Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose all male CNBG pond

I will be digging out a small area along our creek it will be around .10 to .15 acres in size. I'm thinking about stocking it with all male CNBG so I won't have to worry about them spawning too much. I know if I get a female in there somehow it will mess up my plans but I still want to try it. Does anyone have any thoughts or any suggestions before I do this? I plan on feeding them. Do I need to stock fathead minnows as well?

Sounds like fun! Curious how many they will tell you to stock. May be mixed results on whether the fhm should go in. Grass shrimp for sure!! PlanING on what you want for vegetation to keep the shrimp going great will be worth the effort. I know scudds better than shrimp. I don't know what scudds would work in your area.

"Along the creek" will it wash out or fill with bullhead and carp?

Ask if maybe a smaller minnow would be better like the gambusa?

Been there done that with northern strain male bluegills in an almost 3/4 acre pond and still doing it. Works quite well. Bill Cody, Bruce Condello, and others were my mentor on this technique.

I routinely harvest males over 1 lb. with my personal best 1 lb. 8 1/2 oz. The fish are almost as tall as they are long as a 9.5 inch bluegill is already a pound. The 1 lb. 8 1/2 oz. fish was only 10.5 inches. Keep in mind I measure on a board so if measured with a tape they would measure 1/2 inch longer.

Myself, in a pond that small, I would not add fatheads, but pellet feed as to make sure all your fish biomass is in the bluegills.

One thing to make sure of, if you want them to be all males: If there is any doubt whatsoever it's a male -- keep it out! Typically from my experience you can't be 100 percent sure until spawning season, and the fish is at least 8 inches in length.

Cody puts fish in cages until he can sex them. Mine are hatched in a separate 1/10th acre pond and seined out in late summer and brought in side to recirculating tanks for the winter and for about a year. I can get them to 8 inches in less than a year this way.

Clay - There are three articles by Cody, Condello & Baird in past Pond Boss magazines about your idea.

BEHEMOTH BLUEGILLS IN SMALL PONDS. In Part I, Cody, Condello and Baird provide the necessary details of how to accurately sex bluegills as the first step to produce trophies in small waters. Mar-Apr 2006.

GROWING BEHEMOTH MALE BLUEGILLS; Part II. Cody, Condello and Baird present info about size, growth, stocking densities, and choosing proper male bluegills. May-Jun 2006.

THE ART OF MANAGING BEHEMOTH MALE BLUEGILLS. Cody, Condello and Baird conclude their three part article about raising trophy male bluegills. Discussed are best size of ponds, natural foods, supplemental feeding, angling implications, females only, and creative ways to use male bluegills. A standard weight table for bluegill is included. Jul-Aug 2006.

Yep good articles!

fishm_n- thanks for the idea on the grass shrimp and the scudds. I'll have to do some research on the scuds and the shrimp. I did have some catfish washed down when we had all of the rain about a month ago but I did put a net up last year as the creek comes into our property so I wouldn't get any unwanted fish. When it rained so hard a month ago it coming down so fast it was at least 2-3 feet above the net.

Bill Cody- I'll try and order that issue of pond boss so I'll get caught up.

Cecil- thanks for the info I'm going to try and make a trip to overton's in about a month. Would it be better to start with smaller CNBG like 2-3 inches or a little bigger like 3-5 inches? Or does it really matter? How many CNBG should I get? I really like the idea of bringing the CNBG inside and keep them growing if I can. I have a large tank that's about 400 gallons that I could keep in my man cave haha. When it gets to be summer I'll put them in some horse tanks until I can sex them.

thanks for all the info everyone

Any concern with a location like this that a high water event will ruin your plan?

While bluegills are beneficiaries of indeterminate growth, they do have a finite lifespan. I think getting them under my control at an earlier age might equate to greater growth potential.

If you don't have biofiltration to oxidize ammonia to nitrites and then nitrates, and a clarifier to remove suspended and settleable solids your fish won't last long in tanks. Or do you have that covered?

You will not be able to accurately sex those bluegills until they are around 7"-8.5" long. So at first, I would get as big of ones as you can so you don't have to raise them very long. For your small project I would do one of two options in order of easiest first.

1. Find someone who has BG or CNBG in their pond and they feed them. Ask if you can buy some of their male BG for the standard fish farm price. If you are lucky and know or have some really good friends they will give you a few male BG free or low cost or in exchange for a bag of fish food. Since you have stream overflows into your pond, I would first start with regular pure strain bluegill to gain experience and since you have good chance of loosing them to flooding. BG and CNBG males will co-habitate okay, so they can be mixed in the same pond. Be aware that male BG will likely spawn with green sunfish that enter the pond via floodwater.

2. Buy as big of BG as you can find at the fish farm because they have to be near 8" to sex them. This is discussed in the above articles. Raise them in a cage until they can be sexed which sexing is easiest in spring when in spawning condition. This generally means you will have to overwinter them in a cage which can be done with some cage raising knowledge/experience. Over crowding is usually the biggest problem of cage raising fish especially as they reach maturity.

I second Cecil's statement - If there is any question on whether they are male or female, they go with the females.

Cecil- no I don't have that covered haha. Can you explain a little bit about biofiltration please?

Bill D.- yea I am a little concerned about some but I'm going to either clip a fin or tag them so I know what I stocked.

Thanks for the info sprkplug. I'm still trying to decide if I want to get them when they're really small so I can make them grow as much as I possibly can or just get some bigger ones. I might just see if I can get some CNBG from overton's that are 8" or so and maybe I can get them to I.D. them for me.

Bill Cody- thanks for the info about them spawning with the green sunfish. I honestly think my CNBG and the green sunfish that were washed down to me in the other part of the creek have already spawn together. I didn't want this to happen but I think it just kinda happened. I'll try and get a picture of one so someone can I.D. it.

Yea if there's any question I'll throw them in with my HSB.

I have another question I saw 50 pounds of bass per acre normal for carrying capacity but what about since I'm only going to have CNBG in there? Is it different or what?

thanks everyone for the all the info

Too much to cover here. Let's just say if you put fish in a tank with no water changes, even with plenty of oxygen, eventually they will poison themselves by the ammonia they give off in metabolism. You need a bacterial culture growing on some kind of sufarce to oxidize that to nitrites and then nitrates, which are benign to most warm water species of fish. Aquarium biofilters do it all the time.

I would suggest the book Small Scale Aquaculture by Steve VanGorder. Less than 20 dollars on Amazon. However if you are really interested, I would not build the RBC in the book as it's about $500.00 in materials. I would go with a moving bed filter in a 55 gallon drum which consists of an air source in the bottom (diffuser) and plastic media for the bacteria to grow on. Can direct you on that if you're interested. Cost would be less than a fifth of the RBC.