Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking a tank types of fish

Can someone give me some ideas please on stocking a tank and what kind of fish when ever i want to fish my first tank is about a half acre in size and currently has a few bass in it with some catfish can i also add some perch and black crappie to this tank <also i have 2 other tanks about the same size with no fish should i stock tank number 2 with bass and catfish and fathead minnows and tank number 3 with black crappie and perch only and maybe bass what are your thoughts please

Welcome Big Ham!

Some Texas guys will come and offer you some GREAT advice shortly, I am sure. Most do not advise crappie in smaller bodies of water. They have an awful habit of stunting due to over population. When you mention perch, are you asking about yellow perch, or blue gill, or something else?

What are your primary purposes for these tanks? Fishing? How often? Do you like to eat fish? Are you willing to cull aggressively?

Ham, 1/2 acre isn't really large enough for bass or crappie.

Anything less than 25 acres(some say 50) is too small for crappie. They tend to over spawn, spawn earlier than other fish, have a hinged jaw, and clean out the other fish that spawn. You will generally wind up with thin, stunted crappie.

Bass can be done with 1/2 acre but, done right, they should have 1.5 to 2 acres. Even then, they can often over eat their food supply and stunt. Actually, the average Texas pond/tank is what we call bass heavy/bluegill light. This tends to make you work your butt off trying to catch and cull enough bass to give bluegills a shot.

Catfish aren't a bad choice. They are cheap to buy, inefficient spawners in small impoundments(the babies are slow swimmers and all get eaten) so are manageable.

My favorite recipe for small Texas ponds is a combination of hybrid bluegills and hybrid stripers with a feeder. Or hybrid bluegills with channel cats will also work.

Thanks for the feedback my current pond has a lot of moss and cat tails in it would stocking my tank with crass carp be a good idea to help control the grass and moss !

Probably not, grass carp don't really help either of those. But if you search the site, there is lots posted on both those subjects. I use google to search and add POND BOSS to whatever I am looking for. Works slick.

Thanks

BH,

Are you planning on actively managing the tanks or are you thinking more along the line of stocking some fish and hope they self-sustain so you can go fishing occasionally?

Bill just going to stock some fish and fish occasionally

I Have two stock tanks one about a half acre the other about one acre any ideas on how many bass,bluegill and catfish i should put in each one

Tilapia for the moss, have to restock them every year. Triploid Grass Carp for the underwater weeds, you will need a stocking permit. Like Dave said, I'd go with hybrids. Where you going to get Yellow Perch in Texas?