Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait stocking my pond

What's the opinion of others here on pond boss of NEMO BAIT AND TACKLE fish for stocking a pond,

Nemo - They are evidently a fairly large scale buyer of bait. They have a limited selection.
http://www.stockalake.com/nemo-wholesale-bait-and-tackle.html
If you value the non-contamination of unwanted trash fish in your pond, then be prepared to hand sort all the minnows that you buy. Often these guys buy their stock from big wholesale suppliers that sometimes seine wild grow out ponds for their fish to sell to suppliers such as Nemo. The wild ponds can have some numbers of bullheads, green sunfish, sticklebacks, drab goldfish, and/or other "trash' fish in them. Some here think birds can stock unwanted fish into fish ponds, then why would it not also happen in uncontrolled big forage fish operations?? Plus we have to assume the fish operation uses completely pure stocker fish each year - not likely. The big wholesale operations likely do not completely drain and renovate each grow out pond each season, thus fish contamination from last year is very likely the next year.

Very often it is a good idea to NOT let the supplier just dump his fish into your pond. Have him put them into a fairly large net pen or tank container (see below of other ideas). Then you dip a few of them out at a time and look through them for 'odd ball' looking fish. If you only want 5 to 10 pounds of forage fish then it is easier to place them in a big cooler or couple plastic garbage cans and dip and sort them. Depending on how many fish you get and where you temporarily hold them, you might want to have some aeration bubbling action going in the container until you get all the fish hand sorted. If you don't care if you get some trash fish then sorting is not necessary.

It's my opinion that 1/3-1/2 of unwanted species end up in ponds in contaminated stock. Especially FHM... This is the worst, as FHM are usually stocked first and so any unwanted species like GSF or bullhead get a head start on your other species predation free and into a new pond full of food. By the time your other fish are stocked, the unwanted species are well established.

FHM are insanely prolific without predators. I'd rather hand sort a couple pounds and wait a little longer than dump 10 or more pounds of unsorted possibly contaminated fish in and run the risk.

I agree 100% with cj advice

Since you're in mo I would contact Shawn banks of Midwest lake management or Rex rains from tilapia stockers. Both are in the pond boss resource guide I believe.

If you want to know and have peace of mind then you must review any fish that you place in your pond.

So either you have a holding area (tank, pond, aquarium, hot tub, kids swim pool, whatever) or you place small order(s) and review each fish individually.

I use the kid pools. They are pale blue in color and so spotting out of place fish can be easy. I aerate using the common minnow bucket battery powered air stones. I look for not only out of place or unusual fish, but also sick or dying fish.

I agree on FHM being a common stocking with unwanted species, but ONLY when stocking from suppliers using FHM from wild caught sources. Farm raised FHM are extremely unlikely to be contaminated by GSF or BH, since those species are rarely around fish farms raising their own FHM....typically, more northern climates have FHM that are wild caught.

Ask NEMO where they get their FHM. If from a Great Lake state, inspect any fish VERY closely. If from Arkansas, you are almost certainly going to get clean FHM....Possibly a few bluntnose minnows too if called "Tuffies". Bluntnose are a very safe addition.

Thank's for the information fellows.

FWIW My supplier offers FHM and their version of Tuffies. Difference is their FHM are not guaranteed not to have stickleback, etc in them. In the FHM I bought from them I found approx. 5 to 10% stckleback when I hand sorted them. What they call Tuffies are what they describe as Farm Raised FHM, so no invasive species present. Their Tuffies are a little more expensive than their ordinary FHM.

IMO I would much rather get Rainman's BNM Tuffies.