Problem with holding fry is money, they get expensive to feed in a hurry. Here is some cool stuff.......
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What are the stages of the walleye?
Lead a discussion of the life stages of the walleye. 1. Egg.
a. Walleye eggs are 1.8 to 2.5 diameter, and readily stick to each other and to any object when
they are freshly spawned.
b. A large female can produce over 50,000 eggs each season.
c. The time it takes the eggs to hatch is temperature dependent. They may takeover three weeks at
7°C as little a 10 days at 15°C.
2. Larvae.
a. The larvae of waleye are 5.5-7.5 mm long when they hatch. They begin feeding between the 5th
and 10th day post-hatch and will starve by 14 days post-hatch if food is not available, unless the
temperature is below 50°F
b. The larvae eat copepods and cladocerans, types of zooplankton (and brine shrimp and some
formulated feeds when cultured intensively in the nursery) during the first few weeks following
stocking. They also have a tendency to eat each other when less than 20 days old.
c. Larval walleye are phototactic meaning they swim towards light. This may facilitate inflation of the
gas bladder as Iarvae must gulp air from the surface to inflate their gas bladder during their first
week post-hatch.
3. Juvenile (fingering).
a. The juvenile stage is defined as the stage of life after the fish resembles the adult but prior to
sexual maturity.
b. For walleye fingerlings to be stocked at high densities and cultured to food size, they must be
trained to eat artificial feed. Research is being done on this very important aspect of walleye
culture. The success of this research has been increasing rapidly.
In an interesting side note, my dad got to stock muskies with pfbc on pymy last year. He said that if the let the fry out in open water the seagulls hammered at leas 75% of them almost instantly because they stayed on the surface for a long time after being released. The only thing they could do was put them in the lilly pads, which most of the other stocking boats were not doing.