Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Reputable Fishery Near Dallas

I'm looking to re-stock an old pond which I inherited here in the Dallas area. Can someone please direct me to a reputable company for stocking fish near Dallas?

Hi Toney, welcome to the forum!

I encourage you to reach out to Bob Lusk at Texoma Hatchery or Todd Overton

Texoma Hatchery
Phone:(903) 564-5372
Email:info@texomahatchery.com

Overton Fisheries
Todd Overton todd@overtoncentral.com
903-322-2626

Toney, here are two more which have trucks that come through/close to Dallas on a pretty regular basis.

Dunn's Fish Farm
http://www.dunnsfishfarm.com/Route_Schedule.html

Stock My Pond
http://www.stockmypond.com/product_category/fish?state=tx

I am not familiar with "Stock My Pond". Does anyone on here have any experiences with them?

I just purchased from them about a month ago. The fish survived an hour ride to my property and I haven't seen any dead ones around the pond. So, I wouldn't hesitate buying from them again.

I think their legal name is Farmcat, Inc.

Is it common to see dead fish after a stocking? I mean it makes sense since it is a bit of a ride, but I hadn't thought about it. Anyone else have problems with fish dying after a long ride?

I am not a pro but FWIW I have done my best to acclimate every fish I have stocked. I float the bag to avoid temp shock and exchange pond water for some of the water in the bag to avoid PH, etc. shock. I give it an hour exchanging a little more pond water and bag water every 15 minutes. I have never lost a fish....knock on wood!

I'm fairly new to pond ownership, so I'm certainly not one to be dispensing advice. I don't know how common it is...but, I would assume transferring fish into a new habitat is about as traumatic to them as it can get.

So, I guess if they are going to die, it would be shortly after being stocked...especially if their new home isn't up to par. (oxygen, hardness, ph, etc.)

In all honesty though, I've seen fish do just fine in some rank ponds, so my biggest concern when buying was the trip itself, not the pond. I figured some would die since it was going to be an hour drive, but they didn't. So, I'm not sure how long they can safely travel in the relatively small bags they put them in when you purchase. I wouldn't push it much longer than an hour though.

To address what Bill said above, yeah you want to acclimate them to their new home. Put the bag in the water on its side and slowly combine the water. If the fish swim out on their own, they're good to go. If they try to stay in the bag, keep combining the water slowly until they swim out.

I agree with TJ,

Its Todd or Bob when it comes to my ponds.

Toney,

How big, how deep, do you know your PH and alk? What are your goals for the pond?

Those are a few things to know before stocking.

I sometimes go to todd's but also go to pond king in gainesville. it is closer to most parts of metroplex.

/rant on

I tried dunn's for the first time this year, I bought 200 bluegill, 100 red ear and 100 black crappie. I had a terrible experience and wont be using them again. The two bags of bluegill no way had 100 each. Some of the fish were already floating sideways when they handed me the bags. I had a 30 min drive from the fish truck home and took the time to acclimate temperature and water but lost a quarter of the fish immediately and i knew the rest probably wouldnt make it... so after spending $250 on fish delivered locally, i found myself driving to gainesville the same day to get the fish i needed to run my aquaponics system. use at own risk, this is my opinion and experience only.


for those that dont know me, I have been keeping fish in aquaponics for 6 or 7 years now. On average i stock fish 2x a year into assorted aquaculture fish tanks ranging from 300 gallons to 2000 gallons. I have bought fish from todd in buffalo, from pond king in gainesville and last year i met a jp malone fish truck in shreveport, LA for the 2-3" hybrid and black crappie and drove them 3 hours home... i have never lost more than a couple of fish from transport before...

/rant off

As I recall, the experts have given us some guidelines on how close you want water temps between transport bag and pond before you release. Thinking it was 10F? Maybe it was 5F.

I have done a 3 hr drive and a 1 hr drive to stock- from the actual hatchery, not a truck. both loaded the bags with pure O2 and rubber banded and both in cool weather. The 3 hr drive had some fish that were pretty lethargic by the time they got to the pond. Some still very vigorous. I hurried the tempering just to get them into high O2 water again. Lost a couple dozen fish out of the bag and chalked it up as part of the deal. The 1 hr drive stocking was very smooth. Lost a single BG.

Here's the B Cody advice from Feb 2015 in this link:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=402127

Here are some pretty standard guidelines for water temperature differences when stocking fish.
Before stocking fish in a pond, adjust the water in the transport tank holding the fingerlings to match the pond water in temperature and other water quality factors such as pH, alkalinity, and hardness. This can be done by putting small quantities of water from the pond into the transport container (called tempering), so that the container water is eventually similar to that of the pond usually within 5F.

As a general rule, most fish can withstand a 5 degree F change in temperature without severe stress and a 10 degree F change if the water is tempered over a period of 30 minutes. For greater temperature differences, care must be taken to slowly equalize water temperatures before moving the fingerlings from the container to the pond. In this case, adjusting water temperature 1 degree F every 10 minutes is a good rule to follow. Tempering is especially important if fish are going from cool water to warm water.

Insufficient tempering can kill the fish by temperature shock or shock from other water quality factors. If the fish are not killed by the shock, they can be weakened, which lowers their resistance to disease.

I keep in mind temperature change AND PH change when moving fish. I move fish a lot. not only when i buy them but when i am moving them to different growout tanks. Outside of the pond scenario, i can watch the fish behavior for days after they are introduced in my fish tanks. I dont think a lot of people realize this but poor transport conditions (low DO, high ammonia, large temp swing, large ph swings) dont always cause immediate fish deaths. Most transport fish deaths occur 24-48 hours later and a person stocking a pond would likely never know most/all of their fish are dead.

The trip from shreveport was who knows how long in a truck then 3 hours in air bags with oxygen. i had 1 death (out of ~150) and i think it was trauma from getting pinched in the corner of the bag when i put the bag in the ice chest.

I also put the bags in an ice chest and if i cant shut the lid (usually cant) i throw a heavy blanket over it to keep it dark (fish less active) and to keep the sun from changing the water temperature.

This is benefit of taking the trip to overtons, he will salt and put the bags in boxes. The boxes cost a little extra but they are worth it for how much they help with transport stress


brian

Todd and I moved advanced fingerling (8-10 inch) LMB in O2 bags for 8 hours without any lost fish.

Thanks everyone for pointing me in the right direction.

I was really leaning toward Texoma Hatchery since they are closer. But after leaving two messages with their secretary and not getting a returned phone call it looks like that's not gonna be an option.

One proposal I got from another hatchery was for:

400 3-5" CNBG
100 1-3" RE
10lbs of fathead minnows

Total is $460

Does this seem like a good plan? Is putting 1-3" RE in with 3-5" CNBG okay?

Also, is transporting 2-1/2 hours to my property going to be a problem?

Last Feb. I picked up 30 lbs of FHM and 850 1 to 3" Res from Todd @ Overtons, where they bagged and boxed up the fish for the travel time of 3 hr drive. And then another hour to get them adjusted to the new pond water by floating the bags and adding pond water to the bag water and then released the fish into their new home. I saw no floaters and the fish seamed to be pretty active at the time they were added to the pond. Overtons has done a great job on all the fish I have put in the pond.

Tracy

ToneyBoy,
I just asked the Texoma Hatchery business manager to go through messages to see how they are missing yours. They show no record of your call. They'd be happy to help. Private message me and I'll forward for assistance.