Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Golden Shiners - What size to stock?

Theeck,

FWIW...

When I stocked SFS (Spotfin Shiners) and BNM (Bluntnose minnows) into my pond, which is just a little bigger than yours, spring of 2016, I faced the same situation that you have in that I had mature predators. To distract the predators, I stocked 10 lbs of fathead minnows(FHM) before the SFS and BNM. This gave my predators an abundance of slow moving baitfish to be distracted by while my faster swimming BNM and SFS had a chance to get acclimated. As of fall 2017, I know at least some of my SFS and BNM survived. Fall of 2016 I also stocked another 10 lbs of FHM to keep the pressure off the BNM and SFS during the winter. I guess I will see if I was successful at keeping brood stock of the desired SFS and BNM alive later this year. As mentioned by others, IMO another key is having the correct habitat for the newbies.

Good Luck,

Bill D.