I haven't pursued it further but I suspect if you need smaller quantities of HSB you could have them shipped. More and more aquaponics places are selling and shipping to all 50 states. If you put them in as one of the first species along with forage fish they will grow rapidly (especially on fish food supplemental) and will become your first 'apex predator' The good thing about HSB is they do not reproduce so you know exactly how many go in and how many perish or are caught. They also only can eat certain sized fish so that gives you a way to control their predator success. Gives you a little idea on how balance the predator/prey ratio is.
I'd love to see if you can source RES and try them in your pond. If we could figure out a way to get them to overwinter in our climate it would be great. I'm moving away from RES due to no source and trying pumpkinseed but again struggle to find source unless I catch them myself.
I like what I hear so far about your pond site and the soil. If you can visit other people who had ponds dug and they held water, and your soil is similar that is a good start. It sounds like this is a groundwater pond that doesn't have a huge runoff area and doesn't have a dam?
Removing roots and trees if you can tolerate no shade around your pond will help as trees suck tremendous amounts of water from your pond. I have a wall of forest on west side and a few smaller trees on the east side. I have way too many leaves and spend many hours mucking them out in the spring. Oak leaves are the worst...
Last edited by canyoncreek; 10/21/22 09:48 PM.
