Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Anyone have my back on GSH?

Had a hatchery quote me $1/ea for 6" GSH - the majority of which are laden with eggs and ready to drop. Seems pretty steep to me, but considering they may indeed be ready to pop makes me reconsider. Any advice/feedback?

Thanks for watching my back, boys.

TJ

$1 sounds pretty reasonable to me for any 6" fish except for maybe CC, BG, and LMB

6" Golden Shiners...laden with eggs. I just don't know - I'm trying to deal $250/300. At least I'd be done worrying about stocking GSH - if these don't take, forget about it.

Hey TJ, anderson minnows sell brooders that are 4"+, about 130 of them in a box, for $100 shipped. I buy from them all the time and always thought they're prices have been fair and have been happy with them. The price you have isn't much different for a little bigger fish.

$1 doesn't sound bad considering the number of eggs they lay.

TJ, a lot of it depends on the quality of the fish you get... If you have no large predator fish in the pond at the moment, consider going with 3"-4" GSH. They are able to spawn at that size, will produce plenty of eggs and are cheaper. Plus I have read that larger GSH tend to have parasites in their reproductive systems while the smaller size fish don't. Even in well managed aquaculture operations... I'll see if I can find the article with more details on that.

Great point Aaron - thanks for the head's up on Anderson.

Good call - I also have to wonder about all fish being 6"+ - might be few if any males to fertlize the eggs about to drop. I think I'm going to hold off on this purchase...I received some info that I am overpaying and getting fish in a size I don't really require at this time. Thanks for the sounding board - it's amazing how clear things become once you get a little dialogue going.

Thanks guys! Great advice.

Wow! I just got edjumacated about GSH bigtime!

Which pond are these going into? You're smallies are going to love you. I'm was blown away and how quickly SMB demolish both FH and GSH.

The ovarian protozoan parasite (Plistophora ovariae) is a problem, but selecting young broodstock (about 1 year old) helps avoid the parasite.

A couple of links:

Link 1
Link 2

GSH into Trip BC pond but most into the main pond. Not stocking SMB until this Fall based on CJ advice. I'm hopeful to have clouds of FHM and an established, self sustaining GSH population by then. Everything else will be pellet fed hopefully allowing the forage to reproduce and grown this Summer.

I'm considering looking into Ghost Shrimp and Gambusia too. One stocking this Spring...if they take - great. If not, not much lost.

Thank goodness for CJ and his online resources, and thank goodness for slow crime nights!

I can't wait to match the forage some day...I think it would be a blast to throw big silver 6" swimbaits for SMB to match the GSH and some translucent tube jigs to match the Ghost shrimp...

Seems like a lifetime away.

HAHA, no work tonight... That's tomorrow night and Thursday night!

TJ, ff you're looking for different species of forage to stock that have a good chance of maintaining a population under predation, take a look at banded killifish.



They are not carried by many hatcheries but a few do. Check out Keystone Aquaculture and Zetts Tri State Fish Farm if interested. I have heard good things about both operations.

Both have them and I believe they will ship them to NE. Banded killies are very low DO tolerant so they should hold up well during the shipping. They have maintained populations under heavy predation in ponds I have worked with. They can bury themselves in soft substrate and will leap like crazy to keep from being eaten.

Oh yeah, almost forgot... Zetts calls them bull minnows, same fish just different common name.

I like the cut of their jib. Maybe they will make the list along with FH, GSH, Ghost Shrimp, Gambusia...see which species takes off. Should be a blast!

I am currently building the forage base in the pond I am working on right now. I am adding as many different forage species I can within reason in hopes the ones best suited take hold. Right now I am adding bluntnose minnows, eastern mudminnows, banded killifish, mosquitofish, spotfin shiners, satinfin shiners, spottail shiners, golden shiners, white suckers, creek chubsuckers and grass shrimp. I figure most will probably not take hold, but if a couple species do great. I am giving them all this year to do nothing but spawn without predators. Then next spring I am adding small fingerlings so that should give them another full year of spawning... We'll see how it works out.

CJ

Where are you sourcing your shrimp? Are they PK? Your minnow stocking sounds like a blast!

All my forage fish are going to be wild caught. I started the stocking last year and will continue this year. Since I cannot catch huge numbers like you can get when you buy them from a hatchery, I'm going to have to rely on natural reproduction to bump their numbers up before the predators go in... I figure 2 years of no predators and a year with fingerling predators, they should be pretty thick and off to a good start.

As far as the grass shrimp, the only two places I have found that mentions PK by name is http://www.fishhobbysupply.com/invertebrates.php and http://www.fattigfish.com/glshr.htm I think I am gonna place my order with one of them in another couple weeks. I am gonna call both up and see who will give me the best price... I will let you know how it goes. Probably gonna order 100. 50 will go into the pond I am talking about which is just a hair over a 1/3 of an acre and the other 50 will go into a small pond I am going to use just for forage fish.

CJ

Fattig quoted Jakeb $400/1000 and me $500/1000. I'm trying to get some guys to go into an order with me to keep it at the lower price. They will split up and ship wherever. John K, Jakeb, Bruce and I are in I believe at last check. If you want, sounds like you might benefit $wise and we'd like to have you.

Yeah, if it saves us all money I am in... Only need about 100 or so. Let me know what you think the cost would work out to be.

I'm not into doing this pricing contingent upon qty of orders...thats business - and this is a friendship thing for me. I will add all the orders together - I think John wants 100, Jakeb wants 200 or so, and you want 100. I will take the rest and split with Bruce but everyone gets the same price - either $.40 or $.50/ea. I don't mind doing that - seems fair to me.

I do remember Fattig saying shipping wasn't cheap, tho - something like $59? I will get more info on that and PM all you guys. I'm kinda excited about these things.

TJ,

I am interesting in getting about a 100. Let me talk to my dad first though.

Hi Chris. Sure, more the merrier. I will send an email to everyone to see where they heads are. Seems like Fattig's cost is the best - let me try to call them again and get:

Survival guarantee
Final pricing
Shipping costs

Then I will get everyone's shipping address if they are in and you guys just square up with me whenever you can I guess. If you can't trust PBF guys, then I know the world has indeed gone down the tubes!

I have the go ahead. Let me know when you are ready.