Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain REPLENISHING FORAGE FISH

Would this work:

Take those baskets that fish are kept in alive in a pond. The ones used to keep a fish until it is bigger so it won't be eaten when released in the pond. Take those and keep shiners and FHM in them. Keep them in shade with air pumped to them and ahve spawning structure in them.Feed them and keep them in there year round. Every year they spawn and 1000's of fry swim though the 1/4 holes to replenish the pond with forage.
I have kept GS and FHM for weeks in the spring in a plastic koi pond about 1' deep.

Thoughts?

Breeding forage in cages?

The Shiners you could feed pellets; I'm not sure about the FHM. I think I'd try to arrange my aeration/water injection to flow pond water through the cages for plankton renewal.

Off-hand I don't recall enough about GSH or FHM fry behavior (and parenting behavior - would they eat all the fry if confined?) to know if that would be a problem.

You would have to clean the cages regularly.

Use a blocking net to isolate a small cove like Shorty did with his SMB. There is an article coming up later this year in PB on the topic. Stay tuned.

Theo,
The cages would have 1/4" mesh so the fry can escape into the pond. This would be done to stop the parents from being eaten in the pond. In a sense you
are just releasing thousands of fry every year.

I believe Theo was referring to the adult shiners & FHM eating the fry.
I would think you would have to periodically release many adults that refused to leave because of the easy meals & an over crowded cage could very possibly cause the cannibalism Theo was referring to. Not to mention poor spawning conditions.
I feed my FHM so I know they take fish food.

I would keep a careful eye to be sure other fish fry didn't enter the cages & grow up to have a feast.

Ewest’s idea sounds much more practical.

I would like to see masterbasser give this a try and report back to us his experiences.

I agree. There's a lot of unknowns with this concept and trying it will provide a lot of info.

Sorry fellas but I don't even avhe a pond. I just ask alot of questions and make up stocking scenerios.
I will eventually have a pond an I want to learn about it now.

i have cyclone fencing lined with chicken wire. the yoy get so thick in there it is amazing. the bass line up with their noses on the fence. its not working so good this year as frost/ice has pulled up and made holes and have seen bass in there a couple of times.

had an amazing digital picture couple years back. as the picture zoomed in you could watch the fish dissappear but more showed out of background, that was amazing...maybe i could find.

Cliff,

How big of an enclosure do you have? What kind of species are in it?

its about 6x8 foot and around the outlet.

bluegill and bass are what I stocked but its difficult for my amatuer eyes to id the fry.

So you put adults in there and they spawn?

Guys read the thread below. This has been ongoing for several years. There will be an upcomig article in PB on the subject.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001433;p=1#000000