Get yourself a fish trap to monitor the presence of minnows. Paint trap a drab color. Often they will enter a trap to avoid predaton. Refresh my memory how big is the pond?
In theory FHM at 1.75" and 30 lbs is around 10,000 minnows divided by 100 WE is around 100 FHM per WE. If we assume each 6" WE eats 2 FHM per day then your 30 lbs should last about 40-50 days. 3 FHM per day then about 30 days, 5/day then 20 days. You might have a few too many WE per acre. Look into golden shiners, some other forage fish or a forage fish combination that grows a little larger than FHM.
When a predator is eating a fish that is smaller than optimum size for the predator size then growth rate suffers due to amount of energy expended compared to energy gain. As the WE grow and to get good growth one should have larger sized forage available. Female WE will grow a little faster than the males.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 06/20/10 03:07 PM.
