Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Am I ready for Fatheads?

I have water in my pond, springs feeding it are suprisingly clear in spots considering all the digging we did. This is a pond renovation and it already has mosquitos, tadpoles, etc. in it, and lots of insect life. Can I add FH minnows now and perhaps stock a few fish come fall as if continues to fill?? It will be warm water for the next few months, surface size is slightly less than one acre. How many lbs are typically added to start a pond this size? Would it be a waste to add double that amount since the summer is half over, and add my regular stocking this fall?? Advice and opinions welcome.

Hey JoeG.

I've stocked FH a total of one time but here's what I did. I stocked 300-400 FH into a newly filled, 3 week old muddy pond and they thrived. I think my water quality improved at a fairly fast rate because of a 12 year old pond just upstream. I stocked them over several weeks beginning in late Jan or early Feb and they spawned like crazy this spring. I also had some insects in my pond but I fed them from the beginning.

You get two spawns with FH, one in the spring and one in the fall. I think it's determined by temperature mostly, it might be around 60 degrees? Can't remember at the moment.

Like I said, I'm a rookie, but if it where my pond I would add them now. I had great luck with Anderson minnow farms. They had great customer service.

Fathead spawning from Aquanic.org



From Texas Parks & Wildlife



JoeG, most of us would say "Go for it!" If you don't plant Fatheads, Sunil will probably sneak some in to your pond himself.

As GW stated you can add them to a small amount of water. In fact I strongly suggest you do this, you might just get a spawn now vs. waiting until fall you will not get a spawn. Not sure what you are saying as double rec. that varies. If you stock several hundred in small amount of water as long as water continues to fill it is not too many. This all helps build forage base for later on. GW btw they spawn many more times than just twice.

Thanks Greg and Theo. I didn't know they kept spawning in summer and that might explain some of the fry I've seen. I thought they had to be RES (only other species). I'm pretty sure some of the fry are RES, but I'll start checking to see if some are FH. I would love it if the FH are still spawning because my RES would love it.

I haven't noticed any FH spawning behavior for quite a while, but maybe it's because I stopped looking for it.

Well the small amount of water is rapidly growing,thunder and lightning chased me out of my excavator while finishing slopes just now. It is raining and raining hard. I will have a couple feet of water over a half acre by my best guess and previous experiences in a couple hours time here.

Greg I asked about the basic rate per surface acre and what the rule of thumb is for allowing a full spring summer season to spawn increase in numbers. Being that I only have half the summer left, would stocking double the FH's give me the a better forage base for YP to begin eating this fall when they are stocked.

Joe not sure the numbers your talking about but a rate of 2,000/6 lbs/acre is norm so double this is not a problem I feel like.

Let the stocking of fatheads begin.