Was just thinking and curious of what the outcome would be of a Yellow Perch and Black Crappie only pond. Has anyone tried this? I searched a bit but did not find anything. Would the pond just over populate with both and eventually stunt out? How many years would that take to happen?

KRM 1985
How big is your pond?

My pond is 2 acres but I do not actually plan to try this. I was just more curious to see if anyone has tried such a combo or knows what would occur if these two were stocked alone

Mine is 6 ac. And I have BCP BC CC LMB BG shiners and some shad,ghost shrimp and gams. Pond is 5 years old and the LMB have populated more than the BCP have.... so far

I would try the combo of Yellow Perch & Black Crappie only pond in a small pond that could be easily renovated because it is not likely to turn out as planned. We have to consider that crappie are more of an upper water column feeder and young YP are more oriented and inhabit the close to bottom areas as preferred weedy areas if available. The two areas that the two species frequent are not conducive to good predation of the other specie. One niche overlap does occur is when YP fry for a few weeks inhabit open water post hatch. My biggest concern is that YP would not be able to adequately control YOY crappie. Plus I would only use hybrid crappie in this test combination because HBCP produce fewer offspring.

What if the combination was amended to accept GSF as a third member? Aren't they infamous for eating other species young and reproducing quickly?

Interesting thought! I wonder if HSB added to the mix wouldn’t control yoy of both species in appropriate numbers????
Heppy

HSB would be a much more compatible fish with the YP-BCP combination. HSB could be added or harvested based on the predatory pressure needed to maintain the goal of balance.

Dr. Cody, I've been getting more and more intrigued by the prospect of a BCP-YP combination given that these are such desirable food fish. In my own pond, I would like to avoid hybrids so that each species is its own self-sustaining population, which would rule out HSBs for me. I was wondering if -hear me out- longnose gar could be substituted as apex predator in a BCP-YP fishing pond, possibly with the addition of LMB.

The way I'm picturing it, the YP and BCP fry compete intensely for resources due to their similar spawn times, their fingerlings get thinned out by bass and young-medium sized gar, medium-large BCP, YP, and LMB get thinned out by the fully grown gar. Since I suspect gar might have a preference for fusiform fish, adding the bass prevents them from imbalancing the BCP-YP ratio too badly.

The result is a controlled, relatively balanced population of catchably-sized BCP and YP. The gar are prevented from breeding out of control through LMBs and cannibalism thinning out their fingerlings. Obviously this isn't a complete ecosystem in its own right, I was just wondering if I was on a workable track or not.

Without abundant macrophytes LMB will hammer YP population and likely become a population management issue down the road with stunting/over eating forage base. Per Cody, HSB are far better suited apex predator for your goals.

Are there any non-hybrids that might serve the role better than LMB even if HSB are hypothetically optimal?

The main concern with the YP-BCP is adequate control of the BCP. In St-abyssal's case he is considering LMB in the combination. However as TJ points out LMB will much favor YP as prey compared to BCP. What specie of gar are you considering? Are they small pond compatible. What about reproduction? IMO gar are not a good food fish and control of overabundance could be a problem.

I was thinking about Lepisosteus osseus.