Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Rosy reds......

I put in about 10 pounds last summer and did not see them after. Don't know if they were eaten that quick or what. Do they have any different tendencies than regular fat heads? Like the reds a little better because they are easier to see......any other ideas when adding them? Thanks!

What other types of fish do you have in the pond. If you have Largemouth Bass the fatheads won't last very long.

I put some roseys in my pond and the Gams attacked and killed all of them. Granted I can only get them from the pet store around here. So I did not have that many. I also put some in our pond at work it does not have any other fish in it. But, now all I see are the reg fatheads. And they have done very well in one year.

I do have largemouth bass and bluegills. A very populated small pond (< 1 acre). Would adding a very large quantity of minnows be better so they get a chance to get to making sweet minnow love and reproduce?

I don't think it would matter how many pounds of fatheads you put in the pond if there is not enough cover for them to escape predators. You will be better off feeding pellets to the bluegill then feeding fatheads to the bass.

fatheads spawn every moon phase (3 weeks) in the summer in iowa at least surely if you put in 20-30 lbs and your pond has structure they will reproduce i have a young pond 21/2 years and i have added fatheads twice yearly for added forage(theyre cheap bass food)

You have to think about life history and behaivors of rosy reds/fatheads. They are slow, small fish, that swim around in schools. Making them easy bass prey. We stock them in ponds that have no predator fish. They do well in these conditions and will provide forage for your initial bass stocking.

I generally tell people that they are wasting money by continuosly adding fatheads to a pond that already has an exicting bass population. That money would be better spent on diversifying food chain in other ways.

Look at it another way. A fathead will only get 3-4 inch in size. Maximum. If you have a 1 pound bass that is 13 inches long it takes a lot of fatheads for him/her to get full. Your better off supplementing forage using, redears, golden shiners, etc.

Your bass and bluegill ate your rosys

Bluegill LOVE rosy red fatheads

This is the third year I've been trying to establish rosy reds in a small "critter" pond that is about 25 x 25. It has very gradual sides on it, so that there is always some shallow water, whether it is at full pool or near empty. It has a maximum depth of about 6-feet.

I've not had any luck establishing rosy reds. This little pond is in a heavily wooded area, and lots of critters use it.

Right now it is full of green frogs and their eggs, and it has some kind of salamanders with very raspy voices. Last year I saw a medium size northern water snake happily gobbling up my rosy reds.

If I put in a hundred rosy reds, they will generally be gone in about a week. I put about 50 in this past Friday. I saw one yesterday afternoon. It has lots of underwater hiding areas, but I don't think all the rest were hiding in the pond. The water is clear enough that I can always see to the bottom.

Somebody obviously has been sucessful at this. Any suggestions?

Ken, about 15 years ago I raised rosy reds in a 12ft round X 3ft deep swimming pool just for fun. I think I got them by UPS, but I don't remember from who.
Anyway they grew well, and by the fall I took them out and put them in a beaver pond on property I use to own.
Maybe having them in a pool above ground kept predation down.