My 1/20th acre forage pond has only FHM and RES. Last year I had FHM that I could catch minnow trap after minnow trap of minnows. This year very few FHM. A pretty good amount of YOY very small FHM this fall so some adults did spawn. Have pallets for spawning substrate.
Unless something has went wrong with the water in this pond (and I have no reason to believe so) the only thing I can think of with the low FHM production is that the RES are hammering them. Threw a cast net a few times and came up with some 7" RES. Have only caught a few YOY RES. Disappointed in that also. As far as snails, I have from the beginning enormous amounts of snails. Now with RES in all ponds, very few adult snails. But in the forage pond as well as the other ponds, if a person looks closely at the 1/4" deep water around the edge where there is fresh algae growth there will be lots and lots of baby snails the size of a pin head. Move on out into the water and have to turn over rocks to find adult snails.
So my suspicion is that there are enough RES in my forage pond to keep the snails in check and any out in the open get eaten as soon as they get in deep enough water for the RES to get to them. Since the snails are probably not enough forage for all the RES in the pond, I think they are then turning to the FHM for the rest of their meal. At least that is the best theory I have to date.
I also had lots and lots of FHM in my 1/10th acre sediment pond. Now that the RES have had a year to grow and get some size, FHM are getting rather scarce in this pond also. Only other fish in there are CNBG I stocked at same time as the RES. A few hybrid BG also but I pull all those I catch or trap and put elsewhere, so not many of those.
My conclusion is that RES can eat a lot of FHM when other more preferred food gets scarce.
Last edited by snrub; 12/18/15 06:02 PM.
