Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Help I think i messed up

I wouldn't stock 1,000 cats in a pond your size. You could very easily get a biomass problem leading to a dissolved oxygen crash.

Using standard pond mgt you can't raise that much fish biomass in a small pond without a vrey high risk of a crash. If its run as an aquaculture operation , with all the equipment and knowhow, then you can. It's 2 different worlds.

Monty:

How many pounds of catfish would your wife be cooking per meal?

What size of catfish does she like to cook?

The reason for asking is that a pond can only support so much biomass. Exceed that, and you will have water quality and algae problems, eventually leading to a massive fish kill.

Listen to the guys here, they don't have a financial stake in your pond. The fish sellers won't replace your fish if you have a massive fish kill due to overstocking.

I see that you are going to feed. Do you have an aeration system for your pond? If you don't, with that biomass you will need one if you hope to have a chance on keeping all those fish alive.

hey guys, im going to leave it at the original 4 or 500 cats if yall say thats what i need. I put a bunch of big tires and concrete culverts in hoping they will spawn. she cooks a lot of fish, we have 3 kids, we always have their friends, my brother,and my wifes parents. She cooks it 50 different ways, and cooks a lot at a time and often. we would start culling as soon as they were big enough. I am in the process of putting an aeration system in now, and the pond is probably a little over 2 and 1/4 acres, so i was thinking of putting in a bottom water diffuser and an aerator. or should i put two aerators, any suggestions on an economical option. I dont know what is possible, but the hatchery didn't want to deliver the fish if it wasnt worth it to them, so i guess he wanted to sell as much as possible. He is also delivering everything at the same time, but the bass are small so he said it wont be a problem. Is that ok, can i add my predators now, it would be much easier and less trouble.

ok, because of the concerns of the amount of fish stocked i am doubling the size of the pond. Im going to make it approx. 4 acres, we already started digging the addition. im adding another 1.5 acre pond with a 50' wide channel connecting them. the new pond is under some established oaks, thats why its going to be about 700' away, which gives me a long meandering channel to connect the two ponds. Im going to add hsb like suggested, how many do yall think i should put. im also adding more cnbg like suggested. I ordered 100 lbs. of golden shiners also and 15 more lbs of fatheads. ive been catching gambusia and adding them. I got ghost shrimp from bodad, some very nice ones i might add. i stocked over ten sacks of crawfish and i am feeding as much as they can eat. Im researching the aeration and would like anyone on here that sells aeration to give me a quote. so far fish stocked are 3500 hbg, 2000 cnbg, 500 shellcrackers, 100 northern lmb, 50 tiger bass, 1000 catfish(850 cc & 250 blues). So what now, sorry for the large amount of catfish but the wife wouldn't budge. what now? I put tons of structure, islands, submerged islands, cypress trees and plants.

I am sure you will get some feedback from some experts here, but I will let you know some issues I have already run into with my small pond and too many CC.

I now have the worst FA issue I have seen and it has never been like this until I stocked it. Still trying to decide on chemicals (which I do not like to use) or Tilapia (which I waiting for my ponds to warm up) to help with it (may need a combo of both).

Plus you mentioned that you have placed structure for them to spawn. If this is the case then you may want to cut the numbers back, as they may overpopulate if you do not.

Now I understand that you want the fish in there, but if you are feeding they very well could be ready to eat within a year depending on the size you stock and what size you want them to be before removing them. So if they pull off a good spawn you will have way more than the 1000 you speak of.

Now again I am not an expert, but I also did not have the advice from all the wonderful people on here, so I now have to deal with the fact that the fish farm sold me way too many fish and either need to work like heck to get it back in balance or bite the bullet, kill it off now and start over right.

Since I am stubborn and money is tight the first option is the way I am going and will let nature take its course. I just wanted to throw that out there since some fish farms are only out there to make money not a nice pond for the owners. (which may be the case with both options you have ordered fish from?)

Next time you get fish try to use someone from here if possible, I do not have that option where I live without driving 5 hours or having them delivered which is not cost effective for my small pond. (one day I hope to have a large pond and will use at least one if not more sources of fish here on pond boss)

Thanks