Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Cool water gamefish in Southern Indiana

DC - All the info that was supplied above was in my opinion good EXCEPT for -" aerating with sub-surface diffusers are very efficient and should control many of the nuisance weeds and algae that are likely to develop.". The word efficient was okay but I think this other part about should control was very misleading and suggestive information unless he has a different definition of: "nuisance weeds and algae" than mine and most other people. Early in aerator popularity this algae & weed control theory developed. It has never been scientifically proven to do as it is often promised about weed and algae control. Sometimes after an aerator is installed the "pond" conditons improve but rarely are they scientifically measured or documented and the hype about algae and weed control continues to be spread without proof. If you get a chance to talk or email him again ask him SPECIFICALLY how he defines "nuisance weeds and algae". When certain ratios of dissolved nutrients are present in the water 20 to 30 aerators per acre will not stop rooted weed, filamentous algae and even most bluegreen algae growth. I have never seen an aerator even come close to controlling rooted weeds. No scientific proof has ever been published about rooted weed control by aerators. Ask to read his scientific proof. If he disagrees, get his guarantee in writing , because you WILL eventually collect on this warranty. Newly filled ponds OFTEN have nuisance filamentous algae problems especially when the fill water (fertilized runoff) contained excess nurients and even when aerators are present. He gave you a typical aeration sales pitch and it gives you unrealisic expectations of what an aerator can do. I also sell aerators but not under false pretenses and promises.

Bottom aerators are very good for a pond and provide many benefits to a stratified pond but algae and weed control are usually not caused by operation of aerators.

Since you got what I think is misleading information, when you shop for an aerator also check out Ted Lea and GreenClean-Vertex Systems south of Lima (Ted has numerous posts here at the forum). He is very knowledgable and a "straght shooter" when it comes to overall aeration knowledge and info.

Your aerating operation plan (run times) during mid-summer may not provide enough water tunover in your large pond to keep oxygenated water in the deepest basin of the pond. Ted Lea may be able to provide some ideas with this concept. You may have to do temp and or oxygen tests to verify feasibility of your theory.

Theo has some good suggestions about first stocking fatheads and checking temperature ranges of positions in the water column at a few locations in the pond during the first summer. This info will give you very good baseline information for reference to help troubleshoot possible future problems. I would install a bottom aerator the first year and run it at various times to learn how it distributes the water turnover and affects resultant temperatures.

Coolwater Fish. Jones' info on fish to you was okay. But my main concern with them is that their standard coolwater plan or package is deficient on forage items and too heavy on predators. A shortage of forage items almost always results in slow and inadequate predator growth. I assume they are in the business to sell fish. Notice, unless they read this, they will "push" to sell all the fish to you at one time and recommend to restock with shiners each year. Wonder why? In my opinion, a balanced pond should be able to pretty much self-maintain the predator:prey ratio and the need for resocking of forage items should be minimal or nonexistant. I have a small pond (1991)with perch & SMB with a few walleye and have never had to restock forage fish. If you are having to regularly restock forage fish something is basically wrong with the balance of fish. In this situation, usually problem of fish numbers or density needs to be fixed.

As you probably know from reading past posts here, the walleye will not successfully recruit new young walleye into your pond. When you harvest them you will have to restock if you want the same relative density of walleye. Sometimes, you may decide you have too many walleye and want to reduce their numbers due too a shortage of forage fish and or the occasional strong SMB hatches result in good survival of young bass. SMB will produce spawns about each year if you have crayfish and gravel for nest construction. Too many predators esp. SMB&perch will stiffle fish growth by over consuming forage items leaving it in short supply.

The most rapid stocking schedule you should do is to stock minnows-shiners and possibly perch fingerlings (2"-4") in the spring or jsut minnows-shiners in spring add perch in fall. Personally I would wait to add SMB until you see or know there will be a first perch spawn which will likely be third spring. Problem with this is that fingerling SMB are very hard to locate in the spring. So add some or most of your fingerling SMB in the second fall so they are present in the third spring. Adult perch and SMB will really "hammer" the forage so be prepared to keep the SMB numbers thinned down based on the forage fish supply. Adding walleye to this fish mix will complicate management. So be careful not to add too many. 10 walleye per acre is a lot when SMB and perch are also eating the forage fish. Large perch (5"-10") will serve as predator and small perch (1"-4') will serve as forage. The walleye if stocked should be considered an occassional, rare, bonus fish and not a primary predator, unless your stocking was intended to be the only predator present. You may likely discover that you need bgill to help supply forage fish. If bgill are added then SMB numbers will have to be much stronger. This further complicates the management of numbers to maintain a balance among all species present. One can easily have all species present, but, is there a balance of species so all are properly growing?.

POSTSCRIPT NOTE - The management methods for the stocking mix that you are proposing are not well established. It often fails due to lack of proper management and the owner not knowing how to PROPERLY adjust the fish numbers when necessary. These ponds over time tend to go out of balance.