and ferns have showed up gives it

that big time nature look like you see

down in the creek in the woods so if you

have one of these ponds and you don't

have a good vacuum I'd highly recommend

it I'll give you a quick example of how

good it works on these aqua blue stones

you can see it pulls that brown stained

dirt look right off the rocks and you

can see that natural blue color but

someone that's not happy with this

invasion is one of the Ninja Turtles but

while I was going through pulling some

of the weeds out I heard the big

bullfrog so let's go see if we can find

him there he is and that's actually not

the biggest

one and he hopped right back into the

waterfall we finally found the big boy

he's been eating golden shiners out of

our pond for the past 3 years and is a

giant Mr Dove stopping by to drink a sip

of water so the next part of the

cleaning process is suctioning all that

dirt and sand and debris out of the

bottom of the pond so we got a pump down

in the bottom and it's pumping through

the hose over here and this goes down to

a drain but you can see that dirty water

coming out got the waterfall off it's

also got a lot of algae in there that

needs cleaning and believe it or not M

and the rest of the fish are down there

in that mud puddle but this is about as

low as we ever drain it just to keep

from harming the fish and here's the

results got the pond water back Crystal

Clear got all the plants cut back so we

can actually see the waterfall now

and we have a happy Moby down there yep

it's that time of year where you hear

those high pitched screeches from all

the mate and toads and I think that's

why Mobi was getting a little unhappy

he's probably just tired of hearing them

but it does bring back good memories

because back in

2019 we had the same thing happen with

Bonnie and she attempted to eat the

toads and they played dead and then

after she left they swam off there was

one other time where Bonnie and Clyde

both tried to get one of the toads but

he narrowly escaped and I think that

they put off some scent or poison that

keeps the fish from eating them but now

let's take an underwater look to get an

update on all the fish in the pond you

can see there's a pair of Ninja Turtles

that are still here as well as a couple

of the Blu gills and Outlaw the crappie

this video does not do it justice on how

big these fish have gotten this bluegill

that I believe we called Sunny has got

to be pushing 2 lb

and just for size comparison you can see

Outlaw in the back and last year when we

caught Bonnie and Clyde we accidentally

caught him in a net and I picked him up

and was blown away at how big he had

gotten and now I think the Blu gills are

as big or bigger than him so that's what

a steady diet of golden shiners will get

you over the course of a few years is

fat healthy fish so if you missed the

last video Nate built this squirrel

house and we got it installed and

stocked it with some nice treats so

let's see who shows up and the first one

to show up was a big mouse and I can

only imagine what he was thinking but he

starts off by inspecting the living room

area and then he's happy to find all the

nuts and treats we left him on the table

so the moment I showed this to Sarah she

immediately wanted to name the big mouse

Gus Gus like the mouse on Cinderella So

Gus Gus had a nice dinner inside the new

squirrel house and it was entertaining

watching him because a couple of the

nuts fell off the table and in the these

tight locations that he was too big to

access so he spent most of the night

trying and then eventually gave up on it

and that's where Gus Jr enters the scene

and the funniest part about it was

within seconds of Gus Jr entering the

house he acquired the nuts and left and

he came back a little while later and

got the last one but if you remember in

the last video after we stocked the

table and kitchen area we decided to put

a few bonus nuts in the refrigerator to

see if they'd be smart enough to to get

him out and Gus Jr has good intuition

and knew that they were in there but his

time got cut short when he heard a

predator coming and it's one of the

Bandit raccoons and there's something

funny about this angle it almost makes

it look like a Godzilla movie where an

oversized raccoon is peeping in the

front door but after he left Gus Gus

came back and acquired the bonus nuts so

we also set up a camera on the outside

of the house to see all the animals that

stopped by but couldn't get in and I'm

sure it looks crazy to all the wildlife

because during some parts of the night

there's a light on inside the house so

you can actually see light coming out

the windows but Nate specifically

designed it so raccoon and bigger

animals couldn't get in it and get

trapped in there but just like the nut

bar and all the other stations we put up

the raccoons were very curious and were

going to attempt from every angle but

after a while he eventually gave up and

I've always said that no matter what

George Jones The posum always finds a

way to make it on camera and I have no

idea what he's doing this high up in a

tree but he found the house now let's

see what he decides to do oh no it looks

like he's going to try to enter the

doors and the last thing I want to do is

show up to a trapped possum inside the

squirrel house but it looks like George

is going to test out the waters and he

actually made it

in and he also got back out so we're

good Gus Gus checking up on the roof for

any remaining

snacks so now let's see what happens

with the squirrels that we actually

designed this

for you can see he's like this is nice

but I'm not sure what to think about

having a grass lawn up in a tree but

unfortunately Gus Gus and the rest of

them ate all the nuts last night so the

house alone wasn't quite enough to Temp

the squirrel in so I think what I'm

going to have to do is get up early in

the morning and replenish the nuts so

when the squirrel stops by there will

actually be some there for him before

they get eaten at night so it's time for

a fish feeding and today we're going to

be feeding the bass a bigger size golden

shiner this is about twice the size of

the ones we typically feed them but the

first thing you'll notice when you're

looking down at the water is you'll see

that it's starting to get that plankt

and Bloom and as the algae and other

plant life die off it'll allow that

fertilizer to create that plankt and

Bloom which is perfect for all The Bait

fish so as soon as we get the bloom

established we're going to restock the

pond with thread fin shad and that's

because Plankton and phop Plankton are

the sole food source for all the thread

pins and so without that they struggle

to survive and it's hard for them to

live and get established in Clear Water

ponds and lakes so the green tent is

great and means it's time for another

load of thread fins but speaking of

algae I took this drone shot a couple

weeks ago and all of that green on the

bottom of the pond is filamentous algae

so we got the tilapia added in and the

second part is adding that beneficial

bacteria to starve the algae out all

righty folks about to use a product that

worked for us last year on some algae if

you look right here on the bank you can

see we're starting to get some algae

growth and it hadn't gotten out of hand

yet but if you let that go for too long

it can completely take over a pond so

this product works in two different ways

there's a liquid

formula and then you just to some of the

sacks out and the shallow parts of the

pond this is probably the worst spot on

the pond right here so perfect place for

one of the

sacks so here's one last look at what it

looks like today I'll give you an update

in 2 weeks and we should see some

noticeable results so about a month ago

I showed you all a project I was working

on called the field bot and we've been

setting these up here at the farm to

help automate some of these daily tasks

and I just want to say a quick thanks to

all of you that reached out to help we

got a ton of good feedback and are even

working with some of you to finalize the

product but today I'm going to be

showing you an update on the smart Farm

app and you can see here on the left

it's got all of our internal sensor data

starting with the temperature humidity

barometric pressure which is good to

tell you if the fish you're biting

Luminosity infrared and UltraViolet and

and then over here on the right we've

got our alarms and then some commands

where we can turn things on and off like

the fish feeder the pumps and we're even

going to set it up to where we can

control the camera feeds right here

within the app so we got the microphone

which helps us know if the fish feeders

are going off or if the water's flowing

and then we're designing a couple of

user interface screens to make it

extremely easy and simple for everyone

to use you also have a motion sensor if

you want to put these at a farm entrance

gate to send you a notification when

some one shows up and you could even tie

an output into the field bot which would

allow you to open the gate if you wanted

to give someone access but I just wanted

to give you a brief update and I'll

continue to give you guys updates as we

finalize the software and the hardware

and get the filled Bots ready for

production all right time to catch a few

of these bass see how big they've gotten

I think I'm going to start tagging the