Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Spring upload of FHM

Is there a preferred water temp or time table when to put in my spring load of fatheads? I am in SW Ohio and we still have skim ice right now but expect a true ice out in another 3 weeks or so. Any particular advice along these lines?
Am planing on adding another 15 lbs to the 3/4 acre pond but not restocking any GS since hardly anythng int he pond is big enough this year to start on them, I figure they got an extra year to spawn before heavy predation from BC, Blue Cats, HSB and BC.

Salmonid

IMHO there is not much point in adding them until the water temp gets to 60 or so, from a growth or spawning standpoint.

I am sure someone will know what a minimum safe stocking temp would be.

P.S. Sunil has been known to stock FHM in frozen ponds, freezing them in an ice cube tray first to temper them. But I wouldn't recommend it.

The way I look at it is anyone can stock fish in warmer months. The real challenge is to get it done in 20 F or less. That's when you can say you've really accomplished something.

Really though, I would wait until late March or April. The highest survival rates will be when the least water temperature deltas or gradients happen.

Fathead minnow

Scientific name: Pimephales promelas

Production potential: Easy

Marketing potential: Potential: High
Size: 1-3 inches
Market: Bait

Temperature Requirements: Growing: 70oF
Spawning: 65oF
Lethal: NA
Feed requirements: Protein: 30-38%
Fat: 3-8%
Spawning requirements: Spawns during cool periods in summer and sometimes fall, eggs hatch in 5-6 days. Females lay from 200-500 eggs per spawn, spawn repeatedly during spawning season.Two methods are used to produce fry. The first is the wild or free-spawning method which 500-2,000 broodstock are stocked into ponds. Egg hatching and growing of yound to marketable size occur in the same pond. The second methodbis the fry transfer method. In this method, 20,000-25,000 broodstock are stocked into ponds in a ratio of five females per male. Fry produced in either method are trapped and counted then transferred to rearing ponds. In either method, rocks, tile, bricks, or boards are placed into ponds to provide spawning sites.
Most common
production systems:
Ponds. Fry are stocked at a rate of 50,000-300,000 per acre.