Bruce - I assume larger (>7") RES will eat small minnows; meat is meat, snails are meat is my reasoning. Cecil in his post above, considers RES more predatious than bgill. RES are probably fairly opportunistic feeders, eating whatever if most common, but preferring snails. I know of no detailed feeding studies for RES. Ewest may find this and do a little electronic searching for us. I am not sure how much Dr. Willis knows about RES since they are primarily a southern species. I will do a search through Carlander and see what he reports. More later.
A simple way that the fatheads could be thinned or eliminated is with a mild or normal dose of copper sulfate. Minnows are least tolerant of CuSO4 (0.3ppm Cu - very sensitive right above trout 0.1ppm), then CC, then RES -Bgill and lastly LMB who tolerate 2ppm Cu. Also the fatheads could be trapped or seined and sold as bait or pond stocking if a bait dealers permit is obtained. One might be able to trade fatheads to a hatchery for extra RES or CC. NOTE: Copper dosing for fatheads could also kill a few cats trapped in the CuSO4 cloud. Since CuSO4 is a heavy metal and the copper ions (copper carbonate) are stable in the pond basin/sediment I do not recommend using CuSO4 very often if ever. A one time treatment to reduce fatheads could work. Bass would do a better and healthier job at thinning fatheads.
If WRW or anyone tries this fish combination please come back to the forum and help educate us on this type of stocking and its success.
