Exploiting Dietary Differences to Develop Species-Specific Control of Common Carp
Using Toxic Food Pellets
Josh Poole
Blake Sauey, Jon Amberg, Przemek Bajer
Current Control • Winter Seining, Barriers, Water Draw-downs,
Rotenone
• There is a need for more practical and broadly applicable strategies
Carp-specific Toxins
• Carp can be trained to aggregate at locations baited with corn
• Carp eat foods many native species won’t
• Bait and switch might be possible
Carp can be Trained • Tracked carp using radio telemetry • Baited a site in the lake with corn • Used underwater cameras to examine specificity
Bajer et al. 2010
Antimycin-A
• Restricted use pesticide
• “Very highly toxic” to fishes
• Short half-life, non-toxic metabolites
• Carp can’t detect it!
sigma
Experiments
• Bait Formulation
• Four Experiments 1. Verify toxicity
2. Examine leaching
3. Test species specificity in tanks
4. Test species specificity in ponds
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0 mg/kg (control) 4 mg/kg 8 mg/kg 16 mg/kg
Pe
rce
nt
Mo
rtal
ity
Amount of toxic bait fed
Results: Gavage (LD50):
Methods: Leaching
• 1 g of toxic bait inaccessible to fish
• Carp & Bluegill
• 72 h
• Static system
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
1 hr 4 hr 8 hr 24 hr 48 hr 72 hr
An
tim
ycin
in t
he
wat
er
(ug
/L)
Results: Leaching
Common carp LC50: 0.35 ug/L
Bluegill sunfish LC50: 0.14 ug/L
Methods: Specificity test in lab
• 227 L tanks
• Stocked – Carp
– Bluegill
– Perch
– Fatheads
• Trained for 1 week
• Fed with pellets
• Mortality 24 h
Michigan.gov
Results: Specificity in lab
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Carp Bluegill Yellow Perch
FatheadMinnow
Ave
rage
Pe
rce
nt
Mo
rtal
ity
Toxic Bait
Control
*
*
Specificity in ponds
• Six 0.01 acre ponds
• Stocked with – Carp
– Bluegill
– Perch
• Acclimated for 1 week
• Fed with toxic pellets – 3 treatment ponds
– 3 controls
0
5
10
15
0
5
10
0
10
20
0
10
20
Pond 1 Pond 2 Pond 3 Pond 4 Pond 5 Pond 6
Control Treatment
Adult Common Carp
Juvenile Common Carp
Bluegill Sunfish
Yellow Perch
Nu
mb
er
of
Fish
Results: Pond Trials alive
dead
Conclusions
• Carp readily consumed corn pellets containing lethal amounts of Antimycin A
• Bluegills and perch not affected
• Fathead minnows affected – Need to improve species-specificity to exclude native
cyprinids
– Suckers?
• Next steps (2017, 2018) – Larger, more natural ponds
– A lake (pellets without antimycin A)
How this could be applied
1. Train carp using blank bait
2. Examine specificity using cameras
3. Switch bait with one containing a toxin
4. Remove bait after carp have fed
5. Monitor area, remove dead fish if necessary
Thank You
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