Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking plans and acclimation questions

Wow, what a fantastic forum! What makes it so great was easy to see in Bob's thoughtful 4/24 post�
It's the passion. Thanks for sharing it, and your (and everyone�s) experiences and advice.

I am new to the game. Eighteen years ago I purchased a rural NE Wisconsin property with a mucky little pond (ditch) with a strong year round spring.
After Sixteen years of paying it off, planning, and saving, we have built a 1.3 acre pond. In the process I learned a lot about civil engineering during the permitting for my small dam (over 600�), and a rather unique standpipe/drain system.

A few details: Perfect hardpan clay. Unfortunately there is limestone bedrock between three and seven feet beneath. Removed as much clay as practical (and then some in the swimming areas) from the polished smooth bedrock. A neighbor�s new well had revealed 90� of solid rock, so we took a chance and had a qualified local blaster come in and with 52 12' drill holes we have a 45� x 90� x 11' deep hole and it held water. Lined the sides from the top of dam to the bottom with rejected paper machine dryer fabric (woven monofilament) and covered with the blast rock. Put the plug in last fall and it was full by November. No surface waters enter the pond. This spring my weir calculations showed better than 60gpm overflow. Would have built the dam higher had I known the spring would have pushed that high. Onward! The pond is kind of snowman shaped with the center as the largest. I have three 4� airlifts (one per section) with the middle one in the deep blast hole. Water temp maxed at 75 last August. Deepest section is now 17�.

Finally on to the reasons for the post. Last year stocked 25lb of fatheads. Had the supplier match my water temp for 48 hrs before stocking (in August, a bad time I know). My wife was there and said the minnows were �squirting out of the water�. The supplier had never seen that before. I questioned the PH, because with our limestone the water is very high. Many died, but not before a good spawn. Also have a handful of LMB and a few Bluegill from a good friend�s pond, they are doing well, and spawned successfully last year.
This year we stocked another 25lb of fatheads on 4/6, and a fair number of them died over the last couple weeks, (per my wife because I am down in Durant, OK for three weeks).

Question #1: My fishing ambitions include taking the kids, (and someday grandkids) down and have some fun fishing, swimming. I don�t expect trophy size fish in my little pond, but am willing to work toward it.
I have read many of the excellent postings about LMB & BG (native), but I have often fished for SM, YP, and Walleye and would really hope with the clearer water and all rock sides that they could make it too.
I understand the Walleye may not reproduce well in here, but they are a delicious bonus fish.
It�s not too late to modify my order, so your comments are welcome.
30 SMB 3-5�
20 LMB 5-8�
12 Walleye 5-7�
25 YP 3-5�
25 YP 5-7�
100 BG(native) 2-3�
150 BG(native) 3-5�

Question #2 is about acclimation. I am concerned about the PH difference. The supplier�s water tested at 6.8, my water is about 7.9 on a test strip. I read in one of the posts that a difference in PH is harder to survive than the temperature difference. Should I be concerned? One of the three pond sections is separated from the others by a 12 x 50� x 2� deep sandbar. I could erect a plastic water fence, and try to use some PH- to more closely match the supplier�s water in that section. I am sure that PH- would only be effective for a few days considering the limestone, a small spring in that area and leakage around the fence, but a couple of days may be much less traumatic than minutes. I would hate to see my hard earned stocking dollars floating.

Sorry for the length, but it is hard to recommend solutions without good background data.
Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge and passion. Looking forward to my first issue of PB.

Welcome to the Forum, Jeff.

This is mostly a bump, hoping to get the SMB/YP/Walleye types on board (especially Bill Cody & Dave Willis), but I will take a couple swings for fun.

1) Your stocking plan would usually be considered predator heavy, forage light. The FH will close the gap for a while, but I doubt they will survive the first year in big enough numbers to be of use in year 2. However, you have existing BG in the pond that have spawned. How many BG, what size, when did they spawn - they might provide enough forage.

Be aware that LMB will most likely crowd out the SMB over time. I would consider stocking only SMB, especially since you've already got some LMB (why give the LMB more of an advantage?). Oh - how big and numerous are the existing LMB? You want to make sure your new stockers are big/numerous enough to survive the current LMBs.

IIRC 12 Walleye in 1.3 acre is probably about right, given sufficient forage.

2) Don't know but I'd guess pH differences should also be handled by slow acclimatization with the pond water gradually being added to the transport water.

Welcome , Jeff to the PB forum. Here is some info on water ph and fish from SRAC.

The recommended
pH range for aquaculture
is 6.5 to 9.0 .
Fish and other vertebrates have an
average blood pH of 7.4. Fish
blood comes into close contact
with water (1- or 2-cell separation)
as it passes through the blood vessels
of the gills and skin. A desirable
range for pond water pH
would be close to that of fish
blood (i.e., 7.0 to 8.0). Fish may become
stressed and die if the pH
drops below 5 (e.g., acidic runoff)
or rises above 10 ( high alkalinity).
Pond pH varies throughout the
day due to respiration and photosynthesis.

Also most FH die after a full year's spawn ( avg. life span 15-18 mths).

Thanks for the reply Theo,
The handfull of LMB are 12" and under. The handfull of BG were 6" or so last year. Lots of baby bass from last year's spawn, haven't noticed blugill, but they were nesting last year. The rocky edges are loaded with fatheads too. Lots of tadpoles, most of the frogs it seems didn't find any muck to bury in and froze. Unfortunately I have only had a couple of days home since the ice went out, so the current state of things is second hand.

Would certainly be willing to cancel the LBM and up the SMB.
If I add another 20 SMB, should I also modify the YP/BG mix or total? Wife and teenage daughters don't want any crayfish in the swimming hole, so the SMB had better like minnows and bugs.

Do you think the acclimation idea has any merit? The small pond section is about 60' Dia. and 4' deep at most. If anything it would give me a day or two to see the mortality in one place rather than in the deeper areas.

Thanks again for any comments and direction.


Ewest, thanks for the info, still wondering if the change from 6.8 to 7.9 would be a problem. The fatheads last year must have worn their skin off the noses when rubbing nests on the rocks, because their faces were pretty much eaten back by (I assumed) the alkaline water. Not a happy afterglow to a successful spawn.

If your BG were 6" last year, you should get a good spawn this year. That should put the forage base in pretty good shape.

Jeff that is probably from spawning as they form a thick area around head for such and not related to alka./ph. look at the pic and the info in the link below.

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=4785

They took the good pic. off but others can be seen there.