Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain 2 acre pond, stocking forage fish ques's

First off, are you talking about Madtoms or Bullheads? Lets think about this for a minute. For the birds to transfer eggs, the eggs have to be sticky, right? Plus, those type of eggs are cared for by the parent, fanning water over the eggs to keep oxygenated water constantly washing over the eggs. Plus, those fish typically spawn in some sort of enclosure, be it a hollowed out "cave" in weeds, the bank of the pond, etc. If the eggs are sticky enough to stick to the birds feet, how do they get unstuck, and then how do they get enough O2 to hatch?

I'll bet that if you think back, the ponds that had the "mud-cats" appear in them had water flowing into them from a previous high water event, and my bet is that the fish were washed into the pond from somewhere else. They could have washed into the pond a year or more before you noticed them.

The esaiest way to catch the minnows in any quantity is by using a seine. Seines are easier to use if 2 people are involved. If you can, take a good close up picture of the side of the minnow and we can identify them for you.

As for the Cormorants, I think you only have 3 choices to stop them from having your fish for breakfast/lunch/dinner.
1) Have a person watch the pond every daylight hour, and physically chase them away when they appear.
2) Cover the pond with netting.
3) Get a permit from TP&W and use lead.

I don't think you can have too many FHM in a pond before stocking your sunfish and predators. The FHM give the fish a quick jump start on growing, and won't be able to stay establised in the pond once predators are stocked.