Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain New pond FHM questions

I have just created a new pond its small only 30'x70' and around 5' deep. I am thinking I would like to put in some FHM now and stock it with LMB and maybe sometype of sunfish in April next year. Im thinking around 20-30 LMB.

Is it a good idea to get the FHM going?

How much supplemental food will the FHM need?

In this small of a pond can I stock both LMB and SMB together?

Maybe 20ish of each?

Thanks Brandon

Will it freeze solid and how thick is the ice in winter?

FH would be a good idea.

Not much food for FH.

I would skip the LMB in that size pond. SMB would be better and or HSB but 20 is to many. I would say 10 SMB and 5 HSB with some GS. BG will be to productive for SMB to control.

Reproduction and Care of the Young
Fathead minnows spawn repeatedly starting in May and continue into August. Males select the spawning site, usually under logs, branches or rocks in shallow water. They will also use artificial spawning sites in old tiles or pipes. Females lay adhesive eggs on the underside of whatever the male has chosen to spawn under. The male then aggressively defends the spawning site from other fish. Males also use the large spongy pad on the top of their body to clean the eggs the female has laid on the underside of the select object.

Source: http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_...27/Default.aspx




Allowing a spawn prior to stocking fish might not be a bad idea.

From the archives

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=115165#Post115165

Built a new 3.5 acre pond last summer and this April stocked it with 35# of FHM and BG (put LMB and CC in this September).

I have had as much fun with the FHM as any fish and that is saying something as I am a scuba diver and spend 3-4 months in the Caribbean looking at ocean fish.

I read up on them while building the pond and put in LOTS of breeding habitat for them (pallets, old plassons out of a turkey barn, PVC, etc, etc - my wife would say my attitude is if it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing. Let's just say they had plenty of places on the underside of things to lay eggs).

Wow did we have reproduction. Before sunset in the summer you could see minnows hitting the surface across the entire pond. I was beginning to wonder if there was such a thing as overpopulating a pond with FHM.

These little guys are voracious. Definitely feed them some pellets if you can. With the floating stuff this summer sometimes we would see 25-50 of the little guys pushing the pellet around trying to eat it. They would keep after it till it softened enough and they would whittle it down to nothing. Sinking food around the edge in a few inches of water and it would look like a shark feeding frenzy in miniature. As a scuba diver I have witnessed quite a number of shark feedings under water where the sharks tear up a frozen fishsicle. These little guys look just like the sharks attacking and get in the same kind of frenzy as the activity picks up. In the summer when swimming with my grandsons if you sit still for 30 seconds you would have 25-50 (probably a whole school) of them pecking at your arms and legs. Was really funny and felt weird as they tried to consume you. If the little guys had a single tooth they would have been dangerous. If they weighed a pound instead of a fraction of an ounce, you would not get in the water with them.

Definitely feed them. They will reproduce more.

I went scuba a couple times in the pond (12-18" visibility is not much fun when I am used to 100'). In low visibility to see fish you sit still and they will come to you. If you swim will never see a fish unless by accident. I would lay on the bottom and within a minute a school of the FHM would find me and be biting me everywhere with exposed skin including my scalp. Felt like little bugs pecking all over me. What fun.

Within the last week water temp has dropped here and the BG are much less active. Once in a while a FHM will hit a floating feed but I have quit feeding it because of the lack of activity. I still feed the sinking though because the FHM will be up and about anytime there is a little sun and warmth. Put a few pellets in a few inches of water and in a short while a mass of minnows will be in a frenzy trying to consume it. I put a little in 1-2" water where the babies hang out and the little 1/3 size FHM will peck around on it. The half size ones will peck and move on and a new group peck and move on till the pellets soften up enough and get completely consumed. If the adults clean up the deeper pellets first, they will venture in the shallower water (they do not like to stay there because of bird predators) and finish of the shallow pellets.

Fatheads are a load of fun if you take the time to watch them. They are voracious and it almost makes me sad to think the LMB will have them wiped out in a couple years. I have put a lot of structure specifically for them in hopes I can maintain a population. Seriously considering making a small feeder pond beside the main pond just so I can raise them.

FHM are high on the list of fish I like. They are just tough little buggers you gotta love.

snrub

snrub, welcome to the forum... Unfortunately, FHM did not evolve to live in the same body of water as LMB. They just cannot reproduce fast enough. Your LMB will have them gone in short order.

Yes, the small LMB we put in recently I am sure are munching on the baby minnows as they have been growing. I know of a guy not too far from me that put FHM in his existing pond, which you would expect the LMB to simply make a snack out of them. But he has grassy areas growing around the pond (safe areas for them) and he has been able to keep a population going (he did not expect to but keeps seeing them in the shallows each year). Of course my new pond has no such habitat, so probably no such luck.

I guess such is life when you are small, insignificant, and too low on the food chain.

Thanks for the welcome. Will try to get around to doing a profile sometime. Been lurking for a while.

snrub

Since we are on a very popular subject, does anyone have experience with setting up a small feeder pond beside the larger main pond?

- What size, depth, and configuration (round, oblong, rectangular)?
- How to get water into it - pump it in from the larger pond?
- Defined cover in the pond for primo egg-laying?
- Water specifications?
- Anything else?

Thanks - Buckeyedude

see this thread, this design will work for a forage pond too..
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=357789&page=1

I'm with snrub in that I too have enjoyed my FHM as much as my other fish. I added 10# in 2 stockings. I originally started w/2 pallets, staked along the shoreline. By late May, the minnows started using them, so I added 5 more, then another 5. I would have added more but got too busy. They do sink over time, so I added floats to keep them on the surface. I'm actually considering fencing off a portion of the pond to keep as a breeding area for them. I've also commandeered the wife's ornamental pond as a hatchery for them as well.

Saturday, I'm picking up my smallies and WE. These are the first predators, so I'm curious as to how long the FHM will last.

1 year, 2 at most... Really won't matter what you do. Your FHM are doomed!

Shucks, I sure will miss the little guys. What about GS?? I think I've found a source for some in the spring.

The GS will have a better chance at long term survival if you get them established ASAP. For best success you want GS to be as big as practical (6"-8") when the predators reach 6"-8" long. When this happens the predators are growing in length much faster than the GS and larger predators eat larger year classes of GS. This increases the chances of longer term survival of the GS since the adults will be in the 8"-10" range and serve as brood stock.

Back to jbbies topic. For this small of a pond (0.04ac), consider using single sex sport fish; only males or females of each species. Reproducing sport fish in this size of pond will quickly overpopulate the pond habitat and management will become problematic resulting in poor growth rates and probably owner frustration. In small ponds best and easiest management of the fish populations is by using sport fish that don't reproduce or have minimal reproduction and forage fish that are prolific. This way the predators and panfish have a constant supply of food for good growth.