Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Raising Forage and Bait Seminole killifish

I caught some of these and threw them in my pond. They look like they can make a great forage fish. It has been a few weeks and they can still be spotted and appear to be doing well. Any one have them in their Florida ponds?

I havent seen any in mine. If I could grab a bunch id throw em in and see how they do.

That's a beautiful fish...

I wasn't aware of that species of Fundulus. Thanks for posting that very interesting fish. There's not a lot of information out there on them but their range is pretty much all of peninsular Florida. Can you tell us more about yours? Were they co-occurring with LMB or pickerel for example? It's a cool fish for sure and I would like to know more about it strictly for knowledge's sake. Life cycle, fecundity, and such.

I found these guys around 2-6 feet from the shore line in 1-3 feet of water depth. Mostly open sandy bottom with some cover. Lots of juvenile largemouth in this area but they seemed to be targeting the gambusia more then anything. I believe I only caught males. I was catching them with a small panfish hook and a piece of worm. The males are aggressive feeders. In the photo the dots all over the body I believe indicate it is a male.

The females appear to be more of a spotless brownish gold throughout.

Unlike most killifish or topminnows these guys stay near the bottom. I am going to target more females and see if I can establish a population in my pond.

They are apparently fast growers and can adapt to high salinities.

Unusual looking mouth. Do you know what they mostly feed on?

Not much information on them. https://www.fishbase.se/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?ID=3204&AT=Seminole+killifish

My first concern about adding them was they looked like a predator of smaller fish. The little info I can find states they feed primarily on insects, benthic organisms, and possibly fish eggs. They seem no different then any other minnow type in that aspect and don’t grow large enough to run off any bedding sport fish. I think these are overlooked or not noticed by most fishermen or pond owners. I wonder if they could replace the fathead minnow in southern ponds as forage and bait.

I did use a few gambusia as bait and caught tiny LMB but I would assume these killifish would take down a wounded minnow if given the chance.