fishm_n- thanks for the idea on the grass shrimp and the scudds. I'll have to do some research on the scuds and the shrimp. I did have some catfish washed down when we had all of the rain about a month ago but I did put a net up last year as the creek comes into our property so I wouldn't get any unwanted fish. When it rained so hard a month ago it coming down so fast it was at least 2-3 feet above the net.

Bill Cody- I'll try and order that issue of pond boss so I'll get caught up.

Cecil- thanks for the info I'm going to try and make a trip to overton's in about a month. Would it be better to start with smaller CNBG like 2-3 inches or a little bigger like 3-5 inches? Or does it really matter? How many CNBG should I get? I really like the idea of bringing the CNBG inside and keep them growing if I can. I have a large tank that's about 400 gallons that I could keep in my man cave haha. When it gets to be summer I'll put them in some horse tanks until I can sex them.

thanks for all the info everyone