Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Extended transport time of fish for stocking

Important note to Mainer's informative post for transporting lower numbers of fish for pond stocking. He makes some wise and valuable suggestions.

1. Note the air temperature when fish were transported: air temps 30-50F and pond temperature 46F. Especially for long transport times lower temperatures are much more important for better success than moving fish during warmer temperatures above 60F. The warmer water is the less oxygen it will hold. The warmer water the more oxygen fish will consume due to more body metabolism.

2. Not over crowding the fish in transport bags. My rule for transporting fish is - You are much better having fewer healthy fish upon release than arriving with lots of dead fish.

3. Fish were slowly exposed to the receiving pond water. This avoids stress of body adjustments to temperature and water quality conditions.

4. Keeping the transport bags away from the sun is a big benefit. Fish in bagged water in the sun can become very warm due to influence of heat from sunshine.

5. Smaller fish almost always transport better in the bagged oxygen water compared to larger fish. This is due to fish with more body mass consume more oxygen and produce more overall gaseous and metabolic waste products compared to smaller fish.