Callahan the first batch of RES I got from Dunn's (that went into my forage pond) looked pretty rough also. The second batch they gave me as replacements looked much better but were smaller. If you saw my thread on my
forage pond I posted pictures of some of the adults from those two stockings and they looked like your picture of your neighbors fish. So they turned out alright.
As has been discussed on this forum many times, RES are hard to feed train so the fish farms may have more trouble keeping them than the BG. I know in my sediment pond I put in 175 RES and 100 CNBG expecting to get a lot of reproduction of both to add to my main pond. Well I wish I would have put the 175 RES and 25 CNBG because I have CNBG fingerlings running out my ears compared to only a few RES fingerlings.
Your RES will probably do fine. Mine turned out ok, Just not as reproductive as my BG.
