Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Will BG wipe out FHM?

Dave, I wouldn't disagree that they are prolific or that their job is done when they are gone. Totally agree. It just I am in no way convinced that they are necessary for trophy BG pond or even a benefit over other choices one can make. You'd probably agree after considering these points.

Sure, BG will eat them, and they are great forage, but is this optimum forage planning for a trophy BG pond? I would argue, absolutely not. The risk is that it will benefit the LMB far more than the BG and allow more recruitment of BG than would be ideal. It would be much better if the forage base provides more benefit to the BG than the LMB. A good example, just insects and the like that happen naturally. To be sure, LMB will compete for these prey items ... but only when they have to. They will never choose this forage over appropriately sized BG. A food chain absent the FHM will benefit the BG more and give the LMB greater incentive to consume BG YOY.

So one could argue, what about all the FHM the BG could have been eating before they were gone? Well, they would just be eating something else instead. To some degree, FHM are competitive with BG for some forage but especially they are competitive with the organisms that would be in greater abundance if the FHM were not there. Organisms the BG would eat instead of FHM. Heck, they wouldn't even have to eat any pond organisms. For example, 400 3.5" BG weigh around 11.28 lbs and they could be stocked today at that per acre rate and grown to average length of just shy of 8" by October first. It would just take 168 lbs of good quality feed (taking into account the feed's fertilizer effect which would boost the food chain). It would take 310 lbs of feed if there were no fertilizer effect. The feed estimates are based on a DFW climate. Anyways 168 lbs of feed is what they need and as an opportunity of cost ... feed is a compelling alternative to FHM. 100 lbs of FHM at $15 bucks a pound ... is $1500. At a buck twenty a pound, the required feed is less than $200. Meanwhile the LMB HAD to work for their living consuming BG YOY keeping recruitment down. Meanwhile, the remaining $1300 can go to feed next year.

Dave, you bring up jumpstarting the food chain. Minnows do that, but it favors the LMB. Why not jumpstart the food chain with a different kind of organism? One specifically selected to favor the BG. A great example of an alternative to minnows in a trophy BG pond is the PK shrimp. IOWs, let it establish and flourish in high numbers before stocking BG and LMB. They shorten the food chain for BG and they will never be preferentially preyed upon by LMB when BG prey is available. They will benefit BG more than they will benefit LMB which is supportive of the goal for trophy BG. LMB will never have a better choice of prey than appropriately sized BG. So maybe spend $300 of the $1300 saved (choosing feed over FHM) on PK shrimp and allow them to establish the pond. Perhaps also add some macrophytes to the pond to establish cover and substrate for the PK shrimp with some of the savings. While the shrimp are establishing and before stocking BG and LMB, the shrimp could be fed much cheaper feed, for example, rice bran. For a trophy BG pond, I think FHM are a waste of money that will work against the goal of trophy BG. To be sure, I haven't always thought that. There was time when I firmly believed they were necessary, a perfunctory obligation, and that every new pond couldn't be without them. But for a trophy BG pond, I don't believe that to be so anymore.

One last thing, you mention stocking only 1 lb and getting many times that from a little pond before the puddle dried up. CentaxSaj, take note of this. 100 lbs of FHM is way more than you need and is total overkill. Not at all necessary in a 2 acre pond. 3 or 4 lbs/acre is all you would need if they are to be allowed to establish a population before stocking predators like BG and LMB. Also, it is getting to be too late to get reproduction from FHM. It's hot in Austin and once temps are in the 80F range they will not breed like they will below that temp. GAMs would go right to proliferating if you could find them. But that said, if you are truly focused on growing big BG like you have earlier said then consider not adding minnows at all.