Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose It's about time!

Well i have out of action from this board for awhile and just wanted to tell everyone hello and glad to be back. Lately i have just been to depressed to get on because i have not had all my ponds with good water in it since 2005. Everything i have had has died and turned to dust but during this time i was able to dig out two ponds out 7ft deeper. Why I am posting this is today I became a total pondmeister again. I got fish from Hermann Fish Farm in Robstown this morning. I received 50 feed trained bass(6inch), 50 adult catfish and bluegill(3inch). It was a happy day to see those fish swim off into the depths of the tank!

Since i fish now i have few questions; When should I start feeding and will the bass stay feed trained? Do two pounds of shiners make enough fry to stay stocked? I also have a good population of mosiquitofish and sailfin molly so should i keep stocking or will that be futile?

I'd try feeding right away; if you're providing good quality pellets when the fish are ready to eat them, it should help a lot with health & growth. How likely each of those three species (LMB, BG, & CC) is to take pellets quickly will (in part) depend on how much natural food is available.

Personally, I would want more than 2 lbs of GSH, especially if they were put in at the same time as the bass. Can you add another 10 lbs?

WRT the small forage fish: how about ensuring they have plenty of cover to help preserve their abundant populations as long as possible? That's probably more cost effective than adding more Shiners/Molly, if you have plenty now.

I believe we had a thread on Sailfin Molly here sometime, but I can't recall whether or not they would benefit from spawning structure. If so, I'd add that, too.

Well i can i get more shiners, I have structure as in brushpiles, there is plenty of vegitation around the edges to about 10ft around the pond.

Last night i went to feed and had one catfish feeding but it was a little early and tonight im going to wait to the sun is lower to feed. Im going to to try to keep putting mosquitofish and mollys in the pond also