I am back from Memorial weekend at our land. I did not have the best first experience stocking fish in my brand new pond. I went to Marlows Fish Hatchery on Friday morning and purchased 4lbs of FHM. Since it was a pretty warm day (upper 80's), they packed them in two seperate bags in seperate boxes. We made the 1.5 hour drive with the FHM sitting in the air conditioned extended cab area of my pick-up. When we pulled the bags out of the boxes pond side, 80% of the FHM were dead already. We went ahead and put the live ones in the pond and called the hatchery. They could not explain what happended other than we came to the conclusion the bags were not sealed tight enough and all the pure oxygen they filled the bags with had escaped during transport. They offered to replace them or give me my money back.
I went back on Sunday and they gave me 6lbs of FHM for free. This time they were all in a single larger bag filled with pure oxygen and sealed tight as a balloon. They also added some blue crystals that they said helped with the oxygen in the water and a cap full of some liquid to help with the "stress" of being handled and moved. When I took them out after the 1.5 hour drive on this 90 degree day, I would say that 25% of them were dead already. They sat in air conditioning the entire way again. So, I can't explain it. I think we did everything we could possibly do and still lost hundreds of FHM in the process. In two trips and a total of 10lbs of FHM, I may have ended up with my 4lbs.
On Monday morning I walked around the pond and could see schools of FHM in various places around the pond. Do they normally hang in schools, right at the surface and bite at the surface as if eating something on the surface or is this a bad thing and they are "gasping for air" at the surface? Again, this is my first pond and first time stocking fish. I have no idea what "normal" FHM behavior is and want to make sure this is normal and I won't have a bunch of dead FHM when I go back because they were gasping for air at the surface. If they made it 18 hours in the pond, what is their chance of survival after that? I have no other fish in the pond these 4lbs of FHM are the only fish in the pond at this point.
I also put out my FHM love hotels, pipes, boards, etc to give them places to lay their eggs. So assuming a large enough amount of them survived, they should be mutiplying over the next several months of summer and fall.
Last edited by Chris SE Ohio; 06/02/10 07:13 PM.
