Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations anderson fish farm minnow fry

The guy at anderson fish farm told me that they fertilize their ponds in order to have enough food for the minnows to eat.

Thanks James.

UPDATE TIME!

Just stocked 4 boxes of golden shiner fry for a client.
I picked up the fry at FedEx in Peoria at 9 am and traveled to the ponds. Every single one of the 1,000,000 fry were alive when we got them to the ponds. Here are some pics:





Here is a pic of one of the new 10 acre ponds. It still has to come up about 4 feet. It is going to be a Hybrid Pond - Hybrid Striped Bass, Hybrid Bluegill, Hybrid Crappie, and white catfish.

Did you count them first?

I wonder if broadcasting a bag of cornmeal in the area might increase their odds?

Has anyone ever tried this with the HSB fry from Keo Fish Farm? 1 & 1/2 years ago they were $150 to ship and cost 1 cent each with an estimated 25% survival rate up to 1 inch. Their 1" fingerlings were .17 cents each...I'm still contemplating getting 1000 1" fish or 20,000 fry for my new empty pond...but worry about the odds of survival and predators upstream washing in. If I ended up with too many, I would deal with that when the time comes.

I didnt count them, but did have a chance to see them going into the pond. Just being able to see the fish makes a huge difference!

Just put in a box of these this week as well. Wow. Lots of little fish.

One day in and I can say that in my little .2ac pond this probably won't work out too well. Although I put them in various places around the pond, including in a wetland, I'm not sure many of those little guys are going to make it.

I have however found a wonderful way to make lots of YOY bg and freshly hatched other fish very very happy. Watching some of that carnage was just too sad. If you have a good crop of small BG, they're going to go to town on these guys. My pond is just too small to put them in the middle of it and have that work very well.

I'll also say that the week old baby bass I have swimming around loved them as well. That's another post all together - as I wasn't really planning on having bass recruitment. If I was to do this next year I'd do it really early in the year. I also think this would be great for first stockings....

nothing is for everyone or every situation, but please do let me know in about a week or two if you still see any of them little guys. I hear they grow really fast.

shiner fry update!
They are doing Awesome!! I have reserved quite a few boxes of them for myself and some clients for next year and hear they are going pretty fast.

AaronM, do you have SMB recruitment?