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Jan 10th, 2023
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| by MarkTaylorFL |
| MarkTaylorFL |
Hi Pond Boss members! Yesterday I put 850 coppernose bluegill and 150 redear Shellcrackers in a 2 acre pond that I've been working on for about 2 years. The pond will average about 10' when full but currently 2'7". I'm filling it with 2 wells and we're starting to get a little rain.
3 main questions.
1) will these 1-3" bluegill spawn this young? I had planned on adding the Florida large mouth bass in June.
2) the water temperature is 66 degrees. I bought a bag of very small high protein feed from the fish hatchery. Should I be feeding them? They've only been in the new pond for 24 hours.
3) since there isn't any predator fish yet in the pond would I be wise to get some larger Coppernose and let them heavily spawn now, before the bass are added in June? That would give me 4 full moons before the bass for them to spawn.
I have 4 young sons. So my goal with this pond is trophy bluegill and mediocre bass.
Thank you all for what I've already learned reading your posts! 🙏
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| by jpsdad |
| jpsdad |
jpsdad and others,
Will the natural food chain of invertebrates be established enough by June for the bass to thrive? This is a new pond being filled with well water. Will there be enough forage for the BG stockers to thrive, since those are the fish that should become the trophies?
This a good question and something I have often pondered. To have a good food chain, the water first has to be fertile. Some of that fertility is in the pond soil and it will mobilize. Liming and fertilization helps as well. All that's left is the critters to eat the lettuce. For the most part we are talking insects for the initial stockers. So insects like chaoborus, chiromids, mosquitos and such find the water quickly and lay eggs there. For insects with rapid life cycles, the populations surge in a new pond with a low standing weight of fish. Larger insects follow. As for the rest ... Where is Bill? I have often wondered how rotifer, copepod, and cladocera get established. But, lots of things develop ... probably a little differently for each pond. My sense is that insects are primary source of food for 2" fingerlings (both LMB and BG) in a new pond (but I am probably wrong). Did I say where is Bill? Please help!
The advice I usually see on Pond Boss is to start a LMB/BG pond with a big dose of FHM to jump start the available forage. Is that procedure incorrect in the case of managing for a trophy BG pond?
FHM are good food for LMB and BG alike. BG will benefit from them. That said there are other considerations. In particular, will they influence intra-specific competition (BG competition among peers)? When LMB have choices, they will resort to the prey which is most energetically favorable. This is the FHM for sure. So it is possible that large populations of alternative prey may be preferred by LMB over BG. In some cases, this is so extreme that BG develop severely stunted populations. I have seen references for such occurring with crayfish and to a lesser extent with GSH. FHM go away eventually so it isn't going to kill the ponds potential for trophy BG, however, they can and probably will influence recruitment to the side of increased recruitment. In a trophy BG pond, the recruitment into the 3" to 6" sizes must be very limited or one must remove some of the smaller ones to succeed. A two-species pond forces LMB to concentrate on BG. One is giving up some of front end growth if he doesn't stock minnows, but it is possible to make this up later if the recruitment is lower in the early going. Keep in mind that once extirpated, FHM are not going to maintain the fattened LMB and BG population any longer.
Is the optimal procedure to have very hungry bass, whose goal in the pond is to eat as much of the subsequent BG production as possible? Will the BG fry from the very first spawn be up to eating size for the new bass starting around their stocking date?
Depends on when the BG spawn and when the LMB are stocked. BG fry grow right past the gape of 2" fingerlings but are very vulnerable up to about 20% the length of the LMB and somewhat vulnerable up to about 25%. Most consumed (~83%) will be smaller than 20% the LMB length. BG grow as fast as LMB for the first 60 days. Where food is not limited, BG can grow up to 2" in 60 days. Normally, it is recommended to stock the LMB and BG as 2" fingerlings simultaneously for a panfish stocking. By the time the BG are spawning the LMB have grown to 4 -6 inches and would be able to consume 45 day old BG. By the time the fry are 45 days old the LMB have doubled or possibly tripled in weight consuming the first spawn of BG.
(Sorry for all of the additional questions. Just trying to help OP Mark, rather than further muddying the waters.)
Yes, to be sure. That goes for me too. |
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