I have a 350 gallon prefab garden pond. I am thinking of putting it into the yard and landscaping it. I would like to raise fatheads. We do alot of crappie fishing and minnows can be expensive. Plus we sauger fish the Ohio river in the winter and bait shops don't keep minnows in the winter. If I add filters and running water how many FH could it support?

Del

Lots of little guys. Left alone in horse water tires that's what I find. Selective harvest and feeding should help.

Anybody else with advice?

I had a SFS spawning device clogging up with FA last summer. I took it to the barn to clean but just dumped into a 55 gal rain barrel. Wasn't but about 4-5 days before I had babies swimming around. I fed em ground up Aquamax and they did well in the barrel and got a little over an inch. Then I put several yoy SMB and that ended the shiners. Give it a whirl.

Definantly try it! You will get reproduction. Suplement your population with your own trapped minnows. A gallon of fatheads last a fisherman a long time.

Thanks guys! Anybody know how much filtration I will need? The wife wont let it happen without looking good so I plan on a rock waterfall and some plants in it. Would carbon filters work well enough? I thought about cycling like an aquarium too to build bacteria. And I my brother has a PhD in genetics and his study organism is daphnia so I got ready access billions of them.

Del

OK, did some more research this weekend. Pond is actually closer to 250 gallons. I have been researching garden pond forums and they say 1/2 your total volume of water for your pump. So my pump should be 125 gph. Thinking I need to step up a little bit since I plan on a pretty large biomass (4-6 pounds of fatheads). Thinking of going with a 300 gph pump or so. I am going to run through 2-3 biofilters plus the plants. I hope this is enough to keep water quality. Anybody have experience in small ponds like this? Would love to pick your brain.

Well the project is getting ready to take off. After alot of research I have ordered the parts I will need to begin.

I bought a 1200 gph pump. The lift to the waterfall should only be 2-3 feet so expect 850ish gph out the waterfall. I also bought a premade waterfall that comes with biological filters (bacteria) and such. So I should be turning my 200 gallon pond over every 15 minutes roughly. Also found an online design for a settling tank next to waterfall (but also hidden by rocks) that should help with fish waste. Also planting alot of plants. 2-3 water lilies, hyacinth, and water lettuce. The hyacinth and water lettuce will have to be rebought every year (not planning on storing inside during winter) but they are cheap and supposed to be great filters for nitrates and nitrites. Water lilies will be planted in pea gravel instead of potting soil to get roots to have water flow. Water Lilies should provide good spawning structure for fatheads.

I am going to take it slow this year and add about 4-5 dozen FHM. I want to see how they spawn and if I can work my way up to 2-3 pounds being sustained. I might even add one BG to see how big I can grow it , should be a smorgasbord.

Gonna break ground this weekend if we don't get rained out. I'll try to post pics.

Del

Thanks for the advice. I am a little worried about coons but I live in the middle of town. My lot is only 1/2 acres. I am right on the Ohio River though so GBH might show up.

Got the pond dug and installed last weekend. I started spring break (teacher) today so I got the rock all done. I still have a ton of landscaping to do and add plants. Fish are probably 2-3 weeks out. I fill with city water so have ordered chlorine remover. It gets alot of direct sunlight so I'm worried about the temp of the water, but once plants grow the water will be totally covered in lilies and hyacinth. The goal is to keep 3 pounds of minnows next year, year round. Some pics of pond...

Looks good. Check with your water department and find out if they use chlorine or chloramine in the water.

chloramine? what's that?

A replacement for chlorine...

Chloramine

Well pond has been running for a couple weeks. I treated water with a chloramine water treatment. I added bacteria and did a fishless cycle for 10 days. I added 2 dozen fatheads to test it out. I checked water everyday for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate have tested zero every time. I was going to add more fish in a bit to build up the bacteria but I have had about 18 of the 24 minnows die. The water at my house has a high pH. It is 8.3. Could this be the cause of the fish death? Also, the minnows have been swimming crazy erratic circles on the surface before death and I read this could be pH. The healthy ones have been fed every day with goldfish flakes. Any suggestions? I don't have plants yet because we have still been getting frost and just waiting for weather to warm up a bit more.

Del

Are you sure your outdoor tank was actually cycled? Did you see a spike in nitrites and then a drop to zero of both ammonia and nitrites with a subsequent increase in nitrates? What did you use to feed your nitrifying bacteria?

Did you test for ammonia after adding the fish?

If your pond is outside in Indiana I question your pond was warm enough to cycle. And certainly not in 10 days.

If you got your promelus from a bait shop good luck with that. Rarely a biofilter or any mechanical filtration in a bait tank or the foggiest why they would need one. Add to that they aren't fed, have been poorly handled, injured and stressed, and they are a who's who list of parasites and pathogens.

Bait shops just want to get them out the door before they croak. It's nothing for them to scoop out dead ones on a daily basis.

That said your survivors will not have issues, and if you don't have too many, may cycle your tank for you as temps warm up.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Cecil, I did get the minnows from a bait shop but a family friend owns it. I got them within an hour of them being delivered but who knows how they were treated prior. For my fishless cycle I added my bateria and ammonia. Would bring ammonia to 3 ppm and then let it lower to about .2-.3 ppm. Did that cycle twice. I should have done two more but I added the 2 dozen minnows. I am sure it wasn't fully cycled but 24 FHM in almost 200 gallons I didn't think I'd have a problem and I never had a nitrite spike. I have a couple left. I am going to let it warm up a little more and then do another cycling and try again. Hoping these few minnows can help the cycle but I bet I need to add ammonia again. Thanks for the insight! WHere do you recommend picking up just 3-4 dozen FHM if not a bait shop? Would a pet store be a better option?

I put a lb of FHMs in a 95 gal stock tank last year and lost quite a few until I added some pond water and the water in the tank turned green. After that, I lost very few. I emptied the tank late last fall and started over again yesterday with a lb of FMHs, 25 RES, and 2 small CC (but not small enough).

The trucks that come around selling stocker fish generally sell FHMs.

Del

Max,

See if there is a fish farm close by that sells by the pound.

The ones locally around here sell by the gallon, but I'll be passing by an advertiser here in a couple weeks that sells them by the pound. $6.35/lb and approx. 300 fish/lb. That's a whole lot cheaper than $3.00/dozen up here from a bait shop, and they would be fresh!

Besides, I would like to tour that fish farm.

There are fish farms that sell by the pound. My problem is that I only need 2-4 dozen to stock in tank. It's under 200 gallons between both ponds and I don't want to overstock without being fully cycled. I would rather do a couple dozen and let them spawn. This year is a test run for future years. We are also already planning an aquaponics bed to grow some herbs so we will see how this transitions in the future.