Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Moving away from SMB/YP pond only

Eric,
Thanks for a pond status update. As I recall (my mind is often fuzzy) your pond is sort of small (<1/3ac) isn't it. What is the pond size?

With little natural recruitment, could it be due to too few or sparse natural refugia (weed beds) or the pond is at, near or ABOVE carrying capacity and recruitment is suppessed or limited due to habitat and fish biomass constraints?. First thing, I look at when recruitment is poor is proper habitat, 2nd, an appropriate food supply for young hatchlings, 3rd maybe poor spawn success, 4th too many predators with too little food. Maybe you are expecting too much from a small pond?

For at least now I would hold off on adding R.bass primarily for reason what Cecil mentioned. For adding new types of fish remember to remove an equivalent existing number of fish for each new import. As for the BG at least for first stockings why not try for all males. If you make a mistake in selecting all males then reproduction will occur which is what you are now already planning to happen. This brings me to the next point.

Do you have a dock? If so consider building a small fish cage or two; maybe each with a different mesh size (1/4"&1/2" or 1/2"&3/4"). First retry some g.shiners in a cage to get them established and used to eating pellets. Release survivors after a couple months. Do the same with the BG or male BG. Get them to a size you can separate then release. This way survival is more reliable and they will be pellet trained so competition with other resident fish is reduced somewhat.

Also if you have snails in the pond consider pumpkinseed sunfish?. I plan to get some from north west NY this spring (www.smithcreekfishfarm.com). I see they have g.shiners. Your main problem with GS was possibly a transportation problem (or they were too small?); too many fish in too little water (packaging) in too warm of conditions that involved too much stress during hauling?. Retry some in a cage and get them to a larger size before release; even if it first takes a yr or 2 in a cage. A few GS and some BG are compatable in a cage together.

IMO of suckers for a pond. 1. if it is suckers you want be sure you get suckers and not creek chubs or some other chub. However neither will spawn in a pond at least not a "normal" pond. Hatcheries that sell suckers do not get them from eggs or fry raised naturally or brooded in a pond. Eggs are stripped, fertilized and hatched in jars similar to walleye. Pond hatching of suckers, at least to my knowledge does not work, or else hatcheries that need suckers would do it. No one sells or raises chubs for for bait or other purposes the same reason.

YP recruitment, Could be as Cecil mentioned, the larger smallies are reducing a majority of the male YP and not enough eggs are getting fertilized. A lot of nuances possible here. Nuance is my new buzz word from B.Lusk - Nuance: a slight feeling, tone, variation, feature or factor that is not obvious and contributes or is an influence. Another cause could be that plankton is not adequate enough for hatchling development or hatchlings, esp slower growing males, are getting consumed before they reach 6". IMO One of your problems is you have too many big bass considering the pond size, and forage species base, i.e too many larger bass are wacking all the small YP. ONe approach is to change the predator factor or change the forage base and things you are considering at least with adding BG or r.bass. Several other features in the system can also be tweeked. Reduce number of larger bass and more YP will survive. Consider that each bass eats about 3-6 lbs of forage a year that is a sizable number of small YP to be loosing from a pretty small pond. For example: for 2.5"-3" YP there are abt 125 per lb. 3-6 lb /bass is around 175-750 YP /bass/yr times maybe 12-16 smb 9"-16" equals 4500-6000 YP per yr. It is no wonder you have a shortage of small YP. Granted the smb eat other things than YP but I think you get the idea.
On a lighter note you mentioned "my 15 yr old who sarted the pond with me has no interest in the pond anymore". Ya his hormones have probably diverted his attention to other forms of local "wildlife" - the girls.