Chris - Try it. Learn from what happens.
I'm not sure about how much assistance 15 male or female LMB will have in helping the SMB in controlling BG. There are a whole lot of "ifs", "buts", and "it all depends" with this plan. There are way too many variables that can occur to cause things to work as planned or not work as planned. One of the big variables is as the LMB grow they will tend to eat larger and larger prey (BG?). Could be pro could be con. Another big variable with the LMB is they may mostly target other prey (small SMB, lg GSH) rather than the BG you want them to eat. LMB won't read the research papers as to what they are supposed to eat.
Many pondowners tend to forget that the pond is a VERY, VERY dynamic ecosystem. That is a hard concept for many to grasp the full concept of. The more one learns about it the more complex it becomes. Even the fishery does not stay the same as when it was stocked. Add to it the continual changes in water quality, plant community, plankton community, the invertebrate community, and even subtile changes in the pond basin all contribute to and complicate the entire process. Things are always being added and substracted from the ecosystem (pond) to constantly change how things inter-react. Everything in the pond is always in a state of flux or change. Things can relatively quickly go from fairly well balanced to somewhat out of balance with just one successful or unsuccessful spawn or a plant bloom. The ability of predators being able to find prey can fairly quickly change the balance. Even water clarity often changes noticably from week to week, month to month and can affect how well fish numbers esp forage species survive. What is "balance" anyway? Balance is definately not a steady state. Balance is a relative term.
Your latest stocking plan (May 02) involves six species - FH, GSH, RES, BG, SMB, LMB(sexed). It has been often noted here and in the literature that the more species that are involved in a fishery the more complicated it becomes. This is due primarily to the specific dynamics and ethology(behavior in habitat) of each species when placed into an eco-system (here a pond). They all inter-react and are acted upon. The more species you have inter reacting the more complicated it becomes especially in terms of balance. IMO the easiest fishery to manage is one using a single species. The more species that are then added the more difficult it becomes in regards to keeping all species present in a state or conditon of balance or keeping them thriving. There are various definitions for thriving. I won't cover them here. Managing a pond does in many cases involve hands on managing to a greater or lesser extent. Knowing what to manage is truly the difficult task.
So after all that verbal throat clearing, It is a crap shoot as to how well your newest plan would do in your 0.4 ac pond. I think you may be trying to crowd too many species in to a too small of a pond for all to be a good success. They may survive, but not to the best of their potential. But for some people that degree of success is very acceptable. Anything you try will be a learning experience for you and maybe us. You are talking about only 0.4 acre of water. Not a major job (at least compared to 1-3 acres) in renovating and starting over.
I am sure that your latest stocking plan could work. Most any stocking plan or combination can work given the right amount of effort from the manager regarding additions and removals of the standing stock (fish). The main differences are in the amount of effort involved to manage and adjust the balance that developes.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 05/02/09 10:18 AM.
