I'm very new to the board and I have a bunch of questions. Most I am sure you guys have already answered/discussed.

I have a pond a little bigger than a 1/2 acre that is very new. There are already 5,000 Rosy Reds, 215 Black Crappie and a few LMB in it. I also have some crawdads and 200 3-5" BG and 200 3-5" RES coming in a week or so. I will add 50 CC in a few months.

I read that the RES and BG will interbread. So am I going to end up with a bunch of hybrids or do they prefer there to breed with their own variety? Also, at this size do you think I will get many breeding this year, Black Crappie, RES and BG?

I have two full size pecans, very large to small tires, 5 X-mas trees, many different sizes of plastic and concrete pipe, and various sizes on crushed and round gravel in the pond. What should I add before spring to get the panfish to spawn?

Thanks for the help.

Yes, they can interbreed. Will they? Probably not.

Even if they do, a bluegill/redear hybrid can be a very desirable fish. I've had thousands of them and they are beautiful, fast growing, and take to pelleted feed quite well.

Generally speaking, if the water is clear, and there isn't a ton of competition for spawning areas the bluegill and redears will breed true to their own species. It's something I really wouldn't worry too much about.

The 3-5 in BG and RES should spawn this spring/summer. We have both in our ponds with no problem . An occasional hybrid is a plus as Bruce noted. They segregate for spawning by both visual and auditory means.

I love those pictures.

Thanks for the advice. Those pics are great. I think a may add some more small gravel for spawning. I hope they do spawn before the LMB feed on them.

When it comes to pellets for BG and RES what do you suggest. I picked up some Aquamax at the feed store but I forget what kind. Is there a certain size feed that these fish will eat when they are only 3-5"? I'm sure CC will eat anysize, I don't see them as very picky. I wanted BG for forage and for the kids to catch. When I was younger we had some RES that lived in the silt pond at our old gravel pit, man they got big. I always remember reading that they feed a lot on snails, I'm sure the snails will show up on their own.

You probably will not ever see a RES eat pellets unless you train them to do so. (OTOH it is possible to do this if you want to set up a tank for them and keep them in it for a 2-3 months.)

3"-5" BG should be able to handle most Aquamax ("AQ" below) sizes except the new humongous Largemouth pellets. I think most PMs utilize either AQ 400, 500, or 600 sizes (products 5D04, 5D05, and 5D06 here ); 3" BG might have trouble swallowing AQ 600's 9/32" pellets. But small hungry BG will usually work over the surface of pellets that are too big to swallow outright and get feed off of them anyway.

One of the reasons I like mixing Purina Gmae Fish Chow with my AQ 600 is that the GFC has multiple sized pellets for mulitple sizes of fish. Even 1"-2" BG can handle the smallest GFC pellets.

Whether newly stocked BG in a pond will take pelleted feed is always a good question. If they have plenty of natural food to eat, you may not see them taking pellets for a while.

Snails can probably be counted on the show up on their own. Very few RES lovers (OK, only me as far as I know) will admit to going to the extreme of stocking snails on purpose.

Thanks Theo.

The Aquamax I have is 2000.

I actually thought of asking my fish supplier if they sold snails and I was going to add them to my next order.

The pictures are showing the BG spawning on pea gravel, what kind of structure do the RES prefer for spawning? It looks more natural but I guess the pictures could be from two different ponds.

Thanks again.

BG and RES spawn on nearly identical beds, sometimes located adjacent to each other. They will spawn on lots of different substrates including sand, (small) gravel, and clay.

Hello Mtalley and a belated welcome to Pond Boss. It's good to have another Californian aboard!

Sounds like you have a great pond going. Post photos when you can, we love photos.

DOH, just found your photos in your other thread.

{In my best Gilda Radner voice}.... NEVERMIND.

Thanks for the welcome Jeff and thanks again Theo.

mt, its great to see you over here.

i hope you'll find this place as great a private waters management resource as i (and many others) have. you cannot find a more diverse, intelligent, obsessed, eclectic, and disturbed group of pondfolk than ponboss.

enjoy and happy new year to you and yer pond.

Thanks Dave for telling me about this site. There is a ton of good ideas and knowledge here.

I put some of the BG and RES (about 3 1/2") in totes to give to friends for stocking their ponds. When catching them with a net to transport them I tried to learn which were BG or RES. I started looking at the eyes and noticed that some had orange instead of white eyes. Is this one way to tell a RES from BG? Thanks for the help.

mtalley, I don't think that would be a difinitive ID for BG vs. RES. It might be fairly accurate within a particular population of fish all originating from the same source, but I've seen bluegill with widely varying eye colors. There are a lot of ways to get a 70 or 80 percent accuracy I'm sure and this could be one of them, but I'd be pretty careful.

hi mt, i've noticed in my BG and GSF that many general characteristics start early, i am not so sure, but would bet, they do for RES too......examples......

GSF: elongate body w/ overall greenish cast, emerald streaks on mouth and gill plate, roundish pec fin, much larger mouth (jaw line extends under eye)

BG: rounder body w/ overall bluish cast, vertical barring on body, small mouth (jaw line stops well forward of eye)

RES: (i am extrapolating here cause i havent seen a young one in my pond yet).....body style more elongated compared to BG w/ silverish cast, black and gray irregular mottling on body, very pointed pec fin, mouth larger than BG but much smaller than GSF

some pics would be nice to support this, but all i have in young fish are BG and GSF as follows:

BG


GSF


GSF


youngest RES pic i have


good luck......good question.....

Bill Cody is working on a method to tell BG and RES apart when they are too young for the red opercule edge to have developed on the Redears. He is currently checking his hypothesis against different BG and RES populations from around the country. Look for an article in a upcoming issue of PBMag.

FWIW most of my RES and maybe 40% of my BG have red eyes.

Around these parts we've got almost all RES with red eyes, and practically zero percent of bluegill with red eyes. I was really surprised when I saw the vivid red eyes of some of the north Texas bluegill.

bruce, one of the most striking BG pics i've ever seen was the red-eyed beast you caught in one of Lusk's ponds.....

some of my RES have red eyes, others do not. some of my GSF have red eyes, others do not. all of my BG that i've seen have dark eyes.

two pics of RES:

red eyes


dark eyes


for my own documentation as well, i'll try and get a pic of a red eyed GSF next time i see one. the more common is dark eyed in my pond.

I have found red eyes on LMB, GSF, BG and RES. Of course that usually only happens after a night of serious carousing.

Ok, ok I'll go back to my corner now.

[quote=Theo Gallus

Snails can probably be counted on the show up on their own. Very few RES lovers (OK, only me as far as I know) will admit to going to the extreme of stocking snails on purpose. [/quote]

Theo, I admit to taking multiple snail infested mats of FA and snail infested clumps of water primrose (from my sediment pond) and putting it in my brand new one acre pond dedicated to raising and growing RES. So you are not the only one.

Pond dedicated to raising RES