The problem with separating 1"-2" BG and RES is the red on the back of the gill cover is so small on a 1"-2" RES that it is very hard if even possible to see. As the RES gets 3.5"-4" the red mark becomes much easier to see.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
I personally am about done with fish trucks....Last year hbg instead of red ear. About two weeks ago I saw a fish truck at the mfa 6 miles from my house and decided to stop. They had rosy fat heads and thanks to my addiction to get as diverse of a forage base as possible (thanks CJB) I decided to get ten pounds. They put them all in one bag and by the time I got to my pond they were all sucking air and I had about ten percent mortality. After tempering them I began to sort them and after the final tally of fish on the bank I got two channel cat, one goldfish, five bluegill, ten unkown (to me) shiners and about two hundred black fathead minnows, which I released into the pond. Both occurences were with different companies.
I personally am about done with fish trucks....Last year hbg instead of red ear.
Exactly my expierence this morning except I am not sure if these were HBG or GSF. Good thing I didn't put them in the pond and I made it back to exchange them. Here is one of the fish I exchanged, it still isn't a RES.
What size is that fish? I pulled this HBG out of the cage for a photo opp just for this thread. It's a tad over 4"
"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"
If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1) And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1) Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT? PB answer: It depends.
Top two are RES for sure, bottom two are GSF for sure...
My thoughts exactly. Here is the story, my mother law got me a gift cerificate for Christmas from our local farm and garden stores so I could put some additional fish in my new pond. I ordered 50 RES and picked them up this morning. Only 19 of them were RES, the rest were pure GSF and I am pretty sure the guys on the fish truck knew exactly what they gave me. I did make it back to the store before the truck took off and exchanged them. I still ended up with two GSF when I got back. Thankfully only the fish I was sure were RES went into the pond, the rest went into my RAS tank with the SMB fingerlings that I am pellet training.
Ugh...I'll betcha it's Arkansas Pond Stockers which haul to our local Orschleins. I bought 10# of FHM from that truck and found several BG and BH in the load. Apparently I failed to get all but two BH from the batch...yes, I do have a small BH population now - thanks to APS.
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau
I bought 10# of FHM from then a few years ago and weighed the fish when I got home (I didn't see them weigh the fish before they went into the bags). My scale said 8#.......
No offense but the fish look somewhat stunted with the large eyes etc.
No offsense taken at all Cecil, I noticed the same thing. Not all them them looked that way but a significant number did. I have already had seven of them go belly up including the ones pictured with the two GSF.
CJ, the RES came from Orscheln Farm & Home, they are a chain store in Nebraska and Iowa and do their annual "Fish Day" via Arkansas Pond Stockers. (Yeah, I know.) Orceheln is licensed to sell fish here in Nebraska they do sell a lot of fish. You should have seen the line of people waiting to pick up fish in a light rain and some of them had really large orders they were picking up. The good news is that I'm only out $6.92 out of my own pocket after the gift certificate and anything questionable never made it into my pond. I pre-planned to look at each individual fish before putting them in the pond since this outfit is out of Arkansas and the RES were advertised as 1-3", I knew the smaller ones would be hard to distinguish between BG and BG are not in my stocking plans, at least not yet.
At this point I don't want any other type of sunfish in my pond as it would screw up my pond plan. I set up second small RAS tank several weeks ago just for this purpose not knowing what to expect today. I can see one or two of the wrong type of fish mixed in with others, but to have 60% of what were supposed to be RES actually be GSF was pure BS and had to be intentional. Personally I would not have gone this route except for the gift certificate from my mother in law who was just trying to be helpful.
On a brighter note I did pick up small number of very healthy 4-6" pellet trained YP from TJ's favorite supplier earlier this week. They were eating pellets within 20 minutes of going in my smaller RAS system and I waited that long before tossing in a few pellets just to see what they would do. I have put a few of smaller YP in with my SMB fingerlings to clean up the pellets the SMB don't eat, the rest went into the pond after a few days in the RAS. I hope the SMB will start taking pellets off the surface soon, right now they are just eating pre-softened pellets that sink, they might learn something from watching the YP feed on the surface.
Yeah, Arkansas Pond Stockers are a horror story at times. It's a shame they had that high of a percentage of GSF mixed in with their RES... People wonder how GSF magically appear in their ponds when they only stocked BG and RES. Well, now many people know... The junk fish I have found mixed in with the FHM myself and others have bought from them in nuts.
