Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Questions about the food chain

All,


Thanks in advance for all of the kind help I have received for all of my pond, plant and fish questions. Two more here.

I have a pond 1/3 of an acre fed by stream water via pump. I recently (in the last month) added a fresh water well at the cabin and I allow the overflow from my fresh water container at the cabin to simply go right into the pond. The water from the fresh water well is extremely cold - 160' down and we measured the temp at 47'F.

The pond receives app 2000+ gal/day from the 2 solar pumping systems that run every day - w/ 2/3 coming from the fresh water well.

2 questions:

First - I noted when the fresh water well is pumping - the fish congregate around the water inlet to the pond - all of the fish. Minnies, next to blue gill next to perch next to LMB - all facing the inlet as if it were some sort of summer 'fan'. The LMB paying no attention at all to the minnies or smaller fish...why is that? Never seen anything like that.

Second - and the more important question. With so much water coming it at 47'F - will this 'warm water' pond cool off such that I should think about adding trout too? Any harm doing that?

The pond has 4 koi (and I heard loud and clear why I should get rid of them - just have not had the time to do so), channel cats, blue gills (some hybrid some native), perch, rock bass, LMB - and I just planted 10 lbs of minnies as well. Everything is growing well and happy as far as I can see.

Just curious if contemplating adding the trout would upset what I have thus far developed.

Thanks!

Before I give my thoughts, can you answer one question?

If you were to take all the fish out of the pond and weigh them, what do you think they would weigh as a group? (total weight)

Wow...tough question...this is a WAG...

I planted in the last 18 mos - and most of the fish were under 6 inches at the time....


Here goes w/ my WAG...

I know we have at least 10lbs of minnies - since I just planted them last week...but there were a lot more in there before the last stocking - let's say there are 25 lbs total.

There are 40 hybrid blue gill in the pond - now app 6-7" each, and they can't weigh but 6-8oz each - so 15 lbs there.

There are 30 Hybrid channel cats - roughly same size, 10 lbs there.

There are 40 LMB - now they have grown a lot - most are averaging 10-12 in in length now, maybe 10-12oz each? 25 lbs

30 Perch - same size as the bluegills 15 lbs

20 fish from the lake BG, Perch & rockbass - another 15 lbs

Maybe 100lbs of fish total based on my WAG above?


As an aside - I don't want to mislead - not ALL the fish were gathering by the inlet - but a good number of all of the different types were there...

O.K., here's my guess:

Earlier this year there was a discussion on carrying capacity of a pond. The 500# of fish per acre number was tossed around, BUT that was for a pond that had an aeration system AND a feeding program. For a pond that didn't have those, the numbers were way less than that, up to half.

There's a thread or 2 in the archives on carrying capacity.

So, my WAG is that the cooler water has a higher oxygen content than the warmer pond water and the fish are liking that water.

Earlier this year right before my trout died, they exhibited the same behavior when I was pumping well water into the pond.

You could add a few trout if the water temp is good enough and DO is high enough. Make the water run over a few rocks before it goes into the pond to add O2. You will have to harvest some fish to keep the carrying capacity low enough.

jlodestro, If you were interested in stocking some trout I would suggest some Rainbow or Tiger trout, of the two I believe that the Tigers would have the best chance of survival they grow fast and are very aggressive with little or no need for supplemental feeding in a pond with natural forage.
Two places were you can purchase them are Morrisville college, and Cobleskill college in NY.