I stocked 110 RES into my new pond on March 21. The fish averaged about 1.25 inches at that time. On April 22 I began adding adult RES that ranged from 5 - 8 inches.

I'm pretty sure that the RES have spawned over the past few weeks. I started seeing schools of fry after the FH were finished spawning and I think I only have the 2 species. I know the RES spawned (I trapped some) in my neighbor's pond and we added fish from the same source at the same time.

Yesterday I noticed some beds in very shallow water and on closer inspection I saw that they were RES. Most of them were 3 - 4 inches long and they must be from the 110 small fish I stocked in March. Should I be surprised that these very young fish are showing spawning behavior?

I was also surprised at how shallow the water is where they're bedding. Some of them are in water that is no deeper than 8 inches. One of the larger RES that I transferred from Mr H's pond is bedding near the smaller fish, also in very shallow water.

Here's a link to the video I took of them. The fish are smaller than they look in the video. The fish in the lower left hand corner is no more than 4 inches long.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X5B8YaSTB4