I have a second stocking of bluntnose minnows and spotfin shiners being delivered tomorrow, 50 of each. I probably don't need to spend the money on them but I wanted to be 100% sure that they get established this summer.

I have not seen enough evidence that the bluntnose have spawned but a lot of that might be due to the massive spawning of the fhm. There are fhm all over the place, I have put on goggles while swimming with the hope of seeing deeper in to find the shiners but I did not have enough light penetration to see below 12". All I could see were fatheads. I have seen a few spotfins spawning near the CD structures but I figured another 50 could only help.

For anyone else attempting to have a varied minnow forage base in a SMB/YP pond I would recommend stocking the Bluntnose/spotfin/GSH/Banded killifish/darters first and waiting on the fhm. At this point I do not plan on stocking my YP and SMB until fall of 2013, I could have waited until spring of 2013 to stock the fhm and still had plenty of them in time for the predators. From what Travis has experienced the bluntnose will spawn rapidly in the absence of fhm and are a more hardy forage fish that will not be totally wiped out like the fatheads. I hope the bluntnose are already spawning like mad in my pond but I really want them to be established and am willing to shell out the $ to make sure it happens and I just cannot be sure with the fhm everywhere.

Mark at Jonah's Aquarium is also sending me 20 2" guillback carpsuckers to try out. If anyone does not think I should stock these please let me know ASAP! They appear to reproduce well but they also appear to get large so I am hesitant to stock them without LMB to prey on them. If nobody reples by tomorrow I will keep it safe and stock the quillbacks into my neighborhood LMB pond.

Last edited by RockvilleMDAngler; 07/12/12 11:57 AM.