You and many other new members should remember that many if not most fish farms specialize in growing and raising small fish - egg to juveniles. We here at Pond Boss specialize in experience, knowledge, and management for growing those smaller hatchery / farm fish into trophy sized fish. There is a huge difference in the two management philosophies and techniques. Many fish farms emphasize in selling fish which is why IMO they frequently "push" extra species onto the naive, novice pondowner. Fish farms can usually make a good 'case' for having the extra species so the pond owner buys the extras. The problem as my experience has been when the pond owner has problems with managing the "sold pakcage of fish", the fish farm's answer is usually to buy more fish or "sorry that didn't work out for you".
I don't like harping on this topic, but many of the P.Boss links that I provided previously, emphasized not to combine YP and BG if the emphasis is YP.
YP will feed on BG fry, but will never control them. Guaranteed. I've not seen it happen in my 42 years of pond management. The problem is several fold.
Main items:
1. BG fry quickly grow beyond the forage size for YP to eat them. YP even large 12"-13" ones rarely eat a young BG over 2" and mostly eat the ones 1.2" and smaller. Larger BG are ignored. Although those same YP will eat 4" minnows and 4" YP. Adult BG will also prey on YP fry until the YP young are 1" long.
2. the other problem as I see it is, you stocked twice too many BG if you expect YP to have any chance to control them. BG are way too prolific as nest spawners even if they spawn once a year for YP to control BG. YP lay unguarded egg strands and often lower percent of the eggs hatch compared to BG. Other issues also occur with this. Topic and as usual it depends.
3. Several here who have BG with YP & SMBass to help with predation, have very difficult times controlling the BG. Manual BG removal of many BG is necessary to even come close to balanced well growing populations. I have a local pond near me and similar spawning latitude to you with YP-Walleye and BG. The pond owner constantly has to remove small BG each year. The main fish that has any change to control BG is the LMB. If you can control BG with YP and another predator besides LMB you will make history and we would love to read about your success.
I am a big fan of hardy hybrid water lilies. But in your instance I would attempt to keep all weeds out of your pond. Any type of weed cover will be too beneficial as cover for BG to overpopulate without using LMB.
My advice is proceed as you wish. Keep some good inforation records as to fish caught their sizes and estimated numbers when they come to feed on pellets. Stock the predator of your choice and watch the results especially in regards of how many small 2"-4" BG you are seeing in the shallows and your boys are catching on small hooks and live bait. Your pond is small enough that it can be killed off and start over when the BG become too abundant and you are dissatisfied. Based on my experience BG overpopulation will not be evident until 4-7 yrs. Keep us updated on this thread as to the progress of your pond. Others may have advice to help you with what and how many predators to stock to help conrol of BG. My opinion is if you want control of BG you need LMB.
The shiners described sound like emerald shiner to me. Close-up, clear pictures would help with identification.
The fish food label looked very adequate to grow YP and BG. Getting the a good percentage of the YP that are later added by in-pond spawning to eat pellets will be a challenge. Getting the new young immature BG to eat pellets is fairly easy and usually successful.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 11/12/12 09:17 PM.
