Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Adding readear nad maybe hsb

I have an 1.25 acre pond that will be 1.5 acre if it will ever rain. It was stocked in Feb with 400 cc, 100 black crappie, 500 blue gill and 22lbs of fatheads. I want get big crappie and cc. All caught cc and crappie will be eaten. I have a feeder but no areation. From what I am learning on this site my original stocking was probbaly not good. Do I still have the capacity to add some readears for snail and parasite control? What about adding some hsb to help keep the crappie in control? Thanks for any help.
Trenton

Yes. You could add RES anytime in a pond's life, but the bigger RES you will need to avoid having them eaten by the larger predators you will have in the future will be more expensive. Redears don't take pelleted feed well, so it is harder, more expensive, and takes longer for hatcheries/suppliers to grow them out as opposed to BG. So the sooner you add them, the smaller and hence cheaper they can be.

I think you are very likely to need more predation for crappie control than 400 CC will provide. So HSB would be a big plus. See the "Georgia Giants vs Crappie" thread for recent discussion on Crappie control.

If you can tell us how big the CC & Crappie are now (or at least how big they were at stocking) it will probably help recommend stocking numbers and sizes.

I should have have been more specific. I just started feeding 2 weeks ago. I caught a couple cc at the time they were about 8 inches long, way to small to eat. I tried to catch some crappie or bg but did not. I do not have a net to try to seine(sp?) yet.

You could probably get away with stocking the smallest available RES & HSB sizes. The next size up (3"-4" RES, 6"-8" HSB) might be optimum.

As for numbers, I'd think 100-200 RES. HSB - harder for me to figure, especially with the CC and Crappies in there. Considering the CC and HSB won't reproduce (and that you'll need to limit Crappie spawning), maybe 100 HSB? See what the consensus view is.

How many pounds of fish would be safe in my pond?
I don't want to push it. Would adding 100 redear and 100hsb be too much or not?

If you stock anything but starter size RES at initial rates then you've got to remember that you're stocking a larger size.

The only recommended stockings of adult fish from a definite source, that I know of, is stocking 30 adult crappie per acre. Which is from the missouri aquaguides . Since you have no LMB present but you do have 8" CC, the best help I can give is to stock 40 RES in the 4"-6" range. That is about 30 RES per acre, give or take depending on whether you stock for a 1.25 acre pond or a 1.5 acre pond.

If you stocked 500 "pure" strain bluegill than 40 adult(4"-6") RES per acre should be able to spawn fairly well and since they will probably be the same size if not bigger they'll spawn a little better than starter size RES. Though RES have lesser spawns they should be able to fit into the chain, hopefully, better at that stocking rate and size.

My main concern for you isn't whether or not the redears will establish but is that without an efficient predator the bluegill, redears, and crappie will stunt, eventually leaving you with nothing but a bunch of fat catfish.

I pretty much agree with theo just a slightly larger size and lower initial stocking rate.

I would argue the point of stocking HSB though. I am heavily biased towards LMB. If you can't tell .