Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My new minnow pond

All info greatly appreciated. I am thinking my best approach will be something like the clover minnow trap. Looks nice n simple. If I have a couple in and can get a fair amount every now n then that will fit my bill. The pond is small so if I'm being realistic I'm not going to be pulling out a thousand at a time or anything extensive like that. If I can grow some to bigger size and transport them over that would be great. Their just an addition to the forage bg in the pond now. Plus the pond is right in front of my parents camper and they love sitting there tossing a handful of feed in and watching them all come running.

Hand feeding fish is addictive. If I miss a day and don't get out to feed the fish, it seems like something is missing from my day.

I have no clue why I enjoy it, but I do.

I also feed my minnows to see what I have now and then as it brings in the bigger ones to the deck area. If I wasn't using traps to harvest minnows I would lay down a plastic sheet on the bottom to kill off vegetation and place a lift net over it. Then feed the minnows over the net and lift it when they were feeding.

So the fhm I put in are doing fine. Two weeks ago I added 100 golden shinners to the mix. Within the two week period they have just about all floated. I called the place I got them from to see what happened. He said being the pond is small but deep (12ft in the middle ) there could have been a turnover from the massive rain we just got and choked them out. I don't have any aeration in there yet. He said the shinners require much more o2 then the fatheads and that would be the reason they lived. This sound right to you guys? Anything else that could have been the reason?

GSH are much more fragile than FHM. FHM probably could live in a nuclear waste dump.

Lol, well then I'll say he was probably telling me good Info. Maybe I'll just leave the fhm in there for now and try the gsh next year when I have some aeration in there.

IMO if the GSH died slowly over a two week period, then I don't think it was due to a recent turnover event especially if the rain event occurred within the last few days and fish were dying before the rain. Generally if a turnover occurs with DO sag then the fish will all die at once. From you description the fish died over a 10-14 day period which is very unusual for a turnover fish kill. I would set a baited minnow trap in the pond or try feeding the fish some soft pellets and see if you can catch some remaining shiners. You may have a few still alive. If you have a few GSH alive my guess (reason) for the delayed deaths was handling - holding stress and hot weather. July-Aug is a very poor or worst time to be moving shiners. Move shiners with very good aeration, them not crowded, and when water temp is below 74F. I would try adding a few more shiners 24-60 again in September.

Sounds good Bill. Unfortunately I can't say exactly how they died because my property is an hr from the house and I don't always get down there. I only get to see the end result sometimes. The fish supplier was Smith creek farms here in western ny. They looked healthy enough and the place is only 20 min from me, but it is hot out. I 'll try again later in the yr.

Since the fish farm is close to you, yes do add more in mid September and again 2 to 4 dozen in spring. Some of them will survive to make lots of shiners.

I've had them ship PS and Papershells and only one shipment had problems, but that's because a hot spell caught the boxes in transit. I continue to do business with them.

It was a nice facility and the guy was great. I don't blame them at all, I'm guessing Bill is right on target.

Hate to resurrect a thread, but gotta know; What was your power bill to pump up your pond in 2 weeks?

Great stuff here; learned about nets and there's a fish food for minnows!

I guess it wasn't terrible, the usual Bill for this vacation spot is like 50$ a month. I wanna say I ran it on/off for a few days, and then like 5 straight days in a row. If I remember correctly the bill that month was like 150-ish. So it cost maybe $100 for the time I used the well to fill it. Was definitely worth it, but o.my because I think it's small. I can't imagine trying that on a larger 1 acre pond or something.