Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Thinking of adding Redears??

Hi Guys, I have a very healthy pond right now that is 3/4 of a acre, I have trophy yellow perch, Hybrid striped bass, Walleye, and about 100 big bull male bluegills no females.. I was thinking of adding some redear sunfish but want to keep my trophy perch fishery!!!! My question is what can I expect if I add the redear sunfish? and could I have problems with them breeding with my male bluegill?

Male bluegill will naturally cross with RES. It happened in a pond where male BG were added to mixed RES. Currently watching the pond to see if these hybrids will back cross with either parents. This will be the third summer after the first hybrid cross for this small 0.33 ac pond.

Sounds like a perfect fishery! I totally understand wanting to add RES to the mix - but strongly consider selecting MALE RES only to avoid reproduction. Collecting late Spring/early Summer when they are on beds will help ID sex. BRES hybrids are cool, don't get me wrong I love them, but you might be adding a management issue you don't need when you could just be managing for trophy single sex fish. Adding male RES will not affect your resident fishery much at all as the RES forage overlap with BG won't be great...snails, invertebrates, etc will gain the the majority of their attention while your BG are feasting on pellets. I think adding 25-100 Male RES over time would be a very cool addition to the fishery.

SPC,

Good advice from Bill Cody and Teehjaeh57 as always! Those two guys among others here know their fish including redears!

Are you the one that planted male bluegills from Clear Lake a few years ago?

I'm also considering adding redears to my trophy female yellow perch pond and male bluegill pond. And I share their concerns in potential hybridization -- even more so as I sell big male bluegills and my customers don't want hybrids bluegill of any kind.

I also have an added motive to reduce the snail population as I have some issues with parasites that are part of a snail cycle.

My plan will be add as many male adult redears from local lakes as I can via angling, but I don't believe it it will be enough, and I need to be sure not to potentially add any viligers (free swimming larvae of zebra mussels) or other parasites. If I add any fish from local lakes I will be treating each redear to a 30 ppt (30,000 ppm) saltwater solution until the fish turns on its side before putting them into the pond. The saltwater solution should cause any surface parasites or viligers to implode.

I will also be purchasing several hundred small redears and bluegills from American Pond and Lake Management in Russiaville, (Matt Rayl) and feed training them in one of my recirculating tanks until they are large enough to sex. Redears are tough to feed train but I think I have enough experience feed training other species to get the job done. I also believe bluegill of the same size in the same tank, which are easy to feed train, should help the feed training process.

Keep us posted on what you do and I will keep the forum posted on my progress or lack there of.

I am in the same boat. Only male BG, with reproducing RES and RBS. I will be interested to see how much hybridization occurs between the species.