You are getting good advice even though some of it appears conflicting. The advice that appears conflicting is very likely not conflicting if you know the rest of the story or the 'whole' story. All the advisors above so far are well experienced. IMO the fish farms are very willing to sell you too many fish because that is how they make a lot of their money. Then when the fish are not doing well you go buy more fish from them to fix their original sales "pitch". Do you see their plan?
Example: you stocked or would have stocked, before some died in the bag, 300CNBG into 1/20th ac; that is 6000BG/ac. General standard standard BG stocking often is maximum of 2000/ac. In this tiny pond IMO you should have taken some of the advice and stocked HBG who are a great small anglers fish and grow faster and often BIGGER that BG for tiny ponds. That is why one advisor suggested only male BG for your pond. I would have used a slightly different plan but IMO you did not do due good planning, and diligence nor good homework; too big of a hurry very often results in poor results.
Fish food of 32% is designed mainly for growing catfish; notice the type of fish pictured on the bag in your picture. Plus the lower % protein foods always results in sport fish having MORE undigested / undigestable waste material production in terms of excess manure and lower water quality. With the current over crowded newly stocked fish in your tiny pond, you DO NOT need excess fish waste manure. As all the current fish now grow because you are feeding them and will soon reproduce, they will become even MORE overcrowded. Not a good thing!
You in the future with this many fish will have fish health problems and will very likely NEED to go back the the fish farm to buy more fish for one or several reasons. Again - See their plan? BG will eat your cheap 32% fish food but their growth will be way less than it could be if using a premium fish food (40%or 40%+) that you would/should buy from the place where you bought your fish. Overtons would have a better quality fish food available. Optimal has been proven to grow quickly big BG who produce minimal waste material. Go over to Overtons and buy 10 or 15 lbs of what ever they have for APROPRIATE sized food for fingerling BG. Small fish need small food for best growth. They might even be using Optimal, Skretting or Cargill - Purina which should tell you something. Fish farms do not want excess fish waste materials in their ponds. Explain your situation and they should sell you a lesser amount because 40-50 lbs of food is likely to go moldly or go "bad" buy decomposing vitamins before you get the whole bag fed. Fish food should not be kept longer than 8-12 months and better not longer than 6 months. Vitamin C is often the 1st thing in fish food to decompose. Overcrowded fish and bad food will soon cause dead fish, BAD WATER QUALITY, and the best thing that can happen is slow growing stunted, poor quality fish. You will definitely not be producing 'trophybg'.
The fish farm was correct,,, one can stock FHM and BG together as first fish BUT is mixed sex BG or CNBG the best fish to use for a 1/20 acre small angler's pond where the goal is young angler, high catch rate, large panfish?????? IMO maybe and probably not. Having highly prolific and too many panfish and / or predators in a sport fish pond is probably one of the most common problems in all sizes of ponds on this pond management forum. This is especially true for in smaller ponds where too many fish become a problem faster than in a larger pond.
From your pond picture, the pond looks muddy. How much natural fish foods do you think will grow in muddy water? Answer - VERY LITTLE. . Phytoplankton needs light penetration to grow. Depth of the plankton growth production zone depend on water clarity and lack of suspended mud, silt, clay and detritus. I would have first allowed the pond to develop some clearish water and hopefully a good plankton bloom to mostly feed the fingerling BG. Another bit of knowledge, and contrary to what you posted above, """ For FHM food, I know they eat phytoplankton but what can I buy right now to give them a jump start? Dried mealworms? Blood meal? Cottonseed meal? """
FHM as yearlings and adults eat a low percentage of phytoplankton, and not mainly phytoplankton. Most of their food is benthic plant (periphyton oriented) and animal materials.
The blood meal and cottonseed meal is primarily for enhancing zooplankton blooms not as direct food for fish.
Others have tried to give good experienced advice that has so far been pretty much overlooked or rejected. Fish farms are generally experts in growing small fish. We here on the PB forum are experts in growing high quality, big, healthy fish once the fingerlings are stocked - if our advice is followed. Your experiences so far will educate you. Should have, could have, would of. Time will tell the rest of the story.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 03/16/21 09:41 AM.
