Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Hello everybody:

If you have a LMB-BG pond and a SMB-RES pond, swimming will be best in the SMB pond - guaranteed. Plan to use SMB pond for the swimming; esp for the females.
Generally SMB pond will grow fewer fish to eat and they will grow a little slower than fish in the LMB pond. This is because usu. SMB reproduce less and grow slower than LMB. RES in SMB pond also reproduce less than BG resulting in fewer available fish to eat.

Keep in mind that a SMB pond can very easily be converted to a LMB pond just by adding LMB and or BG. But one cannot make a successful thriving SMB pond from a LMB pond without removing all the LMB.

Ponds with small fish (1"-2") rarely have a mosquito problem. Mosquitos are VERY vulnerable to small fish predation. Mosquitos present will come from other wet areas often sometimes miles away.

Basically if you don't fertilize nor feed the fish, the ponds will not grow as many fish, nor will they grow as fast, and often, larger fish will be fewer in numbers. Generally fertilization and Pellet feeding equals more fish and bigger fish; often 2-5 times more fish - depending on circumstances.

Common carp & koi - Cyprinus carpio are imports and exotics in the US from Europe-Germany. They are omnivores eating a wide variety of living and dead plants and animals which allows them to exist on a wide variety of foods. This allows them to always find something to eat, thus always growing. They feed lower on the food chain than panfish and predators. This also allows more of them in terms of pounds of biomass per acre to grow on the natural foods produced by a pond. Carp are essentially bottom feeders eating stuff associated with the bottom sediments - on and in the mud.

They have a sucker like mouth and usually feed by rooting in the sediments for food items -roiling the water as they feed. Ponds with a fair number of carp 20-30/ac are always muddy looking. The more carp the muddier the pond gets due to the constant feeding actviity. Carp do not have stomachs so they cannot binge feed and cannot store food for several days between feedings like bass and panfish. Thus carp and koi need to feed regularly keeping sediments stirred and water mucky.

AS CJBS says carp are pretty good eating when harvested from cleaner, non-polluted waters which is why they were brought into the US from Europe. They are in the minnow family so they have a few more bones compared to bass, catfish and panfish.

Before stocking carp, hybrid striped bass (HSB) or any other fish you have never eaten I HIGHLY suggest you eat one before stocking it.