Just joined the pond boss forum. Seems you guys know what you are talking about so I hope to learn from your expierence. I have a 1/2+ acre pond about a month old in Madera, CA and I am going to have a lot of newbie questions.

I bought 5,000 minnows from a local supplier and they are rosy reds. In the future do I need to continue buying rr or will fatheads spawn with them? Or does it even matter?

There are 215 3-5" black crappie in the lake and 15 LMB from 7-10". 200 BG 3-5", 200 RES 3-5", and 100 crawdads are on order and I plan on adding more feeder minnows when they get here in a week or so. In the late spring or early summer I will be adding 50 or so channel cats.

Welcome, mtalley!

What is the water source of your pond? Natural runoff or well fed? Are there any ponds above yours that could contaminate your fishery?

Well feed. No ponds that flow into it, but there is a nearby season canal for farming and a seasonal natural creek on the other side of that.

We filled the pond by running well water down our pecan rows. But after hearing about decaying leaves making oxygen levels low and losing water to seeping into the ground in the rows we are thinking of adding some polypipe.

That sounds like a really cool plan. Would you be willing to post a couple of pictures for us?



I can't imagine why it would matter. Your predator fish are going to eradicate most or all of them anyway. Generally speaking, fish are pretty good at not mixing their genes with other species. I go to great lengths to keep my bluegill separate from other sunfish species because I sell them as pure bluegill, but if your goal is simply to provide forage think about all the tens of thousands of ponds and lakes around the country that have multiple prey species. Not to worry.

My wife got me a new camera for X-mas that I will figure out in the am then I will figure out how to post on this forum but I should get pics on here tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

If you have any troubles I'll walk you through it. Can't wait.

I actually already have some pics uploaded from when we built/filled the pond. I will try to post now.




There is more habitat in the pond than the last pic shows.

They are only thumbnail size. But if you click on them it will lead you to a few more pics of the pond during construction and after being filled. It hasn't changed much because the pond is only 2 or 3 weeks old.

I was under the (mistaken?) impression that Rosy Reds were a color variant of FHM.

That's what I thought. And I once put one rosy red and one regular fathead in a trough. They spawned and 100% of them were regular color.

Rosy Reds are merely a FHM with a better out look on life.

Sorry I couldn't help myself (and I'm not really sorry either).

That's what I thought. And I once put one rosy red and one regular fathead in a trough. They spawned and 100% of the offspring were regular color.

That's what I thought. And I once put one rosy red and one regular fathead in a trough. They spawned and 100% of the offspring were regular color.

Brain you can say it ten times but we still are not gonna believe that crazy story.

FH and Rosy Reds are both FH. While I have not seen it written I assume they will spawn interchangeably since they are the same species.

From SRAC :

(Pimephales promelas)

The fathead minnow has a thick

body with a blunt head and small

mouth. Fathead minnows are normally

dark olive on the upper

body, with a lighter silvery shade

below, and have a black stripe

along the middle of each side. The

"rosy red" fathead minnow,

developed by Billy Bland Fishery,

is orange shading to a lighter silvery

orange on the lower body.

Male fatheads generally are larger

than females; during breeding,

normal-colored males develop

black heads with several rows of

small breeding tubercles (bumps).

I tried to post and it didn't work. Then I read it again and figured some smart&^% ( like Jeff) would say something about them being all brown when I just said one was orange so I changed it. I still didn't think it posted so I quit. That still doesn't explain where the third one came from.
After that, I couldn't read any other posts so I thought someone was mad at me. I cried.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

there's a lot of "JEFFS" around here,keep your sense of humor with you at all times while loged on here.Buy the way,welcome aboard.
P.S. ...when in dought,use dynomite,its a permanate fix for watever ails you!!!