Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Bluegills and Fatheads

Fatheads and bgill will work together in the same pond depending on how long of a period you are taking about. Bgill will eat fathead minnows; the bigger the bgill the bigger minnow it can eat. Bgill 8"-9" long can eat 1" to 1.25" fatheads. Adult bgill will ignore the 2"+ fathead breeders. Lots of 2"-4" bgill in a pond your size will take a relatively heavy toll of the fathead fry. If only a few bgill (10-15) are allowed in your size pond, their diet will also consist of a lot of the larger insect larvae and invertebrate adults that are too big for the larger fatheads to eat.

As the number of bgill increase the large invertebrate food supply decreases and bgill will resort to eating more&more small fatheads. As the pond ages with bgill in it and no selective thinning occurs the fish composition will gradually become more and more dominated by bgill until bgill will eventually outnumber the fatheads. This may take several years (5 to 10) and will also depend upon the amount of fish cover. Periodic pond draining and dramatic population adjustments will be necessary to keep the bgill numbers at low density. Selective thinning by heavy trapping and/or seining could help maintain a desired balance.
The goals or desired results for doing this will determine what additional pros and cons I suggest to you for doing something like this.