Thoughts on this idea , please !!

I grew up on the edge of the countryside and when I wasn't playing footie on the streets and local pitch I used to take our Red Setter over the fields around the lodges and streams .... back in the day 50 years ago the steams were full of minnows , stone loaches , bullheads and sticklebacks plus the streams coming from the private trout fishing lodges had loads of trout in them .


Moving forwards to today and the lodges have all been bought by landowners and fenced off from the public BUT the streams are all still mainly accessible .

There lies the problem - there's no sign of life at all , barely and stickleback to be seen.


About 30 years ago there were a couple of 'spillages' which seemed to kill most of the fish surrounding streams and lodges but I'd have guessed that by now things would have cleared up.

Now .... There's a local lodge on the other side of town that is positively teaming with baby fish and thousands of Sticklebacks so what's the general consensus in here on me transferring some fish back to " my " old streams ??



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Do it.

Might be worth a try, though the ones you transfer might also succumb to whatever killed off the other populations. Keep in mind that things are inter-related.
I mean if their food supply is no longer there, then they won't make it either. Fingers crossed for you though...

You sure nothing else lives in there feeding off what is in there?

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Might be worth a try, though the ones you transfer might also succumb to whatever killed off the other populations. Keep in mind that things are inter-related.
I mean if their food supply is no longer there, then they won't make it either. Fingers crossed for you though...

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Ahhh the food source ... good point !

It's 30+ years ago so it should be safe now ??


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Honestly, there's no way we can give good advice with such limited info. I live in a fairly rural area too, and what I'd do in your shoes is try to talk to the
nearest wildlife biologist. Around here (U.S.) we have Game & Fish to consult with, as well as some volunteer groups* that monitor the health of streams &
bodies of water (* like the "Stream Team"- which a friend of mine is on- she has a degree in biology). You alluded to several "spillages" in your area, but of
what? So without knowing how long they take to break down & the effects they caused, I'd hate to see you sacrifice any local species that might not survive.
Nor do I know what those species consume, so until you know they'd have food to have a chance to survive, I'd wait & see if you can't find some local input.
I do applaud your desire to return the area to its original natural state though...hopefully you can find some kindred spirits familiar with your area. It might
not be a "quick fix" but surely it's worth a try. :gj:

Na .......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Honestly, there's no way we can give good advice with such limited info. I live in a fairly rural area too, and what I'd do in your shoes is try to talk to the
nearest wildlife biologist. Around here (U.S.) we have Game & Fish to consult with, as well as some volunteer groups* that monitor the health of streams &
bodies of water (* like the "Stream Team"- which a friend of mine is on- she has a degree in biology). You alluded to several "spillages" in your area, but of
what? So without knowing how long they take to break down & the effects they caused, I'd hate to see you sacrifice any local species that might not survive.
Nor do I know what those species consume, so until you know they'd have food to have a chance to survive, I'd wait & see if you can't find some local input.
I do applaud your desire to return the area to its original natural state though...hopefully you can find some kindred spirits familiar with your area. It might
not be a "quick fix" but surely it's worth a try. :gj:

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Phillydubs

You sure nothing else lives in there feeding off what is in there?

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I'll not bother in hindsight - just put add it onto my long list of possible regrets [emoji4]


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My daughter's 7th grade science fair project was on measuring water pollution using daphnia magna https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/you...daphnia-magna/

If you're really interested in pursuing this, you can purchase daphnia magna culture from Carolina Biological Supply just as we did for our project: https://www.carolina.com/daphnia/dap...ving/142330.pr

You could then take a water sample from your stream, a water sample from the healthy stream, introduce your daphnia and measure their survival rate over time (easier than it sounds).

If the survival rates are similar, I might try introducing some livestock. If they are not, then you may have bigger problems.