Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Project for my 4 year old

To help my son understand more about the fish and the pond, I am getting a large aquarium for him as part of his Christmas present. I would like to get a couple bluegill, RES, pumpkinseed, and albino channel catfish. Any reccommednations on where I could get these? He asks everyday to go fishing in the pond.

Thanks for any help.

Not sure of what fish suppliers you have in your area...but I would not go smaller than a 55 gallon aqaurium with that amount of fish. Look at what size they will be as adults and you can see a possible overcrowding issue.

I would not be surprised if you have noticeable inter-species aggression between the Lepomis at densities that would not be a problem for single-species groups. Perhaps you could start with small BG caught from any local water and see how they do in the aquarium under your son's care. Just plain BG in a small aquarium still fascinates my 11 year old (and me too).

I am planning on one of the 50 gallon kits that they have at Wal-Mart. If the fish get too big, we can turn them loose in our pond and catch smaller ones there, after it is stocked, but we haven't got the fish for it yet either. I may have to get the aquarium ready and just divert a few from the pond when it is sctocked.

You could always add a few minnows or cheap tropicals to help get your biological filtration started. Just dont put goldfish in there! Goldfish and Koi are actually some of the hardest fish to keep in an aquarium due to their large output of ammonia.

Levon Sargent,

I can tell you what I did and the rest would be up to you. We regularly have fish trucks that visit our local feed stores. After I built my mini-pond, I went to one of these trucks and asked them for 1 of each of the following: black crappie, HBG, native BG, RES, Florida LMB, F1 LMB, and native LMB. They gladly obliged my request for no charge.

Also, I'd suggest, if you can find them, adding one or two mozambique Tilapia to the aq. for study. Fascinating to watch fish in their environment.