Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose How big to release sunfish?

My (small 1/5 acre) pond has a few nice bass and some cats. There are probably 2-3 bass that are 16+" in there. No idea on the cats cause I can't catch them but they are 3 years old.

So I've been feed training my sunfish I got earlier this year in a 55gallon aquarium. They were smaller than I thought at 1-2" and basically snacks. Now I have many that are 4-5". Feed training has been going well but I don't want to have wasted my time just to make bigger snacks for my bass/cats. I mean, even at 4-5", a smallish 12" bass can probably eat em pretty easily I think.

How big should I get these guys to get decent survival? Is there a ballpark size where I can get at least 50% survival?

TSK LMB can eat at least 1/3 their length. So if you have 16 inch bass 4 inch would be the minimum. So if you can confirm that they are a solid 5 inches or a bit longer I think you would be ok if you have other food in their for the bass and CC to eat? If you don't have anything else in there for them to eat they may try to eat even your 5 inch fish. I would get them to a solid 5 to 6 inches and when I put them in the pond I would also put in some other smaller bait fish to distract the bass and CC for a while. Maybe throw in a pound or 2 of shiners or something.

1/5th of an acre is pretty close quarters so you better give them sunfish a place to hide from the meat eaters.....

RC

I guess I knew that 1/3 rule of thumb and forgot it but it's a good reference. I do have plenty of other food in the pond (lot of crawfish, bluegills, perch, and bunch of YOY). My visibility is pretty poor so I'm not sure how much there is honestly. There are a lot of other sunfish in there already but I'm trying to make sure this species gets a toehold.

Thanks for the input. Sounds like a plan.

Oh well if you have that much other stuff in there then I would think around the 5 inch mark you should be ok. Unless your CC have gotten hugh...... Would be nice if you could catch one of them to see how big they are first.....

RC

I would feed them another month and try to get an extra inch on them. I wouldn't only worry about size but their prey instinct. I wonder if their survival skills are limited from being raised in a cage. They are at the upper end on size, but are they extra easy prey?????