would crappie be okay in a pond that is one acre in size and has both blue and flathead catfish.

McD, when our two acre pond was completed three years ago we followed a initial recommended stocking program of coppernose bluegill,red ear sunfish and fathead minniwos.

I jumped the gun and added adult LMB, which was the wrong thing to do.

On the advice of Bob Lusk, I added 10 adult hand size bluegill per each adult bass and corrected the problem. Since that time I have researched the archives time and time again seeking answers to my questions – I would recommend doing the same.

If I remember correctly, flat head catfish and crappie in a small pond run up a red flag.

Good luck with your pond and let us know how your project progresses.

I think it depends on your goals. As long as you understand that the ponds only purpose and future is catfish and stunted crappie, I guess its OK.

Could be a tough management challenge. Crappie could give catfish a spawn survival problem and large cats can certainly disrupt crappie nesting. You need to also consider your biomass. A healthy pond can support about 50 to 75 pounds of predators and both cats and crappie are top line predators. Whoppers limit the numbers of mid range and smaller "up and coming" cats/bass/hybrids, etc. You can do it any way you want to but there are trade offs and penalties. A whole buncha big cats in a small one acre water hole might be tough to maintain. But, throw in a lot of elbow greas and a whole buncha cash and you might just make it work.

I can tell you right now with blues and flatheads crappie stunting will NOT be the problem. It will be crappie wipe out! What kind of forage would you provide for the crappie? Bluegill? You would need to start off with a good bass bluegill mix first with a possible shad population. You have to find a way to forage the Crappie, I think that will be the most difficult part. The big cats are more than likely going to eat the bigger game fish, like big crappie and bass. They might not hurt the bluegill or shad population.

You are also going to have to regulate the numbers of the big cats, with respect to what the rest of the population of species.
As crappie, bluegill or bass numbers start going down too much, you would start culling big cats..

Thanks for the information would a air rater be needed to keep all the baitfish alive to feed the catfish. Or would the pond be fine by itself. Would a feeder help the pond or would it just wast my time.

Would tilapia be a good chouse in a pond with big blues and flathead catfish.

Feeding always helps especially if the Bream and other smaller fish are eating it. Then the bigger game fish forage on the bream. Crappie can still forage on the bream. The bigger blues get, the bigger bait fish they will wan to eat. Big blues will eat larger crappie, and bass. Look at alot of Zachs posts on this sight, he uses big channels to control bass and other fish numbres.
Tilapia could be a problem if you have cold winters. Tilapia die off in the winter it could get very expensive to keep them stocked. I think the crappie is a good forage for your cats..

I was trying to do something similar. I believe that there is a way to keep crappie from stunting in small ponds, but most people are so fixated on LMB/BG, that there is little research on other fish combinations.

Unfortunately, my pond got overrun by black bullheads right after I stocked the crappie, so I have other problems at the moment.

As for the tilapia, I am setting up 75 gal aquarium in the garage to keep them alive through the winter.

Ed Richter you coud not have said it better! people are so caught up in LMB/BG that there is very littel research done on other fisheries....

Ed, can you give details regading your 75 gal. garage aquarium?
I will try something like this, or "growm out" tilapia fingerlings in forage pond next spring.

George,

please see thread titled "Bluegill in a tank" under "Evaluating and adjusting fish populations". We had some discussions about fish tanks there in the spring. I am new to aquariums and presently only have 10 gal. one. The key to keeping fish alive seems to be the bacteria in the water, so you need to set it all up (WalMart has up to 75gal kits) about 2 wks prior to actually putting your desired fish in there. Put in some cheap, sacrificial fish, like guppies, or whatever you can seine. Once the algae starts growing on things, the water is properly conditioned for more sensitive fish. There is more to it than that, but you can find wealth of information by typing "Starting an aguarium" in your search engine.

If the Tilapia start overpopulating, I will put one or two of my bluegill in there for a while.

George,

Under the thread Ed mentioned, Evaluating and adjusting Fish populations, check out the topic entitled "What to do with Crappie in a small pond" by Csgrizz 2-29-04. Go to the second page and click on the link under Bill Cody's post.

Russ

Try www.aquariacentral.com for great info on aquariums. I have had many over the years and they can be fun and time consumming.

Does anybody know where a man can purchase some flathead catfish, I`ve looked here in Texas and Have had no luck finding a dealer? I believe the reason is that they will wipe out everything else i n a pond. (even other catfish). I think they would be feed well in a crappie and catfish situation, in the response of the first question. I my self would like to stock a all flathead pond, with maybe bluegill for forage. So could anybody help on locating some flathead catfish? Please don`t leave me hangin!!!!!!!

You need to post this as a seprat topic!! But being that I am the most intrested in catfish as any one, I am here to tell you I have search high and low for flatheads and have not located a single person who sales them. NO ONE!! I have found that your mature Blue cat are almost just a predatious as Flatheads, they fight harder at the end of a line as well.
Blues or maybe even large channels will prey on crappie, but thats really only half the story with crappie. Usually you do not have enough forage to sustain them.