How does it begin?

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Chris Hammond

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How do ponds etc become naturally stocked with fish? I'm not sold on the idea of fish eggs getting stuck to wildfowl's legs. It may have happened at some point, but I'm sure it's highly unlikely.

So how does it happen? Other than floods or angler assistance, how do fish become established in virgin waters?

One theory I've considered is that fish eggs can be washed along underground chalk aquifers, but not all terrain is chalk based is it?

Anyone got any theory or fact to offer?

Regards Chris
 
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jason fisher

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well that would be teleportation then wouldn't it.
 
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jason fisher

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personally i'd go for the eggs on legs and flood theory, but you didn't say they had to be sensible.
 
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paul williams 2

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Well one res i know was fed barbel fry up an overflow pipe that fed into the Severn.....but in it's own way thats just as much mother nature at work as eggs on wildfowl......and i think ole MN has tyhe power to use her own devices, including fisheggs on wildfowl.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay

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I remember a sand pit being dug near to where I lived years ago in the 50s

After the sand had been extracted, the excavaters left and within a month the water was clear. The first things that came were frogs and frogspawn. Then the summer came and the pit was full of tiny perch.

The nearest stocked water was about 1/2 a mile away. No-one stocked it as far as I know.

Birds? Yes I think it's possible. Perch spawn is very sticky and I do believe that it was birds that did the trick.
 
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Baz

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I saw a documentory a few years ago on this very subject. It was said that fish eggs carried on the legs of wading birds such as herons was how the fish got in there. Perch and pike being the first ones to appear.
 
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Baz

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There must have been something already in the water to attract the herons, such as frogs.
But ducks could carry eggs the same way.
 
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Ian

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Excuse me Gentlemen but I'll retract message my if so desired.
How about from where rain water collects underground. Mostly run into rivers but below a crusty suface there can be much drainage activity where frogs toads newts slugs worms slowworms lizards snakes and snails come from even gather below a paving slab.
So how about some underground river below drainage schemes and ducts or underground lakes from where Fresh Water can be Bored.
A rivers source aint all rainwater a crack in the earth from where it comes gushing.
Why? Is it the energy spinning the world round. Behind or below our rocky earths crust.
Perhaps they come from "The Other Side" of an Earths Air Mix...............Mm Oh well.
 
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Alan Tyler

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Or perhaps herons/gulls being mobbed open their beaks and lost part of their lunch - fish are pretty long lived; it only takes one of each sex within a decade or so to arrive, and the species is in for keeps.
 
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Fishing Gimp

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As i understand it was there not some experimentation done with fish eggs surviving in the gut of fish egg eating birds with some passing out in the usual way, intact enough, to spread the species. I can't remember the exact details but something has rung in the few remaining brain cells i have left. I could be wrong and maybe it was all just a dream!
 
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mark williams 4

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One word. Anglers. That's how carp get everywhere, and where cats come from. I suspect that my livebaiting while poaching, er, test fishing various new pits has introduced a few roach and crucians. And I once watched a seagull dive and catch a 6oz roach, carry it in flight for about 1/4 mile then drop it in another lake when he couldn't swallow it.
 
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