Can someone identify these for me? I did not expect to have shrimp in my pond, I guess that's a good sign?

Top is a grass shrimp, bottom one eludes me, looks like a topminnow or mudminnow species but Cody can ID for sure. Both are encouraging signs for your forage base, congrats!

Awesome, thanks. I didnt know grass shrimp lived down here. This is the first year in about 7 years that my pond isnt chocolate milk so I've been seeing a lot of interesting things.

You lucky dog!! Those shrimp are highly prized and highly sought after!

Bill is the Topminnow expert but I'm with TJ, I believe that's a Mud minnow, a member of the Topminnow family.

Yeah that's what it looks like to me, I didnt think they could reproduce in fresh water but i guess they can

That's pretty dang cool, that's the first of it's kind I've ever seen posted on the forum. Thank you for sharing with us...we're always looking to create new science and alternative forage sources fascinate me and others.

Glad I could contribute , I will way they are the dominant minnow in there. Must've gotten in during Harvey or Imelda

mudminnows are freshwater and are found all through the US including texas. This looks like one of these species to me. In MI we usually see the central mudminnow

More pictures:

mudminnow species

Gulf killifish can be salt and fresh water tolerant

I put about a hundred grass shrimp and now there is bunches of them . Go out at nite with a flashlight and they show up in grass and plants

Good deal, I'll give that a try, currently I'm working 7-12's on nights till about june... so maybe one day. It sure is nice to talk about my pond to people who actually give a crap about it , I've tried talking to my wife, friends, kids...my dogs, nobodies interested lol

Dkpeppers, after 7 years of chocklate milk color pond what changed that cleared it up? I have a chocklate pond myself. reason why I ask.

I dumped about 800 lbs of hydrated lime in there and about 1000 lbs of ag lime . Killed everything in there as far as I could tell. It was full of mudcats and huge gizzard shad. It almost immediately cleared up. I also fenced it off from cattle which of course helped considerably. About a month after I shocked it it turned a nice green color and I started stocking it. The minnows and shrimp showed up themselves

I dont know if this method is recommended by the experts on here but it sure has worked for me so far

Lime itself cleared mine up when it was new

Thats a bull minnow at least from what i can tell. I believe they are a sups pieces of mudminnows

Dkpepper's fish does look like the common live bait often called "mud minnow", "chubs"; or "cigar minnow" or "bull minnow" technically called the Gulf Killifish Fundulus grandis. This fish has a wide range of body coloration and patterns. A better picture showing fins would help verify the name. It is it a Gulf killifish it will get to be 7" long and be a good pond forage fish. The other fish it could be is the golden topminnow technical name Fundulus chrysotus.

Thanks Bill, there are other minnows in there that I'm guessing are males that have reddish orange fins. I'll try and get a better picture tomorrow.