About ready to stock with F1's and maybe Floridas. Is it ok to clip the fins with this initial stocking in order to preserve the original stock? If so, which fin and how much? I assume this will be small fry 1-2 inchers.

Thanks,

LB

Is this to tell F1's from Fla or just so you know they are oldest fish?

Sorry I see now, I wouldn't do anything personally because they should always be the largest fish. And you wont really know which ones you need to cull for a year or two, by that time the fin may have grown back.

But need to get answer from expert!

I'd clip off one anal fin, cutting off either the left or right side of all the fish. That way down the road you could cut off the opposite fin on another batch of fish and tell them apart.

Would you take that whole fin off? ...and would they ever grow it back?

On a fish that small, I doubt that you could take 1/2 the fin. They don't like to hold still for any length of time.......

If it did grow back, it'd look different.

At that size I would not clip anything. get them in the pond with as little stress as possible. Need to read these also if there are preadators in the pond.

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post22246

http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthread...=true#Post26019