Our little pond is still only about 3/4 excavated (long story that doesn't matter) & is full. Some Map turtles have moved in, along with a small snapper. Wife's become infatuated with the pond & critters & asked about goldfish. Explained why that was a bad idea & she asked about minnows. What the heck, they're cheap & I doubt the remaining excavation would kill them off. Why not get a jump start on growing forage, right?
So we ran to the bait shop a month ago & picked up 5 dozen rosy reds & FHM, all around 2" & tossed 'em in. I'd guess we lost close to half that first day, but we'd occasionally see a couple here & there around the pond. There are no other fish in the pond & a decent bit of submerged or semi submerged grass scattered around the pond.
We went to a local fish farm on Wednesday & picked up 3lbs of rosies, all 1" or less. All rosies, no plain ol' FHM. Seeing small schools of the rosies here & there & then I saw a couple of what looked to be FHM fry. Smaller than the rosies we just added. Is it possible the little jokers have pulled off something of a spawn already? I have added absolutely no cover/structure of any sort yet & no idea if any of the vegetation is "close enough" for them to utilize. Makes me wonder why I didn't just put a few pounds in earlier in the summer. Going to get some PK shrimp in shortly & hopefully have some decent forage growing by the time we're able to start stocking some fish (hopefully) next spring.
