The Asian clam I am considering adding does not have a larval stage that attaches itself to fish like our native mussels do. So that is not a worry of mine. I realize the risk and if the clams do something haywire, well life will go on. Many of the ponds and lakes around here have them already and they are doing just fine.
The pond already has two species of snail, which I am sure the RES will enjoy once they are stocked. I am sure RES will eat zooplankton, other larger invertebrates such as the grass shrimp I am stocking next month and to an extent small forage fish. Without heavy BG competition, they may use more of the "softer" food sources.
I am very familiar with BG and how to sex them. I have a source of healthy adult fish to select from.
Last year I stocked bluntnose minnows, golden, spotfin, satinfin and spottail shiners, banded killifish, tessellated darters, eastern mudminnows and creek chubsuckers.
This year as I source more of the above I hope to add them. I also am trying source some inland silversides and if Overton's has a good spawn, in the next year or so I hope to obtain some lake chubsuckers to work with.
I am sure a few of these forage fish won't take hold or will be eaten to extirpation once the predators are added, but with all of last year to spawn and all of this year to spawn I think I am giving them a good chance. The RES maybe added this year, but I am thinking of holding off until next year to add them to give the grass shrimp a full year to get established and if I do go with the clams the same deal...
The low numbers of non reproducing SMB and HSB shouldn't pressure my forage nearly as much as numerous juvenile SMB being born every year.
My biggest concern is if my RES and BG hybridize and then cross back to produce female BG. That and the darn otter I have been seeing lately!
In the end this pond is a giant forage base experiment to "practice" with for a future larger more diverse pond.
