Do creek chubs do good in ponds and where would you buy them.

Do a search here for more info. They will live in the pond fine until something eats them or they die of old age at 10"-11". They are quite predacious on small fish and invertebrates that will fit into their mouth.

Unless you are able to do something no one else has be able to do, they will not spawn in your pond without a inlet stream. Many people cannot distinguish between a fathead minnow and a small creek chub. Both are "casually" quite similar in appearence.

For 3 years now I've been working on an experiment with chubs as forage. They seem to grow much faster than BG. My LMB seem to wipe out the BG quicker than they can reproduce. I've tried adding adult BG 7-8" long but it hasn't helped the situation. I first started seining out the chubs from a creek on my property for supplemental feeding, but the creek wasn't large enough to supply the demand my LMB had. I noticed the chubs in my creek were spawning in the shallow muddy bottoms, not the gravel beds like you would think. So I built a forage pond with that in mind. It is about 1/4 acre with 18" average depth and one big hole 14' deep to over winter the fish. This is my third year with successful spawns from my chubs. They grow at a fast pace on pellets. 5-8" in their first year seems to be the norm for growth. I am seining around 200# of chubs a year from this pond and around 50# of crayfish. I am trying something new this year, growing out redears. There is an abundance of snails in this pond and I hope I can get some "double duty" from it. Does anyone else raise chubs as forage for their ponds? My LMB seem to be healthier ,heavier and experiencing faster growth rates. It seems for me they are working out better than the BG.

h20fwlkillr,

My compliments! You saw an opportunity that made sense and turned it into a real plus for you in spite of conventional thinking otherwise.

If we had those chubs in East Texas I'd try 'em too.

h20wflkillr - Can you post or send me a close up picure of one of your larger (7"-8") chubs?. Eventualy I may want you to send me a dead one so I can key it out to species. Once we know the species we can determine which one will readily spawn in pond conditions.

Yes I can do that. It may be a few days before I get a chance to though. I just got promoted to shift supervisor and having to work alot of hours. If it helps until then, they are coming from a small creek in west central Mo. They are all white w/ silver grey fins. The light coloration may be from the muddy water conditions. They seem to prefer shallow water and feed actively on pellets w/ no training. The largest one I've ever removed from the creek was 11" long and weighed 13 oz., however most I've removed from the creek were less than 8" and under 7 oz.

h20fwlkillr - No hurry on getting the picture. We can work this out over the next several months. Thanks for agreeing to help on this project.

Bill will you share this photo with the rest of us on the web?

Sharing is not a problem. Let's see what species of fish this is and get some background info on it first. There are eleven species of chubs in "Fishes of Missouri".

Bill and or h20fwlkillr,

Did you ever ID this fish? A chub like fish that readily reproduces in ponds would be a great find.

I have not seen a picture or a dead fish specimen yet. H20 is probably still busy. I haven't seen any activity from him on the forum either. If sends me an adult fish I also would like to see some of the offspring (smaller ones). It is extremely rare to get chubs to spawn in a pond when they do not have access to moving water and stream bed contitions.

I haven't had time yet to seine the pond. Working 60+ hours a week and trying to build a new home. As soon as I can I'll get those pics for you Bill.

h20 - I you get photos try and get as close to the front half of the fish as your camera will focus clearly. Pictures are a very poor subsitute for body measurements and counts. I suspect you will have to send me a few specimens. 1 or 2 adults and a couple individuals that you think are youngsters.

Whether or not chubs will spawn in a pond, I don't know. I believed for many years that chubs are a great bass bait. My favorite species is the red tailed chub. They are very hardy and very plentiful here in Ohio.

I to would like to "id" these chubs. I am having a 60 x 60 "stocking" pond build soon. My plan is to raise shiners here in Ohio to supply my 1 1/2 acre pond.

ejrfan - We need close up photos to get you an ID of these fish.

ejrfan.....see my new post in Questions and Observations