Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Raising FHM and Golden Shiners in livestock pond

Hi, I am currently building a one acre pond on my property. My grandma has 2 nearby ponds that are both 1/5 of an acre. She allows livestock in both of them. They both hold fish. I am looking to grow my FHM and golden shiners in these ponds but don't know if the livestock cause issues with a fishes health. What are ways besides ronetone that I can use to get rid of unwanted fish? I'm looking to grow the forage species in these ponds and then transfer them to my one acre pond that is being built in the spring. Neither pond has a diffuser and will always have livestock around. Just not sure if it's a good idea to put fish grown from these ponds in my new one. Is there any options I have to clean them up besides dredging? Going to start adding bacteria today for sludge and muck. TIA

They could probably survive with the cattle using the pond provided it has a little bit of depth. Fatheads especially would probably be okay. You will definitely want the other fish out first. You could drain it down and use hydrated lime ( not ag lime ) to kill it off.

How much hydrated lime would be required on a pond that size if I were to drain it down to 4ft?

I would not use lime to kill off the fish if the cattle will be using it for water. Lime will raise the pH and that is what kills the fish. I would not want my cattle drinking water with a pH of 11+-. I would think it could do a lot of harm to the cows and maybe even kill a few of them as the drink that high pH water over several days. You could fence the pond off for at least a couple of weeks during the rainy season where the pond water would get diluted back the the normal 7 pH range. A high pH will burn your skin to a point where it is quite serious burn, I would think it would do the same to the cattle.

One solution that might be easier and no more cost than cleaning out the old ponds is just build a new small forage pond at the same time your contractor builds your main pond. Lot simpler, will cost some money but maybe no more than renovating the old ponds, and will work like you want from the get go.

My forage pond thread

Speacialty pond list

Right now I have only FHM in my 1/20th acre forage pond (with plans to grow out some HSB fry next year) after it was killed off this spring. When I feed there are FHM thick.

My experience is if you put FHM and GSH in the same small pond, the FHM will eventually be extirpated. The GSH out compete the FHM. In a larger pond might not be a problem, but in my 1/20th acre forage pond I had lots of FHM but they only lasted about a year after I introduced GSH. Your results might be different.

I made the mistake of putting some stunted bass in the ponds. I'll see what I can do with a cast net and fishing for them. I was just curious if cow manure could lead to a disease in the fish and if they would be healthy to feed to a new pond. Would love to grow baby bluegill, FHM, and shiners in the ponds in order to always have enough food for the bass population. Guy at work suggested throwing copper sulfate around the pond to get the fish to come up for air.. not sure if it would work or not. I just need the bass out so they don't annihilate everything I try to breed.

Using CuSO4 around the pond to get fish to come up for air is a bad idea because it 1. contaminates the pond sediments with heavy metal until the sediment is removed, 2. bass are more tolerant to Cu than the other fish in the pond so all other fish will die first before the bass, 3. Cu will not cause loss of air (DO) unless there is lots of algae that dies quick enough to cause a rapid oxygen loss due to algae decomposition. This usually does not work well if the water is below about 80F and not enough algae is present. Be cautious believing what guys at work tell you for proper pond management.


If livestock have access to both ponds then just pump drain one small 1/5 ac pond to low pool (6"-12") then use the quick lime or chlorine (calcium hypochlorite 70% active conc.) at 5ppm. Use chlorine only when pond is at low pool level. Treating the entire pond with chlorine causes too much contamination of the entire pond bottom. It deteriorates quickly and usually loses toxicity after one day. Then allow pond to refill or pump. Chlorine is a non-specific poison will kill everything in the pond. My preferred treatment is rotenone, quick lime, then as a last resort the calcium hypochlorite 70%.

Thanks for the help