Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding Pounds of fatheads for initial stocking?

Cecil - You bring up a very interesting point about spring fathead stocking density for summer production to produce abundant minnows to feed stocked gamefish in the fall.

As you know, the ultimate number of pounds of minnows produced by fall will depend on fertility. You will end up with more pounds of fatheads when fertility is high (fertilized water or fed) versus low in clearer water situations. However the overall SIZE of the offspring in the fall is highly dependant on the number of adults originally stocked. Stocking too many breeders results in a majority of stunted fatheads at the end of summer. Stocking fewer in the beginning results in about the same number of final pounds but overall they are larger sized individuals. It is a matter of how much food is available for the developing population of fatheads.

Suprisingly and contrary to what most seem to believe the original stocking is relatively low, and lower than most would think. If you go into the literature of bait fish production, they recommend 500 to 1000 breeders per acre. If it is 500 or 1000 I suppose will depend on pond fertility and the goals of final desired size of the offspring.

When you ask about how many pounds to stock, this will depend on how big the fathead breeders are. 2"ers run about 300/lb, 2 1/4" run abt 250/lb, and 2.5" run abt 150/lb. So 500 2.5" fatheads is around 3.3 lbs/ac and 1000 2.5"ers is 6.6 lbs/ac. So with out predators, you can see that it does not take very many breeders to get the job done.

I firmly believe this information. I knew a young guy who was going to raise fatheads for sale. He was planning on hand feeding them. He knew more than me and said stocking more will obviously yield more fish. Well he put in the 20+ lbs per acre and in the fall he had tremendous numbers of 1" - 1.25" minnows and comparatively few 2"ers. The majority of his fish could not be trapped in 1/4" mesh traps due to their small size. I wonder why?