Awesome post CJBS2003. Very thorough and informative. I copied and pasted your list of potential pond forage so I could research any fish on the list with which I am not familiar. Again, thanks for all of the good info.
The two major species of forage stocked in the cyprinid family are GSH and FHM for a reason. They are generalists in habitat needs and can survive in many different pond types. If the other species we talk about were that way, they would be more commonly stocked into ponds and would be more easily obtained commercially.
I'm not sure that GSH and FHM are stocked commonly because they are generalists. I think FHM's in particular are just easy to raise in aquaculture and reproduce well before a lake's initial stocking. GSH on the other hand are a valuable tool because they have the potential to become larger forage items than most 'minnow' species.
Some species I think are a bit overlooked and could fit into a larger percentage of ponds are closer to being generalists in their needs. Such as the bluntnose minnow and banded killifish. However, keep in mind even the commonly stocked FHM is basically just a jump start fish and rarely if ever sustains itself in an established pond. GSH are more likely to maintain a population in an established pond but they more times than not, extirpated from a pond after several years of predation from common warm water fish species stocked into most ponds.
My impression from reading a bunch of posts is that, other than availability, there isn't really a downside in choosing bluntnose minnows over, or in addition to, the very similar FHM. The bluntnose reputedly is much more likely to be able to sustain a population.
I cannot think of a single species mentioned in this post that can handle heavy or even moderate predation from LMB over an extended period of time and maintain a self sustaining population for more than 5-7 years. If you are planning on stocking LMB into your pond, skip all the "non conventional" species mentioned, they will just be a waste of time unless you work very hard at keeping your LMB numbers extremely well controlled. It's been my experience the only non spiny species that can survive heavy LMB predation and still maintain a self sustaining long term population is the mosquitofish/gambusia. I have seen limited success with mudminnows and banded killifish, but that is generally when the pond has a high percentage of aquatic vegetation coverage.
I guess it depends on the situation. I agree that it would be extraordinarily hard to maintain a diverse population in a pond that does't have appropriate habitat, wasn't designed, built, or stocked with the goal of diversity in mind, or isn't appropriately managed. As was discussed in the blackstriped topminnow thread however, I believe it is possible for a body of water to maintain a diverse population even with numerous predators, as is the case in Richmond Mills lake. Just to be clear, I don't believe that the bio-diversity in these waters is the reason for the healthy predator population. Rather, the predators and forage both seem to benefit from the maintanance of the ecosystem as a whole, from water quality, to habitat, to culling, to feeding, to the original stocking plan.
