Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Feeding Mud Minnows

Hi Martin.

A couple of thoughts:

1. Don't completely discount your GAMs. The reproduction of GAMs can be quite unbelievable. So I would imagine that you will have a healthy school of GAMs again by the end of spring. DIED added a hand full of GAMS (I think it was 9) and they turned into huge schools of the little guys.

2. How is your BG population doing? Since you stocked BG in fall 2008 I would imagine that you had some BG recruitment in 2009. They will help to fill in the forage base in 2010 as well.

It is my understanding that LMB, as they get larger, will have a tendency to more away from minnows as forage and more toward larger fish, the BG will probably be the primary food source for your larger LMB. I'm not sure at what size (of the LMB) that this process begins. Anyone?

Many folks here add Golden Shiners as a supplemental forage base. You can purchase a box of Golden Shiner Fry (I think it costs about $250) for a box of a zillion fry (these might not be the actual numbers but you get the idea) from Anderson Minnows. I met these guys at the Pond Boss 3 Conference, great folks.

Hang on for an opinion from someone that knows what they are talking about though.