Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Ok, how about a FH/RES pond?

GW - This is a difficult question to answer since you are exploring a new, untested, and unproven fish combination. The general rule for stocking fish is the larger the stockers the fewer that are stocked. So unless I know what size you are stocking the harder it becomes to give a specific number. As always there are a lot of, "it all depends" with just about every situation; yours is no exception.

So from your PM to me, I will assume you want to stock both RES & WM. Dr Dave is correct WM tend to be more prolific than RES.
Ave egg numbers of RES are 7.5" = 16K, 8.5" = 21K and 9"-9.5" = 26K.
Ave egg numbers of WM are 4.5" = 29K, 5.5" = 53.5 K.
Thus WM tend to be more productive than RES. Thus I would stock about 25%-33% fewer WM than RES.

If you want slightly faster growth then I would slightly decrease stocking numbers suggested by Dr. Dave (500/ac) to around 300-400/ac assuming you are stocking 3"-5" fish. If good to average growth then use his 500/ac.

In your PM to me you indicated you wanted to stock WM & RES. These double questions make answers more difficult.

Dr Dave mentions that - ""I've yet to find a biologist who has ever seen a "stunted" redear sunfish population."" There is a 1/3 ac pond near me with only RES, yellow perch (YP) and maybe still some fathead minnows remaining. No larger sport fish predators. The pond is around 10 yrs old. I think the YP have a diet as heavy or heavier towards fish than WM. There is basically no fish harvest on this pond. I have fished the pond several times to sample it with my angling method. I conclude the pond has too many fish (mostly YP) - most of them too small to be, IMO, a quality fishery, i.e. too much biomass tied up in small vs the number of larger quality or preferred sized individuals. IMO this pond needs fish removed or harvested by some method - predation, trapping or angling. I have spoken with the pondowner (against LMB) a couple times where I suggested he introduce a non-reproducing predator to his pond. To date and to my knowledge he has not done this.

Shorty mentions -" I have seen standard 8-1/2" BG eat 4"-5" red tailed shiners with their small mouth size." I do not doubt this. But I think it was the rare exception and does not happen very often. I assume the red tail shiner was for some reason an easy meal for that BG due to shiner injury, senility, special circumstances or "bad luck". From my experience - I doubt that a normal population of RES could ever by themselves eliminate a FHM population. RES (and BG) are not "designed" to eat fish, not even slow swimming fish such as FHM. It is not a preferred food even in an ideal setting such as lots of FHM present. Thus I doubt that a non-stunted, normal, harvested population of RES could eliminate all the adult FHM breeders from a viable, healthy FHM population. GW may be able to provide more info on this topic. What is more likely to occur than eliminating the FHM is the RES become too abundant in a smaller size class such as the 3"-5" size class.