Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose fish in a small pond?

Hello, In the mean time that were waiting to get control of our farm, i am working on a little project on the 60 acres that i live. We own a excavator and im digging a small 30x130 ft pond about 10 ft deep. (you would think with 60 acres i could find a larger flat spot wouldent ya? i hate living in the mountians.) Now my question is a pond that small to little to manage for anything but stunted over populated bluegill? or could i have a decent fishery in that little hole of maybe 1/10th acre?

Tommy - don't forget - "you dig a hole, you BUILD a pond". Holes almost always leak quite a bit and the pond does not stay full. You don't want to get it finished and have it not hold water and where the water level is 3-5 ft below full pool because the darn thing leaks. Creating (building) good well packed clay liners to contain the water are important for "dug" ponds to mimimize leakage.

Exceptions are where the pond will get constant inflow from a spring, well, or stream to keep it full, then leaks are more tolerable.
It would be better if you could enlarge it to at least 1/10 acre; maybe 40x130 or bettter 45x100?. Long and narrow is a little harder to manage than a square or round pond. If the pond gets spring flow then long and narrow is definately okay if the spring enters one end and exits the opposite end.

Spring fed ponds can grow big trout. Good options for a warm water mini-pond are all catfish, all male bluegill, all female yellow perch, all hybrid striped bass, single sex bass or hybrid bluegill with a few bass to control their limited offspring. For small or mini-ponds it is best if fish do not reproduce or have only minimal reproducion so they all grow better and do not get overcrowded. Fish do not grow well and do not stay really healthy when overcrowded.

More fish will be grown if they eat good quality pelleted food and the pond is aerated by windmill or small electric air compressor. Aeration will also help keep water quality better in the small pond which often tends to get stagnant esp if it does not receive lots of wind.

Another option for the small pond is growing minnows, shiners, goldfish or bait (crayfish). Kentucky Aquaculture Assoc. deals a lot now with growing food shrimp in small ponds. Contact them for more info if interested in that idea. Shrimp ponds do well if shallow 3-5 ft deep. So if your finished pond leaks, consider growing shrimp. They are stocked in spring and harvested each fall. It would be best if the pond was drainable for raising and harvesing shrimp. Draining would also be good if you also wanted to regularly harvest and better manage your fish with seining, restocking, etc. We can provide more info once you figure out want you want to raise. Good luck.

tommy time and money does help but you have to decide how much of both your willing to put into it, you can raise just about anything you want if you don't overload it. Many PBers have small ponds and raise big fish, check out some of the books available on Pond Boss.

I love living in the mountains.

As far as going wider I cant, I have a strait down moutian on one side and a cliff rock on the other side with old caved in coal mines in it, I get a lot of water running from underground from thoes mines. as far as draining ill be able to do that just take our excavator and cut a dith over the hill. Is shrimp farming profitable? O yeah as far s clay im digging in about a 12 ft seem of grey clay, the stuff that you can just scoop up and make a sculpture out of and it holds..

For draining, I'd use a siphon pipe, much less hassle than digging a trench and having to fill it back in. That sounds like nice clay!

If i decided to go for large gill in this little pond what should i stock? 200 copper nose? and maybe 12 single sex tiger LMB? witch get bigger male or female? also would about 5 flathead catfish be a better predator choice?

Female LMB are bigger. Those FH catfish will eat everything there.

If you want big bluegill, go with less BG and more bass I would think. In a classic big bluegill pond you have many stunted bass (12-14 inches i believe and skinny) All the bass keep the bluegill reproduction at bay and their size only allows them predation on the smaller bluegill. Therefore leaving the bigger bluegill, who do make it, the ability to grow large. Feeding greatly improves the bluegill size as well.

at 12 LMB for a .10 acre pond that would be equivlent to 120 bass per acre wouldent it? that bass heavy isent it or would i need to go more?

Number of bass will be determined by the amount of reproduction of the BG. The more reproduction you have the more control you should have which is why I suggested fish that would not reproduce or have only minimal reproduction. All they do is grow. It will not cost you all that much to supplimentally stock the small pond to replace those harvested. In most cases one can grow bigger fish in small or mini-ponds if there is no reproduction of BG (sunfish) or predator. Reproducing fish make control of the fishery, balance and management more difficult.

Shrimp or freshwater prawn farming can be profitable if done correctly. Check with KY Aquaculture Assoc.: .ksuaquaculture.org See if you can locate their newsletter Winter 2005-2006, Vol 18, No 4 about growing prawns.

Is your mine drainage acidic or laden with metals???

I am not sure but i figure if its drinkable then fish should live in it.. We have drank that water for years when hikeing or for what ever reason we were back there.. So i should go with HBG and maybe 2 or 3 female LMB to clean up the few off spring?

Tommy, HBG and a few LMB would be okay. Some catfish should also clean up what recruitment the HBG produce.
I am not suggesting HBG and a few predators as what to stock for you. Your choice of fish should be to best suit your needs and desires and the amount of time you have to manage the fishery. Some fish combinations require more management that others. Thus my suggestion of stocking non-reproducing fish in a mini-pond to produce the biggest fish the quickest and with the least amount of effort or management.
If you don't see the orange or yellow precipitate covering rocks of the seepages then the water is probably not acidic drainage.

Keep a few important things in mind.
1. to grow more than just a few fish in a 1/10 ac you will have to feed them pellets. I suggest Aquamax carnivore (blue bag - 41% protein) for the best growth and overall success of what ever fish you stock besides catfish. I think even catfish grow better with Aquamax carnivore.
2. Stongly consider installing some sort of simple drain. this will make it easy to change fish combinations. Drain things down remove fish start over or just adjust fish numbers and sizes with a little seining. Draining to low pool and seining is an excellent way to check & monitor the fish that are presemt. A drain will be ESPECIALLY useful if you stock HBG.

3. Plan the pond to maybe take advantage of springs or flowing ground water so you have an inflow and outflow and a fairly short water retention time. This may allow you to grow trout.