Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Can a pond have to many minnows ??

Our 3/4 acre pond was stocked this year with about 200 catfish 5 grass carp and about 200 cnb .pretty sure evrything else was eliminated before stocking

we also put in 3 lb fhm and several mosquito fish which really took off i would say now we have a trillion little bait fish and when we feed the water churns like its raining and you can actually hear the minnows jumpimg up ,, Is it possible to have to many minnows ,,im serious its remarkable how many you see

If you can walk across the pond on their backs and not get your feet wet, you have enough. Any more than that, give me a call and I'll have them removed!!

From my very limited experience, the minnow population will adjust to the available food for them....the old saying...only the strong will survive!

What is the wr of your CC and cnbg? Are they eating minnows or just fish food? Going into winter with plenty of natural forage is usually a good thing. Note what the minnow pop is like when the water starts warming next spring. It be interesting to see. Will the cnbg start pounding the minnows or try and keep to normal bg things

I would be more concerned that you put 200 CC in your pond. In a 3/4 acre pond that's a bit much.... Sooner or later I would bet sooner you won't have to worry about your minnows as there won't be nothing left once them CC get bigger! CC will eat anything and everything once they start getting into the 2 and 3 and 4 pound range! In a 3/4 acre pond with 200 CC your bait fish and CNBG have no place to hide so it won't take long.... and your gonna have the once in a while nice BG and a bunch of hungry CC unless you feed them a lot!

RC

Ours was like that the first year and second year and now third year now too in the fall. Now so much in the spring. Our 400 perch on the 1 acre pond do them in quite good over winter. Our fatheads are all but ex-stint in our pond. All we have now are common shiners and emerald shiners.

There is millions we can see and that is just the tip of the ice burg on the ones we cant see.

You know you have lots when they are pecking at you when you swim.

Cheers Don.

I've never had too many minnows but believe that it is possible from an O2 standpoint.

I hadn't thought about my YP and HBG getting after the FHM during the winter. Right now, I think I've got a lot of FHM, but by spring they may be cleaned out. I won't be running the feeder all winter, that's for sure. Should I add GS? I put in a bunch of GS in the spring, but haven't seen any since, except for 100s that died in the seed netting I put in for erosion control as the pond filled.
I'm thinking I need more GS. How many for a one ac pond with too many (1,000) YP, and 200 RES, and HBG?
Thanks!

WOW I thought I had alot of yellow perch in our 1 acre pond. We have about 400 with the removal of 25 last year and 75 this year and expect to take out 150 next year.

Yes if not pellet trained I could see a problem with minnows. I am no expert but what i have seen here you will.

Cheers Don.

Thanks Don. I've got to figure this one out. I don't think I'm going to worry about catching female YP. I'll keep everything I catch from now on.
Looks like I overbought by several hundred. I'd open it up to neighbors to help get the YP numbers down, but I don't want to get that started. Plus, these weren't free..
How many did you originally stock in your one acre pond? Looks like 500.
That means I could take out 700 and still be fine. I'll never get that many caught and cleaned.
We will see what happens next spring. I might be adding more HSB than I originally planned.
Thanks again.

We originally stocked 400 in our one acre pond. It is very deep our pond we have about one million gallons.

Originally stocked 400 yellow perch pellet trained.

year one non removed.

year two around 25 removed

year three this year 70 removed.

This time of the year with warm water I am finding that we only catch the yearlings from last year or even two years. They are all 6" stuff we catch right now mid to end of august to Oct. Water temp needs to really drop to turn the pellet trained on to fatten up for the winter. Pellet feeder will be coming out of the pond when the water reaches 55 again.

Cheers Don.