Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Blue Cats and Channels in the same pond

3.5 years ago stocked my .75 acre pond with all fingerlings and included 40 3-5" Channels and 19 4-6" Blues. Now fast forward to last year and prior years where I hardly ever see any of my blues taking pellets and when i do there smaller fish then the channels,so last fall took out a handful of channels from 3.5lbs to just under 6 lbs. Last fall caught and released a 13" Blue??? then just 2 days ago my friend caught a 16" blue that was probably about 2.25 lbs.

Im curious what others have noticed wih there blues vs channels in the same pond with growth rates, the few blues I catch are definately pot bellied and healthy looking just as the channels are. I assume the channels have a higher growth rate because they are voracious feeders once I start feeding them where the blues are not even though the first year, they were all about the pelllets and were purchased from a hatchery that pellet feeds them.

I thought I read on here at one point thet someone had said there blues were not as fast of growers as the channels in their ponds but in rivers its the other way around. Would welcome any input here. Just trying to figure out if there is a growth problem or what going on, BTW, I got 8 bazillion GS in the pond, its half of what i catch ice fishing, and Im putting between 25-30 lbs of fatheads in every spring and fall.

Thanks
Salmonid

Channel Catfish are Omnivores and scavengers. Blue Catfish are Piscivores and can be THE apex predator in a pond...eventually growing large enough to snack on some very large bass.

The reason the CC are doing better than the BCF is a matter of food sources and abundance...CC find and have more food with less energy expended.

In a pond with both Large Mouth Bass and Blue Catfish, I would bump up the Bluegill forage source from the normal 10 to 1 ratio to 15 to one in hopes of the BG producing enough forage...or adding a a high forage producing species like Golden Shiners and/or tilapia.

Fatheads are a pretty expensive snack at this point and only great/intended forage for new ponds with small fish...Shiners or Tilapia would give you far more forage at far less expense, feeding far more size classes of fish than a FH ever could. Tilapia for example stocked at .75 pounds wil produce lots of forage for fish from the YOY class up to 15 pounders for about 1/10th the equivelant price of FH. FH are only good for some fish up to about an 8 inch length. Shiners will grow to about 8 inches max, but can establish a repreoducing poulation long term.


What is a Brazillian GS?????
Edit..I see I mis-read Bazillion...I assume the GS refers to Golden Shiners, but won't edit all the shiner comments in my post. You may well be overpopulated on LMB and missing some of the proper forage size classes.

Rainman, Talapia do not do well here, too cold and dont overwinter so they are very expensive. The pond has no LMB as I want the Blues, HSB, Black Crappie and Yellow Perch to play the part of the LMB. The real reason for the GS was to feed the blues/hsb as they will fit that niche nicely. The FHM are mainly for the Yellow Perch and Black Crappies and bigger gills, I am hoping to manage the pond for trophy BC and YP with everything else for fishing sake, so far its working pretty good, in 3.5 years, YP averaging 11", same with BC, and HSB mostly in the 15-18" rang and really putting weight on now that they are big enough to hit the GS. Red Ears are the only disapointment so far, low numbers, no spawning, low growth so far.
I know , I know, everyone told me this mix wouldnt work but hey, to me its a challenge and we all love challenges, right??

Mark, don't get me wrong, lots of people have Black Crappie in smaller waters like yours. Most just never realize how intensively the management can be with them. Your pond is still fairly young and growing.

Black Crappie are often called boom or bust spawners...conditions for them to recruit young must be ideal, and when those conditions happen, there will be literraly millions of BC will survive and completely overwhelm a pond. It isn't a matter of if it will happen, but when it will happen.

As for the tilapia doing well in your area...all I can say is many have put pen to paper, figured out the costs and I orders for several thousand pounds in northern Ohio...In Fact, it is my most heavily stocked state that I deliver to...I guess how well they do in your area is a purely relative and subjective proposition.

Either way, it was still just one of the many options you could use to reach your goals for your pond. Ultimately, it is still your pond to manage in any way you choose.

50 pounds of FH at an average of $9/lb is $450 and all get eaten before any noticable spawn...At the price Inspired By Nature charges for Blue Tilapia That would be 15 pounds of Tilapia at $30/lb. The tilapia would VERY conservatively produce over 500 pounds of forage in the Dayto area growing season. To my way of thinking, Tilapia is 1/10th the cost of an equivelant amount of Fatheads.

Rainman, Im not sure Im following you, are you saying i could put 15 lbs of breeder sized talapia in the pond and they would produce 500 lbs of offspring in 1 season??

My FHM are about $6.50/lb and I am gonna raise them this summer in a seperate 1000 gallon tank and see if I can quadruple my output. So I can evry so often just put in 5 lbs at a time around all my sunken ceder trees.

I guess Im all ears about the talapia but all the local guys who have them havent shown much summer reproduction on them. I know 3 different folks with them and they are all getting away from them since they are uncatchable in the fall before they die and other then eating some algea havent shown any benefits, ( this is what i hear from the local folks anyways)

Please educate me....

Salmonid

Mark, yes, that is a conservative production estimate from 15 pounds of Mixed sex Blue Tilapia. If those around you have tried tilapia and not had reproduction, the fish are not likely to be mixed sex but mostly males from someone growing them for food...there is a HUGE difference in what Tilapia are stocked in cooler climates...HUGE.

Here is a a thread about one guy's experience near Toledo...
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.ph...true#Post236568

And another thread from Ohio on another Forum.....
http://www.ohiogamefishing.com/community/showthread.php?t=165582

Yeah, I been following the OGF.com thread, when are you proposing coming through for stocking, Im 10 minutes south of Rt 70 and would certainly be your fist stop in Ohio.

Send me pricing in pm IF YOU PREFER.
Thanks, Salmonid,