Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Vegetation For LCS and PK Grass Shrimp?

I am in the planning stages of building a pond in South Carolina. What are your thoughts on what vegetation would be good to get established for these two species? I am hopeful that I can get them established and get a healthy population spawned up before adding any predators to the pond. I just wanted to know your guys' thoughts on vegetation that would be suitable?

This will be a brand new pond so there won't be any existing vegetation in place. We're starting from scratch.

Why do you want vegetation?

Sago pondweed wigeon grass, southern naiad, common pondweed, broad leaf (American) pondweed are all good choices for PK shrimp. They will prosper well in many macrophytes fairly quickly.
LCS probably needs little if any vegetation to get started but the young will need food sources the vegetation provides good habitat for.

@Dave Davidson

Am I wrong in believing that grass shrimp would do better WITH vegetation? Or am I wrong in believing that Lake Chubsuckers survival and reproduction would be better with vegetation?

I am a novice. I am here looking for information. I'm an insurance broker who likes fishing LOL.

It was my thought that the young lake chubsuckers would do better surviving to adulthood and spawning with vegetation present.

Out of the plants that you mentioned, which one do you think would be the most easily managed to keep it from taking over a pond? I obviously want SOME vegetation, but I don't want to be punching through dense mats of weeds on every cast LOL.

American pondweed and Sago pondweed are my choices and where I have both I have very high reproduction from PK shrimp and yes, LCS will respond to it as well. It's not really a one size fits all as some varieties grow better in certain areas or conditions.
Plants respond according to the elements present, clarity, nutrient load, etc...

It appears from my past failures to get PK shrimp to establish in my pond that they need a certain type of vegetation and sufficient coverage of that vegetation for the PK shrimp to survive predation once other fish get in there. I also feel that the chemistry of the water, especially the calcium content or in general the 'hardness' of the water is pretty important. I believe our groundwater pond has soft water akin to rain water and the PK shrimp just don't seem to make a go of it.

You may want to check and post the water quality (a good water test is done by sending to a place that handles pond/lake water testing or a University rather than a water softener water quality test.)

I found this link in North Carolina but also see that Clemson U does it in South Carolina as well as several pond management companies that I see on Google.

https://haywood.ces.ncsu.edu/PondWaterTesting/

https://www.clemson.edu/public/regu...ion-water/procedures/water-sampling.html

Thanks for that information.

I am hoping to get them established because more food for my bluegills ultimately means more food for my bass, so it would be nice to have them in there. I'm also not opposed to a different type of forage that fills that same niche. I'm not necessarily stuck on any one thing. I just want to get the food chain right the first time around.

I have been looking into different kinds of shiners and minnows as well. There is a loooooot of info to get through.

I'm hoping to give them a try this spring, and really hoping that they like coontail!

22LB, I know nothing about grass shrimp and was/am curious,

I have always seen grass shrimp in grass. We would go frog gigging at night time and when you shined your spotlight in the grass you'd see a jillion of them down there LOL. I assumed that due to the name and where I always found them that grass was kind of a prerequisite. I don't imagine that those delicious little sob's would last long with no grass LOL.

Sounds like you can easily harvest your own. Get a long handle and a fine mesh rectangular shaped net and sweep through the grass. I know that is how the fellow on ebay makes a good sum of side gig cash by sweeping through the grass and sells them all over the nation. I'm pretty sure he is in Florida so I'm not sure how he keeps a supply of cold hardy PK shrimp to sell but he does it somehow.

I think there may be some sorts of plants or grass that the shrimp prefer and many times it is a grassy substrate that they are found in.

I wish I had a place to harvest. I know years ago there was a pond forum member in Nebraska who sold to other pond boss members. If I recall correctly though somehow they harvested through the ice. Not sure how that works or why that was the preferred time to harvest.