Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Bulk Golden Shiner Fry

I have read several post on people stocking bulk GSH fry to get an established population. If each adult GSH female lays approximately 200,000 eggs per year it wouldn't take but a few breeding fish to hit the 250,000 mark with normal mortality rates. I have also read that depending on where you are in the country it might be two years before the fry spawn. I am just wondering what the advantages are to stocking the fry. For $250 dollars you could stock a lot of adult GSH. Thoughts?

If it's a new pond and you don't have other fish in it, stocking the fry is a better deal cost wise. Many more will live to grow to adults = more to spawn in future years. Typically in a new pond, unless added by the pond owner, there is no spawning structure for the GSH to lay their eggs on. Since they spawn in the Spring, and usually only once, timing with stocking adults is critical if you expect them to spawn the first year.

The idea behind stocking fish in a pond is to have the babies of the stocked fish get caught and removed, or eaten by predators, leaving the orig. stocked fish as the brood stock. After a few years, the surviving YOY become the brood stock. The pond owner can remove some of the orig. stocked fish as part of the pond management plan too.

I stocked 3 dozen GSH and 5 dozen FHM from a local bait shop in June of 2011 when there were no fish in my pond. They have spawned again and again. The original GSH stockers are now 6-7" and their offspring from 2011 and 2012 are in 3-5" size range. I am currently on my third wave of GSH hatches this year. My first hatch of GSH occured in late May and they have already grown to 1"+. So long as the water temps are cool, less than 81 degrees, they will continue to spawn. See ewest comments on page 2 of this thread.

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=336066&page=1

I too have wondered which way to go on this as well stock the fry or get some brooders from a bait shop.

Do you have natural spawning structure or did you add some stuff to your pond for them to spawn on?

I know FHM spawn multiple times but do GSH only spawn once or does it all depend on water quality and temps?

I have some natural spawning structure, mostly FA right now but I have not added anything for them to spawn on. Right now I have held back raking FA due to the sheer numbers of freshly hatched GSH fry present in the open water pockets of the floating FA around the pond edges.

http://www.extension.org/mediawiki/files/b/b8/Golden_Shiner_Culture_A_reference_profile.pdf

I do the same with pondweed (refrain from spray/removal)for BG /RES and LMB fry. TShad also get in there as well but not as much as they like open water.

I raked a very small spot of FA last night and caught one 4" RES from last years spawn and three RES fry from this years spawn. I also caught at least five small bullfrogs and a handful of BF tadpoles in various stages of sprouting legs.

One of these days I post a picture of my modified "floating" pond rake, it works pretty slick on FA.

Thanks for all of your responses so far. It makes sense to me about using fry if the GSH have no area to spawn in a new pond. When the plants catch up with the fish you would have an army ready to spawn.

Is there an easy way to distinguish between GSH and FHM when they are little? I think I have seen a few of my brood stock but I haven't positively identified any fry yet. Any tips would be great.

Distinguishing true fry is difficult. Once they get well past swim-up size it is much easier. Look for the deeply forked tail on the GShiners.