Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking Forage Fish Vs Carrying Capacity

Coming back to this thread to utilize both as an update as well as a request for fish identification.

Snipe came out to my property several weeks ago to look things over and give me advice. We discussed several things including the dam wall, stocking levels, water quality, erosion control, aquatic vegetation to plant, ground cover, aeration etc. It was a very fruitful visit and I gained lots of information as well as a further game plan for the pond. I also did some specific water testing using an over the counter pond kit prior to his arrival and we reviewed the results and determined it seems like I have good water quality. We did however determine that I have an excess amount of Grass Carp in the pond and that is adding to the turbidity. I will need to focus some efforts on removing several in the future.

Following some of Snipes instruction, I planted some aquatic vegetation about 2 weeks ago in the shallow pond waters. I also reached out to my local NRCS (per his advice) office about ground cover around the newly constructed pond and they sourced seeds for me to plant. One of the issues my pond has it turbidity due to rain running down the side of the pond. There isn`t any runoff from the rest of the property, just water running down the dam walls and pond sides through the mud into the pond. This vegetation should help with that. I also followed additional advice to add 2 areas of rip rap rock in the pond as well. I don`t have exact measurements of the area, but I probably did 2 15-20ft areas or so.

Following Bill Cody`s advice, I purchased 5lb of Brooder size GSH that I stocked in May. I also purchased 500 PK Shrimp that I stocked in June. I am hopeful that the PK shrimp make it despite there not being a huge amount of aquatic vegetation yet. I also added Northern Crayfish to the pond in May as well. I was originally debating waiting until this fall to add to Crayfish in order to give the vegetation time to grow in the pond. As I did more research on them I saw several posts here stating they will burrow into the dirt to look for food with adequate vegetation and that would add to my turbidity problem. The flip side of that is that 1. Bill said to get them in ASAP (and that means a lot for obvious reasons) and 2. I thought that it would be better to get them in early as it would hopefully give them time to spawn. The decision was made for me when my fish hatchery (the one who provided my initial stocking) called me and said that he was at my property with the Northern Crayfish that I had called and asked him if he had access to back in April. So the Crayfish were added as well. I also added some pallets and other floating surfaces tied off to the bank to provide good breeding habitat for the minnows. (cant remember who recommended that)

Following Eastlands advice I purchased a minnow trap to sample some of the smaller fish as I was worried about my initial stocker BG and if they survived. All of my original stockers were 4-6in or more, so I knew I wouldn't catch them in the trap, but was hopeful I might catch some of the spawn. I also purchased a pond/pool pole and net to do the same thing.

I have no idea what the Fry swimming around are, but there are massive amount of them. As mentioned, my clarity level in the pond is only a few feet currently, but I see them almost non stop daily. Many will rapidly attack the feed when it is deployed while others seem to have no interest and only eat bugs and such on the surface. The fry are of varying sizes and colors and I (hope) they are various species that are all spawning.

I would appreciate it if someone would assist me with IDing these Fry so I know what I currently have spawning.

The plan is to stock Feed Trained LMB and HSB from Snipe this fall.

Thanks for the help and all of the great advice.