Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Forage for 1/2 acre or less ponds

There appear to be many people with ponds of 1/2 acre or less. Certainly, they all hope for good fishing, usually of a general type.

Can people reasonably expect to produce decent fishing without supplimental feeding?

If someone feeds fish in a small lake, should they also expect to have to use aeration?

Any other advice we can give to people with these small lakes?

Norm,

I'll take a shot...

I love small ponds. They can really surprise with what they can produce both in size and numbers. I feel that one can have good LMB fishing in a small pond, but only on an intermittment basis, meaning too much fishing pressure can spoil the fun. BG fishing in a small pond can be spectacular, but again even the BG can suffer too much fishing pressure.

All ponds benefit from aeration. Feeding w/o aeration can be problematic depending on how much or how little flushing action the pond receives either from rain or other sources.

Another possible small pond stocking strategy is the GG and HSB combo but since I have only had a few months experience with that combo, can't say for sure how it will turn out...but the early returns are very positive.

Small ponds are easy to manage, especially if you can add a few Tilapia each year to control algae and provide supplemental forage. One grass carp or two will provide all the weed control you need. So that with the right fish, management is a snap and more time can be spent enjoying the pond, which after all is what its all about.

Norm:

I think one thing to keep in mind about small ponds is that they can easily be managed more intensely than larger waters. By easily - I mean with less cost or fewer labor hours or both.

Want a fish species that's likely to overpopulate - the numbers should be easier to control in less than 1/2 acre versus a 5 acre pond. Want to feed the fish - easier to do intensely by hand in a small pond at a level that would require thousands of dollars in feeder hardware for a big pond. Want to stock non-reproducing species - you can find out how a given density will work for less with fewer acres to stock.

If I had to make a choice between one 2.5 acre pond and 5 half acre ones, I'd take the five small ones. I could run three different sane stocking schemes and two mad scientist experiments at the same time.

I only know of two people here in SD with this type of pond and both feed and aerate. Anyone else with some ideas? So many people seem to have this type of pond and we should try and give them as much help as possible.

A reasonable number of fish can be raised in a 1/2 acre pond without pellet feeding. The important point here is reasonable number. If the fish are pellet fed then more fish can be raised in that 1/2 acre (more on this later). Fish that reproduce in a pond can quickly become too abundant for the amount of natural food produced by a 1/2 acre pond or most any ponded body of water.

Maintaining proper fish density is very important to producing a quality fishery. Proper fish density is determined by one’s goals for the pond. If your goal is to produce lots of fingerling or small fish then crowding to the point of stunting is acceptable for some growers and hatcheries. If your goal is larger fish then this usually requires keeping their numbers at lower density per acre when their food source remains relatively constant throughout the year.

To increase numbers and or have more larger sized fish in the pond more food has to be available for existing fish. Just adding food to the system or fertilizing the pond can result in just more fish being present and they may not necessarily be larger and or plump. How do you keep this from happening if that is not your goal and you primarily want bigger and plumper fish?

Reducing competition for food (numbers) while maintaining ample food is the secret to growing quality, larger sized fish.

FEEDING FISH - AERATION. Feeding fish pelleted food results in producing more fish either in the form of more numbers in the pond and or producing some additional growth on some existing fish; usually both occur to some degree when the pond's food source is increased.

More numbers and larger fish in the same amount of water (increasing carrying capacity) creates more manure and waste products in the same sized pond that has to be "processed" by the pond habitat or ecosystem. Before more food or the fertility was increased in the pond, it was maintaing a carrying capacity of fishes that were essentially controlled by the pond’s ability to processs the waste products, i.e. a natural production limit that was dictated by Mother Natures rules of a production-recycling balance. Increasing the amount of manure/waste produced without providing for increased waste processing ability of the pond is pushing the limits of what nature allows. When you do that problems usually occur.

Aeration, primarily bottom aeration, allows the pond to increase its recycling ability by increasing the size of the aerobic, (oxygenated) decompositional zone when thermal stratification is eliminated and the entire pond bottom is exposed to oxygenated conditions throughout essentially the growing season. But even increasing the ponds recycling ability with aeration has an upper limit as to how much it can process in terms of fish waste products. As this new expanded limit or carrying capacity with aeration is exceeded the natural system reaches another carrying capacity limit. Exceeding it without providing for increased waste processing usually results in ecological problems within the pond, i.e. often unexplained fish deaths.