Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Fathead minnows from Dunn's fish truck

The Dunns fish farm truck was near me today so I picked up some Fathead Minnows to start off my pond. I would have preferred to avoid Dunn's after some of the things I read in another thread here but they are the only truck around here for a while and I really wanted to get the minnows established so I went ahead. I also thought it would be nice to get another review of Dunn's on here.

I bought 6 pounds of Fathead Minnows. I didn't weigh them and have no idea what 6 pounds should look like so I have no idea how many they gave me. Maybe some of you can estimate from the pictures below.

Around 20% of the minnows they gave me were "rosy red." They were supposed to all be the dark colored kind. I wasn't super happy about this, but went ahead and took them.

The fish all seemed healthy to my untrained eye. It took me about 45 minutes to get them from the truck to my pond and start acclimating them. I unsealed the bags, put them in the water to acclimate, and periodically scooped some pond water into the bag water before letting them swim out. They all seemed fast and healthy as the swam away into the pond. 2 of the largest minnows were floating upside down and gasping for a while but they eventually swam away too.

These were the first fish stocked into my first pond and I wanted to get more pictures of this momentous occasion, but between the heavy rain and my camera battery dying I didn't get as many as I wanted.

Here's one of the unopened bags. This should be 3 pounds of Fatheads. I bought two of these bags for a total of 6 pounds. As you can see, there were quite a few Rosy Reds mixed in:



Acclimating:



Close-up of a random sample:

That bag doesn't look like 3 pounds of fish to me, maybe with the water it is...

"Rosey Reds" usually cost more, however if you are just looking to stock as forage I think they are not a good thing as they are so brightly colored they end being eaten even faster than a normal colored FHM and that is fast! Did you hand sort through the fish to make sure no unwanted species were present? Without predation, just those fish will be thousands by fall.

Looks good although I too question if there are 3 lbs. of fatheads in the bag. If those are large fatheads according the chart below there should be 450 in the bag.

If you did get shorted, I just can't figure out how a business like that can expect to have you as a future customer. Isn't this counterproductive as a business? I sure wouldn't get my future fish from someone that may have shorted me, even if there isn't much competition. I've been screwed over by a couple of fish suppliers because I knew what was going on and I can assure you not only will they no longer get my business but I've told everyone I could about it, and continue to do so.

That's said I'm not saying they shorted you. Just if they did.

Fatheads are really tough fish so it's hard to kill them. I sometimes question the "acclimation" in the plastic bags especially if the pond temps are similar. I've seen people starve fish for oxygen keeping them in the bags too long just because they felt the need for the fish to be "acclimated."

Below is a chart that gives all the info ones needs on minnnows etc. Maybe we can put in archives somewhere for others to refer to. I believe I got it from an NCRAC publication.

My gut feeling was that it didn't look like 3 pounds, but I wasn't sure enough to call him out on it. I did ask him "is that really 3 pounds" and he confirmed that it was.

I'd read on here that the rosey reds are eaten up really fast by fish and birds so I wanted to get the standard coloration. Still, I figure that since there are no other fish in the pond yet I'll have plenty of standard colored ones by the time "real" fish go in.

I didn't hand sort each one to check for unwanted species. I did spot-check several and they all looked like Fathead Minnows to me, although I'm no fish expert. Hopefully I didn't screw up and introduce something else.

Any thoughts on how fast they'll reproduce in the pond by themselves given adequate spawning material? My plan was FHM, wait a while, CNBG, wait a while, LMB. How long should I hold off before stocking some Bluegill?

If your water clears a little you should have thousands by fall.

Thanks for the chart, Cecil. I'm going to guess that they averaged around 2", meaning that there should be 300 fish per pound. I didn't count them but I'm fairly certain there weren't anywhere near 900 fish in the 3-pound bag in the picture.

If that really is the case it's time to find another fish supplier. The other possibility is the driver doesn't know what he's doing.

Ack, I had the same problem with a local fish truck last year. I paid for 10# of FHM and only got 8#. I dumped them into a fine meshed net, weighed the fish & net then weighed the net.

Just get a bucket with a little water in it, weigh it with a fish scale. Then start adding fish with a net until desired weight is acheived. I ordered 12 lbs for a customer last Saturday, my fish supplier Abe Rayl (Matt's Dad)dumped in 16 lbs of FHM and said "just take it". Abe over delivers on his promise and has my business for life.

In their defense those are huge FHM. Ours are much smaller and we estimate 300/lb. I would say those sizes are more like 100-150/lb. Still no idea if 300-450 in the bag. Not much of an investment at this point. Give them a try on another 3 lbs and wieght them as Blaine suggest then you will know if you should continue business with them.

Yeah I think you are better off getting them from a bait shop (I can get a gallon of FHM for $70) then Dunns. I too have used them (more than one time) and I think I was cheated as well. My fish were much smaller though.

They are actually supposed to give my Dad and I replacement Grass Carp tomorrow when they are here, so we will see what happens.

When I got them back in March mine had a huge sore and very little tail and my dads went belly up in the bag during transport.

They also claim to sell CNBG (which I have been told are not pure) and that they reproduce at 80% female.

With that said my LMB and CC were extremely healthy and have done well.

Hopefully not all of them are large as they would be exclusively males and near the end of their lifespan.

Not sure how far Moore’s is from you but you may want to give them a try and see if the count is any better. Now if it is too far to drive then may not be worth it unless you purchase quite a few of them.

I may actually get some from them if my dad decided to get some advanced sized BG from them, I figure we are already there so may as well get 3-5 pounds of FHM as well.

Just a thought.

Careful with those "baitshop" minnows. Rarely are they sorted.

Thanks for the info, everyone.

I want to stress that I'm NOT accusing Dunn's of shorting me. I didn't weigh them and I'm not confident in my ability to eyeball them. I don't want to accuse them when there's a chance they did nothing wrong.

I've floated some pallets along with my shallow brush piles to encourage spawning. Hopefully these minnows will establish well. If not I'll put some more in when I stock my bluegill.

It can be decieving. I ordered 500 CNBG from Dunn's and was sure I got ripped off. I would have bet money that there werent that many in those few bags. I counted every fish when I put them in the pond just to see how bad I got screwed and you know what? There were exactly 500 fish in those bags. There are alot of things I dont like about Dunn's so I doubt that I'll go back to them. Especially since there are some pretty good sources right here on the forum.