Cecil, I never did start a thread on my RAS system but it is set up similar to how Bruce was doing his out at the Conderossa. A few years ago my wife picked up a two used fiberglass aquaculture tanks from a UNL auction a for $65 a piece, one 300 gallon and one 75 gallon tank. Both tanks have center drains and slightly concaved bottoms. Here is how I first set it up the bigger 300 gallon tank for my SMB pellet training project.
Filling the tank and adding water.
I did take the surface agitator out and now have two aquarium powerheads pulling water from the bottom of the tank creating a slow circular current in the tank. The SMB seem to like it better and it's easier for me to watch them eat. Each powder head is moving 170 GPH. The fish waste and uneaten food settle in a small area in the bottom of the tank near the drain that I siphon out twice a day after I'm done feeding the SMB, then I add fresh water and let tank slowly overflow through the drain for hour or more every evening. I am collecting the waste water in a 5 gallon bucket and watering my apple trees with it.
Here is an interesting Easter morning picture with sunlight coming in through the door. Both powerheads are running.
I am still fine tunning my RAS systems, as a newbie to this hopefully I am doing it right. So far the only fish that have died in it are the RES that I picked up yesterday, two more this morning that just got burried in the apple tree mulch.
Alright, i have been reading and learning a lot from this site, now i'm really scared to put any fish in my new pond, i have no idea what they should look like as fingerlings , i'm thinking about BG,RES,maybe some CNBG,and LMB. I was going to ask opinon's on those types of fish in my new 3/4 acre pond, and how many of each, for a well balanced pond. but the more i read the worst my fears of getting trash fish or something i didn't want, i've also been trying to find out where to buy my fingerlings around here. (deep south louisiana), the pond is not finished filling yet. might be stocking the perch this fall. but i'm sooo confused. PLEASE HEEELP! Here's some pics of the pond so far. THANKS Danny
Sorry, One more thing, i've been reading threads about the HSB also, would that work for me down here, with the heat and humidity, i really don't know, what would ya'll think would be a good stocking plan for down here. Thanks Again. Danny
Cecil, I never did start a thread on my RAS system but it is set up similar to how Bruce was doing his out at the Conderossa. A few years ago my wife picked up a two used fiberglass aquaculture tanks from a UNL auction a for $65 a piece, one 300 gallon and one 75 gallon tank. Both tanks have center drains and slightly concaved bottoms. Here is how I first set it up the bigger 300 gallon tank for my SMB pellet training project.
I did take the surface agitator out and now have two aquarium powerheads pulling water from the bottom of the tank creating a slow circular current in the tank. The SMB seem to like it better and it's easier for me to watch them eat. Each powder head is moving 170 GPH. The fish waste and uneaten food settle in a small area in the bottom of the tank near the drain that I siphon out twice a day after I'm done feeding the SMB, then I add fresh water and let tank slowly overflow through the drain for hour or more every evening. I am collecting the waste water in a 5 gallon bucket and watering my apple trees with it.
I am still fine tunning my RAS systems, as a newbie to this hopefully I am doing it right. So far the only fish that have died in it are the RES that I picked up yesterday, two more this morning that just got burried in the apple tree mulch.
Wow what a deal on tanks! So are you using some kind of mechanical filtration for suspended solids and biological filtration?
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
Nope, I'm just keeping the tank clean, I'm running fresh water through it evenings only, and then doing a 60-70% water change out at least once a week to get rid of the suspended solids. I did drain it dry last weekend and wiped it down good. I set this up on short notice so I haven't got to the filtration part yet. I do have "mechanical filters" that I have modified and attached to the the bottom of the pick up tubes for the power heads. I have to clean them out every couple of days but I put those on more to keep fish from getting sucked up into the powerheads. Normally the pick up tube is attached to an under gravel filter system in and aquarium so I had put something on the ends to keep the fish out of tubes. Just remember, I'm a newbie at this. I'm thinking cage raised fish off a dock would be a whole lot less work but need to build a dock first, it's on the list.
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The good news is that I'm only out $6.92 out of my own pocket after the gift certificate and anything questionable never made it into my pond. I pre-planned to look at each individual fish before putting them in the pond since this outfit is out of Arkansas and the RES were advertised as 1-3", I knew the smaller ones would be hard to distinguish between BG and BG are not in my stocking plans, at least not yet. 
So far the only fish that have died in it are the RES that I picked up yesterday, two more this morning that just got burried in the apple tree mulch.
