Three years ago nine crucian carp were ‘loaned’ to the Environment Agency’s Calverton Fish Farm for spawning. Thousands of fish resulted which were then stocked throughout the country. As a thank you the Agency not only returned our original fish but hundreds of their small offspring, all of which were stocked into our two stock ponds in November 2008.

This week the new stock pond was netted to find some more fish for the Agency to spawn allowing us to assess the progress of those original tiny fingerlings. The pond was full of weed and looked nothing like a pond which held fish. But that weed was absolutely crawling with fresh water shrimps and all manner of aquatic life, much to the delight of those tiny crucians which had grown tremendously during their 3 year life.

Pictures of the original stock and those that were netted are shown below.