Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Weekend observation

I have a new 3/4-acre pond that I stocked in March and April with 15 pounds of fatheads and 5 pounds of golden shiners. I also put in 100 2- to 4-inch redear and 50 4- to 6-inch redear. The redear started nesting in early May on a long, shallow gravel bar that I built last winter. They are still nesting. The cove with the gravel bar is just bursting with minnows, which I assume are a combination of redear, fatheads and golden shiners.

The main part of the lake also has clouds of minnows, everywhere I look. Tiny fatheads school up right next to the bank, and bigger minnows gang up on chow farther out. If the sunlight is just right, I can see thousands and thousands of tiny fish that look as if they are suspended right in the water's surface film.

I thought the number of fish in the part of the lake I can reach from the bank was just amazing. Then, this past weekend, I dragged a canoe down to the water and paddled for the first time into the other, bigger cove, which I can't easily reach from the bank and so had ignored all spring.

Wow! Imagine a quarter-acre of flooded cedar trees standing in from 1 to 6 feet of water, with a channel down the middle of them. The entire cove was just alive with minnows, flashing in the sunlight. Iridescent streams of minnows, pouring through the flooded cedar branches. Unbelievable. It hasn't even been three months since I put in the first fatheads, and the pond is already swarming with them.

It is so cool watching all this happen. I can hardly wait for fall, when I can add a few SMB and YP to the mix.

Hey Bill,
Sounds like things are coming along nicely out in the "Show Me" state. Flooded cedars sounds like a good place to swim a spinner for some SMB's when you stock them.
Dan

It'll be amazing how fast all those FHM disappear! They certainly be great starter feed for your SMB and YP though.

I'm always amazed too at how fast so many hundreds of thousands of pinheads and fatheads and such get wiped out with just a few predators. I believe the whole 10 to 1 growth ratio of fatheads to flesh gained is only achieved in the most ideal optimum utopia and feel the actual conversion ratio of lbs of fish eaten to flesh growth is much much less out in the real world.

Nate, I have wondered about that conversion rate but haven't lost a lot of sleep about it. I'm sure there are a lot of variables involved.

About 20 years ago, I stocked a small forage pond with 200 small bg and 3 pounds of fatheads. Although there was no spawning structure in it, the fatheads overspawned and fouled the water. I did not notice any corresponding growth on the BG.

Sounds like a good mix for your goals. How about a few pics of the fish?

So, in 1930 (just guessing) an introductory biology textbook used a general example where roughly 90% of energy is lost as you move up each trophic level (e.g., phytoplankton to zooplankton to fathead minnow to largemouth bass) in a "pyramid of energy" and a "pyramid of biomass." how many of you remember that? That general example has probably been repeated in almost every introductory biology class since then. :-) Good teaching example for a general principle, but not so good at explaining individual situations. Couldn't resist! :-)

I think there has been trophic level energy conversion research more recent than 1940, but I can't remember where I've seen it. Maybe ewest can help with this?

I know the more recent approach is that there is a web (3-D grid) not a straight line relationship. Most newer studies focus on single energetics models (ex. how much energy does it take to meet a YP's needs). I will do a little checking.At least with Dave's comment everyone here knows where the 10 lbs of forage to get 1 lb of predator growth comes from.

Maybe Homer Swingle's great work at Auburn University where the ratio of "forage" biomass (lb/acre) to "carnivore" biomass ranged from 1.4 to 10.0 in balanced fish ponds? The upper end of the range being 1 pound of carnivore (such as LMB) being supported by 10 pounds of forage (such as BLG).