Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain new pond almost full - FH, SMB, YP, 1 trout

I have a newly dug 1/10 acre pond that is getting close to full. This winter being eager to get fish I started some perch and a couple trout inside and have about 85 perch and 1 big trout left.

I want to put FH, the lone trout, and the perch in my pond ASAP (perch are starting to lay eggs), but I wasn�t sure if I should let them loose or put the perch in cages to allow the FH to establish for a month or two. I plan on getting SMB this summer and raising them in cages until fall.

Any thoughts?

Are you aiming for a trout pond or a small-mouth pond? I'm still a pond newby but have never been a fan of perch in trout lakes. Ditto for sunfish. The local MNR gets real upset when they find perch or sunfish in the trout lakes. How deep is your pond?

Welcome to the world of FHM, YP, and SMB. I have a pond about the same size anc configuration as yours.

I would say please for the sake of the pond give the FHM some time to establish. I let them have 1 year on their own. Then I added the YP, then the next summer the SMB. I can assure you that if you add the YP or SMB too soon your FHM base will not be there for long. I am about 5 yrs into my pond and this year even with letting the FHM establish ( and adding a few pounds a year ) I am running very low on the FHM base. My perch have yet to have a successful spawn and as such the SMB have less to forage. On top of that the SMB had a successful spawn and I could see an inbalance happen if I don't keep an eye on things.

Thus long story short. Give each fish time to establish and find its nitch. You also need to allow the pond time to establish its weedy spots and rocky spots so that the FHM and fry of the otherfish have a safe spot to hide out from the larger fish. even after 5 years I am still developing that part of my pond because I did not do a good enough job up front.

Eric,

What amendments are you making to your pond to increase forage numbers?? Do you still plan on getting scuds this winter??

Russ, This year is the year to cut a smaller (20x20x3ft) area (all hand dug ) that will be fenced off from the larger pond. Sort of a pond next to a pond connected by a small 4' opening. The fencing will be a 1 inch mesh. This will allow the minnows and fry the ability to get out but not let the big guys in. In the smaller pond there will be tons of cement block, rocks and weed structure that I can keep contained to the smaller pond.

Yes, I plan to add the scuds this next year when I can but truth be told since my edges drop straight off to 4 ft deep, I do not have alot of weed structure for the scuds to live in. I am trying to do something around that this year.

I am also adding about 3-4 lbs of FHM and 40-50 Crayfish each year along with about 200,000 gals of water due to no rain!!!!!

If you can't do as Eric suggested because you have fish now that need to be moved then use the cage (and feed pellets) and stock a LOT of FH so the #s will be enough to both feed the fish and reproduce enough to establish a population. Like Eric you may well need to add more FH from time to time. I would be hesitant to put that many adult YP in your pond if they are spawning. That could overwhelm the system. Those YP will be beyond predation and continue to reproduce. If you will be feeding pellets to the YP it changes your options as they will not need as many FH.

One suggestion - read Bill's cage articles in PB mag if you have not done so.

When I added the 100 YP in my pond they were about 3-4 inches at most. I would be worried to add so many YP of any real size. I know the Heron found a few of my original YP. I also know that my SMB have been working on the smaller YP once they got some size to them.

I agree that if they are all feed trained that you will take some pressure off from the FHM, but once they are free of the cages you will see them take many many many of the FHM in short order. I went from having over a few million FHMs in the pond to seeing schools of only a few thousand at a time after the 3-4 inch YP went into the pond. Once the SMB were added I was down to schools of a few hundred FHM the first year. Now a few years later I see a few FHM hiding in the rocks here or there and very few schools of baby FHMs. That is with adding a few pounds yearly.

Thus why do I say this, I am concerned that your stocking even with pellets, ( I feed as well ), will soon overtake the FHMs.

I strongly agree with Ewest that if you do add FHM, add maybe 10-15 lbs to kick start the system. You will need that type of help to deal with the YP. I also would strongly suggest to hold off on the SMB for a year until everything stabalizes a bit more.

Just for what its worth.

I found the Trout belly-up the other day. I was able to maintain decent temps by running my well 16hrs a week until we had a really hot week over the 4th and I was out of town to do anything about it. The heat must have done it in since the trout was big and looked healthy, aside from being dead. The trout measured 16" which means it continued the 1 inch a month growth rate I noticed in my indoor flow through setup.

The Perch and the Trout went in at the end of March and I put a gallon of FH in shortly after. Since then I haven't seen any YP but there have been plenty of minnows. I am not sure if they are 1.5" FH or yoy Perch. What do YOY Perch look like?

Thanks for the advice, I will plan on stocking FH every so often and waiting until next fall for the SMB. I am eager to get the bass in there, but if the ecosystem will be better off without them I will hold off. I almost brought a couple wild SMB to the pond but decided against it, now I am glad I waited.

Pat32rf/cf, the pond is 1/10 acre and is (at the time of excavating) 25' in the deepest spot with 2/3 of the pond at least 15' deep. I really would like both SMB and Trout in the pond, although, I would be happy with only a couple of either. I want the SMB to keep the perch in check and for catch and release fishing.

Ewest, I read Bill's articles in PB and even made a cage. I started the perch in there, but one night a corner of the cage sank and the perch escaped! I adjusted the design so it wont happen again (hopefully) but now I don't have any fish to put in the cage. I guess I will have to wait for the SMB.

See if these help.

http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/ThumbnailsSummary.php?ID=359

Thanks for posting the pics. I didn't realize perch YOY were so ugly! How old and how long is the fish in the bottom picture?

Guessing that the YP in the bottom pic is about 2in+- and 2 mths as those green blobs are individual duckweed/water meal plants. The other pic is a larval stage YP as per the link above.

Yellow perch at 1.5 inch will have the beginings of vertical body bars and fairly normal coloration. It will should look like a minature YP at 1.5". Young fatheads will be light to medium brown with a dusky longitiudinal band along the side of the body.

The SMB fingerlings can be stocked this fall since you no doubt have young fahdeads and maybe also young YP.

I will pick up a minnow trap to get a closer look. I hope there are some YOY YP in there. The perch started spawning indoors and I got them in the pond asap when it started. There was no structure for them to spawn on at that time, however, only the YP and 1 trout were in to prey on them.

"The SMB fingerlings can be stocked this fall since you no doubt have young fahdeads and maybe also young YP."

That is great news! I have been looking forward to adding the SMB. Now I will have to find a place that still has some!