Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Bull Head Catfish in FHMs from fish farm

I know that almost everyone that has a pond has probably put fhm in it. Has anyone here ever personally gotten bullheads from their fhms? Or know of anyone that has? I have heard of it and the fish farm assures me that it cant happen but what are they suposed to say.

Fathead Minnow/Golden Shiner
These are two minnow species that, by themselves, do very well in ponds. Their populations decline dramatically in the presence of largemouth bass. Their stocking is recommended in two situations. In a new pond, stocking 1,000 adult minnows or shiners per acre will provide food for stocked bass until bluegills and/or redear sunfish can spawn and produce young for bass to eat. The second situation is in ponds where the owner only wants to fish for largemouth bass. Stocking 1,000 adult minnows or shiners per acre on several occasions throughout the year can result in a quality bass fishery. The pond owner should be careful when purchasing minnows or shiners. Occasionally, fingerling carp and bullheads will contaminate a load of minnows/shiners. If they reproduce after stocking, severe problems can occur.

from
http://ohioline.osu.edu/a-fact/0010.html

Fathead Minnow/Golden Shiner
These are two minnow species that, by themselves, do very well in ponds. Their populations decline dramatically in the presence of largemouth bass. Their stocking is recommended in two situations. In a new pond, stocking 1,000 adult minnows or shiners per acre will provide food for stocked bass until bluegills and/or redear sunfish can spawn and produce young for bass to eat. The second situation is in ponds where the owner only wants to fish for largemouth bass. Stocking 1,000 adult minnows or shiners per acre on several occasions throughout the year can result in a quality bass fishery. The pond owner should be careful when purchasing minnows or shiners. Occasionally, fingerling carp and bullheads will contaminate a load of minnows/shiners. If they reproduce after stocking, severe problems can occur.

from
http://ohioline.osu.edu/a-fact/0010.html

I have personally seen bullheads, common carp, goldfish, golden shiners, sticklebacks, mosquitofish(gambusia), GSF, BG, and crayfish mixed in with FHM.

So if this is the case with FHM what is the answer? Do you not stock FHM? Or do you cull thru your pounds of bagged minnoes and sort out all the unwanted fish? I dont remember looking at my fhms when i put them in i jsut added some pond h2o to the bag and dumped them in. I dont even remember looking at the fish enought to notice if i could see that there was differences.

In 31 years as a professional fisheries biologist, I have never seen bullhead catfish in fathead minnows I've bought from reputable hatcheries.
I have gotten sticklebacks in fatheads from northern ponds.
Know your supplier. If they intend to stay in business for long, they won't sell contaminated fish.
Buy from reputable people.

I had one place deliver Gambusia mixed in with FHM, and were 500 short on the count. Needless to say I scratched them off of my supplier list.

I pretty much inspect and count from new places I do business with. I inspect all fish I put in customers ponds, while tempering.

None of my places have bullheads to mix in. I once got an lmb in a bg load. And sometimes res and bg intermixed. Even when I get junk harvests, I'll get bullfrog polliwogs, crawdads, gsf, res and bg. Normally I'll get those for free. A known reputable hatchery or farm should not have bullheads to begin with. That is the first time I ever even heard that.

I thought the farm that I used was a reputable farm.

Best not to blaim anyone unless you have real evidence. I recently found 5 to 8 inch bullheads in a pool below by pond drainage pipe. I am sure that they are washing out of my pond. I might have gotten them from the stocked fish, but more likely they swam up the pipe from the creek.

Yall may have read this in one of my other post but last fall my pond was half full and I stocked 50 cc and 100cnbg and 50 resf and 5 lbs of fhm. Early this spring we caught 2 mud cats see pic 2 on the link and notice the size. The cc in pic 1 was caught the same day. if my mud cats came in the fhms could they have gotten that big from fall to spring with feed? The ccs were fingerlings and got to be that size of the fish in pic 1 from fall to early spring. Mid spring i got some bass and mode cnbg and 5 lbs more fhm and now im seeing the little schools of cats swimming around and they are like 2" long as seen in the rest of the pics. It seems logical by the size of the fish and the times that i put them in the pond that it could be a real possibility. I would assume the fish farm is reliable but i dont know? I would like to know yalls idea on the fish farm but Im not sure about naming them on here and possibly upsetting some folks.
see link

http://public.fotki.com/tz/clearing-and-pond-p/fish/

Was there a possibility that there were fish in the pond from the beginning? Did the area where the pond was built have a small stream running through it? Could fish make it up the pond drain pipe?

Bullheads, GSF and a few other species can and will swim up VERY small streams... So if there isn't a substantial drop/water fall even during extreme high water events, then you have the chance of those unwanted species entering your pond via up stream migration.

The same is true for down stream migration... If your pond is fed by a small feeder stream or just ground run off and during a very intense heavy rain event, just a couple inches of water laying on the surface can mean that pond polluted with bullheads and GSF two miles away may allow those fish to find their way into your pond.

More times than not, I think these are the most likely culprits for unwanted species in a pond. A close second though is the accidental introduction during the stocking of wanted species. Then the best of them all is the friendly neighbor or friend who does his own stocking without asking you first...

Don't forget the Bullheads carried in by GBH.

Miracles happen... I play the lottery weekly!

My wife and I saw a bullhead get carried off from my pond by a GBH a couple weeks ago when we went to sit on the dock.

Even if the closest BOW with bullheads in it, is 100 yards away... The odds of a heron carrying two bullheads of different sexes from that BOW, dropping them into your pond and having them live. I would say that is 1 in a million. If they were 50 feet away I'd say 2 in a million.

I agree - just nice to see the heron carrying off a pest. I would be more worried about the bullheads navigating flood waters. Mine probably just swam up the drain tube. It is has quite a shallow pitch.

If you could just reach a deal with the herons, ospreys and otters to only eat trash fish, we could all live a happy life.

I stocked my new pond with LMB, FHM, BG, CC, crayfish and snails. All from a reputable hatchery. When I drained the pond 4 years later to fix a leak there were no (0) CC and about 200 BH weighing 2lbs plus! The hatchery swears they could not make that mistake but I would bet the ranch they screwed up the order.

When I restock they said they would make it right and you can bet your sweet *** I will check every bag personally.

If the Heron in that pic had a GSF in each foot, it would in museums world wide to be admired!!!

With all the birds, gullies, and bayous near my pond, I guess it's more like 1 or 2 in 10,000.

I've seen various birds fighting over fish and frogs, and seen their prey accidentally dropped. If the GBH in that picture were attacked by a hawk, the first thing he would do is intentionally drop the fish to get away faster. With my luck, it would be in my pond, dead center. In my 4-5 years of ponding I have caught 1 BH, and zero GSF. I'm expecting to catch a GSF any time now.

And with your luck the Heron carrying a male GSF would be attacked by an Osprey carrying a female GSF, "Bombs Away".

This is not luck, this takes a tremendous amount of planning and coordination. Osprey can be so darn difficult to train.