What is the concensus for the number of pounds of fatheads to plant into a new pond in the spring before planting lmb and bluegill fingerlings in the fall? Stocking rate ratio of the bass and bluegills, and numbers suggested in our area for the fall would be 5 bluegills to 1 bass and not to exceed 200 bass and 1000 bluegills per acre.

I have always been under the impression it is about 20 lbs per acre of fatheads, but wonder if someone could get by planting 10 lbs per acre?

Keep in mind this is in one of the northern states specifically northern Indiana.

We use 10 lbs./acre when adding fatheads.

I buy fathead minnows by the gallons. Each gallon has about 8 lbs. of minnows and I pay $6-8 per gallon. This amounts to about $1 per lb. My question is about where (area of the country) do people buy by the gallon, buy by the pound or do a number count such as 100 or 1,000 at a time?

In western PA, I bought my fatheads and shiners by the pound, delivered.

$9.50/lb for fatheads
$10/lb for golden shiners

Sounds like I need to find a cheaper source.

Sunil That is a very fair price as long as they are native to the area. If from down south you will loose about half of what you stocked ,due to water chemistry and hauling in some stockings. The best golden's to stock should be mature and o range finned to winter over.

Cecil Last year we wanted to find out the real fact on how many fatheads 40 Rainbows would consume in a half acre pond in a week so we stocked 20 lbs let sit for 2 weeks and drained pond.We estimate that we were left with about 2 pounds ,when we shared this info. to make a strong point to Soil and Water and they said no way. I might add there was moderate cover, to prove a point to the customer that you have to let the pond evolve for a good year or two before you stock bigger fish unless you manage the pond on a full time schedule.
It seems Cecil has the gift and knowledge of raising trout that we all can benifit from.

Cecil - You bring up a very interesting point about spring fathead stocking density for summer production to produce abundant minnows to feed stocked gamefish in the fall.

As you know, the ultimate number of pounds of minnows produced by fall will depend on fertility. You will end up with more pounds of fatheads when fertility is high (fertilized water or fed) versus low in clearer water situations. However the overall SIZE of the offspring in the fall is highly dependant on the number of adults originally stocked. Stocking too many breeders results in a majority of stunted fatheads at the end of summer. Stocking fewer in the beginning results in about the same number of final pounds but overall they are larger sized individuals. It is a matter of how much food is available for the developing population of fatheads.

Suprisingly and contrary to what most seem to believe the original stocking is relatively low, and lower than most would think. If you go into the literature of bait fish production, they recommend 500 to 1000 breeders per acre. If it is 500 or 1000 I suppose will depend on pond fertility and the goals of final desired size of the offspring.

When you ask about how many pounds to stock, this will depend on how big the fathead breeders are. 2"ers run about 300/lb, 2 1/4" run abt 250/lb, and 2.5" run abt 150/lb. So 500 2.5" fatheads is around 3.3 lbs/ac and 1000 2.5"ers is 6.6 lbs/ac. So with out predators, you can see that it does not take very many breeders to get the job done.

I firmly believe this information. I knew a young guy who was going to raise fatheads for sale. He was planning on hand feeding them. He knew more than me and said stocking more will obviously yield more fish. Well he put in the 20+ lbs per acre and in the fall he had tremendous numbers of 1" - 1.25" minnows and comparatively few 2"ers. The majority of his fish could not be trapped in 1/4" mesh traps due to their small size. I wonder why?

The Missouri Dept of Conservation is well funded by Missouri taxpayers and I think they have one of the best websites - full of aquaculture info that they call aquaguides. Here is a link to producing bait minnows,... http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/fish/aquaguides/

gainesgs
Good site .. lots of good info! Thanks!

One of the benefits no one has mentioned is using fatheads for parasite control. We originaly stocked fathead minnows for this purpose. The amount reccommended by a state fish biologist was 10 lbs./acre.

Gainesjs - Also thanks for the Missouri site; all should read this information. Especially interesting was how to manage crappies in small ponds, growing large bgill, or trophy bass plus numerous other good pond mgmt tips.

The info about adding fathead minnows for spawning to feed sportfish to be stocked later was good. Their advice was 0.5 to 1 lb of breeder sized minnows per acre which is even less than I advised above. Note they are stocking fatheads into ponds to eventually feed sportfish and probably anticipating very little minnow feeding or pond fertilization. My higher stocking density noted above is for baifish producion and where he pond will be fertilized and or fish will be fed fine sized fish food. Both stocking rates are correct; it depends on which goal you have.

I think the higher stocking rates of 20 lb per acre that you often see recommended (Cecil above) is for immediate feeding of sportfish already in the pond. Even 20 pounds of fatheads per acre will not last long with hungry bass present and little weed growth.