Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Help with new pond

I would get the 3"-4" pure BG (bigger if they were available) to get a spawn for forage purposes ASAP. It is likely they will spawn later this year for you (I stocked 3"-4" BG and RES in May and got a late spawn of one or both species the same year, and I'm farther North than you are).

Keep tossing some pellets in to see when the fish start eating them - I bet the CC will start after the water gets above 60 degrees F. If the CC eat pellets, that may stretch your FH a little farther for the LMB. If your pure BG get on pellets after stocking, that should help your situation; if the HBG eat them it shouldn't hurt. If none of these eat pellets, chances are they've got enough food from natural sources. I'd keep testing with a small amount of pellets until they start eating them, then increase the amount, keeping within recommended limits.

More FH? Depends on how your first stocking holds up versus how your wallet would hold up stocking more FH. IF FH remain present in the pond, I don't believe you need to stock more. OTOH you can raise LMB on nothing but FH if you want to restock them continually. Search for post on fatheads and read up on how to encourage them to spawn (short story is, they spawn on the underside of objects in shallow water). If it were me, I'd do all I can to encourage FH spawning and survival this year, probably buy one more batch of FH when I added pure BG, and hold off on adding more LMB until next year when your forage base should be in good shape from BG spawning. Your 2006 stocking of LMB should not be so large next year to prevent you from finding 2007 LMB stockers large enough to (mostly) survive predation.

Hopefully someone else will chime in with confirmation, better ideas, or "Don't listen to that crazy Theo" advice.

P.S. If present, snails would likely be visible sunning themselves on mud flats or floating upside down on the surface. If they haven't showed up yet, your RES will eat most of the things BG do and should be fine.