Originally Posted By: Zslow6
...is there a benefit to spotfin shiners vs golden shiners?


As usual, I'm sure the answer is "It Depends." I am not a pro but for my pond, IMO, SFS and BNM are better suited to my predator base than GSH. SFS and BNM both stay smaller and should remain within the mouthgap of my primary predators, SMB, YP and WE.

GSH can get 10 inches or bigger which would make them just extra biomass for me when they reach that size. My thought is, once GSH out grow my predator's mouthgap, they will just reduce the carrying capacity and available small forage of my pond for my preferred species. As more GSH recruits make it to larger sizes each year, they could end up being a real problem.

If I was going to have a LMB pond, I would stock the GSH.

Again, I'm not a pro...Just my 1 cent

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