Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Magnolia Crappie -Hybrid Crappie

Eric/all;

This thread has been going on a couple years now...allow me to clarify. As stated in a few other posts while I WANTED true Triploid "Magnolia" crappie, I could not find any commercial sources. About that time Rex turned me onto another option, although he admittedly had no experience with them, nor did anyone else on the Forum, but I decided to experiment and keep them isolated in a mini pond where they could do little damage. These fish are merely a BC/WC hybrid - their supposed benefit is that the F2 generation are inferior and theorhetically would not mature into adults in the manner regular offspring from a WC or BC would; thus eliminating the threat of overpopulation. These have been swimming since October 09 stocked at 3-4", and the fish in the mini pond have not exhibited any signs of reproduction but their growth has been very limited, too - average size of 7-8" and very low WR. I have the pond stocked with PK Shrimp and GSH, but it's entirely possible the forage base is not sufficient to allow ideal growth conditions.

The escapees in the main pond, however, are averaging 10-12" and solid WR of 100 or a little better in my estimation. The BOW is 15x larger, and forage includes YOY YP, BG, RES, SMB and GSH. I'm guessing the increased growth is due to the improved forage base.

I realize this thread started with my intentions of sourcing true Triploid "Magnolia" crappie so sorry for any of you who haven't read from start to finish to read the chain of stocking events.

Will keep everyone clued into my experiences with these and hopefully will lend some research into whether these hybrid bc/wc fish can serve a purpose in a small bow fishery.