Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Question on Minnows

Is it common to receive some "bonus" species with an order of fatheads? Last year I put one gallon of fatheads into a 1/2 acre shallow (3-4' deep) completely landlocked pond to try and raise minnows and save money. We were not able to seine them out before winter as planned, but they have survived and multiplied. There are no predators in the pond and no other fish were stocked except for some 1-2" redear sunfish two weeks ago.

I put a minnow trap in the pond a couple days ago to check progress and caught several very fat and mature fatheads, a half dozen leopard frog tadpoles and another minnow that dropped into the water before I could get a good look at it. Tonight I caught a redear that looked about 25% larger than I remembered and the same type of minnow from the other night. My best guess from the Peterson Field Guide is that the intruder is a Brook Stickleback.

Is the stickleback commonly found with fatheads? There must be quite a few in the pond to catch one two nights in a row. Is it possible for sticklebacks to colonize a brand new pond in one year by natural means? Did not take a picture but will if I catch another one.

Steve,

I've bought minnows for bait and there were some sticklebacks mixed in. Sounds you you got your minnows from someone that seins wild fish rather than a farm that raised fatheads.

Steve,

I've experienced the same thing as Cecil. I've purchased Fatheads for fishing and found a Stickleback with the Fatheads on multiple occasions. I wouldn't be surprised if that's how you got them.

Larry

Our fathead minnows are caught in the wild and almost always have sticklebacks mixed in. One year, a bait dealer gave me almost 100 gallons of sticklebacks because fishermen don't like them. While our fish would prefer fatheads, they will eat the sticklebacks as well. That I can tell, they ate all 100 gallons of sticklebacks. Keep in mind that LMB will eat baby members of the catfish family that have very sharp spines. Sticklebacks will make just as good of forage but not as good of bait as fatheads.

Thanks for the replys, didn't realize the sticklebacks were so common. I doubt they produce offspring at a rate that rivals the fathead, but diversity within the forage species should be a good thing. I've also noticed a few small freshwater clams in that pond, which apparently came in on the fish as glochidia. It's amazing how fast the food chain builds up. We had a pretty good mayfly hatch on that 1.5 year old pond yesterday.