Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose New 2 acre pond stocking plan

Definitely a stunted fish in the picture.

BG that needs/needed more food.

bstone fed 1200 pounds of optimal this year. So it wasn't for lack of feeding that the YOY are in poor condition. This must be a case of what happens when YOY are just too plentiful and predators too few. That size of BG isn't finding enough food because there are no predators to thin them down ... yet that is.

Was bstone using a starter size feed?

I doubt that.


Sunil, I think the smallest size the OP used was 2.2mm. I use fish food powder for BG fry and FHM. I get that from a coffee grinder, and what's left in any of the fish food bags. 2.2 mm (Optimal #2) is what I use for 1.5" to 2" fingerlings, and 1/8" until the BG can easily swallow 1/4" pellets. In my hatchery pond, my HSB and 4" and above take the 1/4" pellets. Having said all that, I feed the smaller pellets if larger BG dominate the food. When I was really working hard to grow large BG, I fed 3/8" pellets 4 times a day. 6"-7" and below BG wouldn't compete with the larger 9"-11" BG for food. Now, I hand spread 1/8" around the dock so everyone gets a chance to eat. The feeder handles the larger BG, and the smaller BG get to eat also. My point is that for the best survival success, one needs to start feeding at the bottom, and match the correct food size with the growth of the BG.

bstone261, it's not uncommon for me to pick a few dead fish out of the hatchery pond and my big pond, and that's knowing some sink and are never seen. Water temp changes, lack of access to enough food, or other stresses do kill a few fry and fingerlings. If you're losing larger BG, then I would worry a tad.

I don't remember if you already stocked LMB and HSB, but remember that if overstocked, they both hammer the bottom of the fish chain and can affect the long term forage results.

I'm just happy that it is all working out as planned by bstone. His BG responded to feeding and they grew to excellent individual weights reaching the potential the environmental conditions allowed. They don't look anything like the originals ... they look none the worse for their original condition. To cap things off there were prodigious quantities of YOY produced. So much so that growth slowed when they reached the limiting standing weight leading to the condition you guys are remarking about. Just can't see a negative here. Wasn't that the plan? To have a large population of small slow growing forage that can feed a limited number of LMB (when he stocks them .... they are not there yet) for a few years? Now that he has succeeded in that, why is he being criticized for the success? There are several posts complaining about poor condition ... but only one remarking about how good the condition his adult BG are in now.

Next year, when he stocks LMB according to the plan he stated in the original post I do fully expect them to thin down the bank of forage he built if they are stocked appropriately sized, and I do expect that this years crop of BG will resume growth and reflect better condition after the introduction of predators. I can't think of any good reason to grow them too fast. If they could grow only as fast as to remain at optimum lengths for his growing LMB ... that would be ideal.

bstone is following a recipe someone advised him on. The questions I have are:

What is the benefit of delaying introduction of the LMB to early summer next year over say this past autumn?

With the large numbers of YOY standing, how likely is it that the BG will recruit much forage next spring?

Would the spring recruitment of YOY be better if some of this year's crop of YOY were thinned down?

Is next summer better in an effort to delay LMB reproduction by an additional year?

What size and how many LMB should bstone stock next year?

At no point did I tell bstone261 what to do and what not to do. I did share results of 25 years on the water forage/predator relationship gotcha's on my 11 acre pond, and 13 years of various incredible successes and oopsie failures in my hatchery pond.

As George Glazener told me many times, "I don't give advice, I share experience", and that's what I did.

Yes, of course. My impression is that bstone was advised before posting the initial post. Far as I can tell, he has followed the initial plan without deviating from it.

Guys, that last fish picture was of the first hatched BG from original BG from the pond. It was a late spawn. Lots and lots of baby BG. That was also taken in winter, so it will look skinny and being gen2 of original BG population. All is good! Water temp is above 50F, and fish are already eating pellets. Totally bummed that Optimal closed!

Update: pond is doing good. Started up the fish feeders, adjusting as the temperature increases and more fish become active. The bass and hybrid stripers were added last fall, as far as I can tell they are doing well. They have taken to pellets. I am amazed how many fathead minnows i still have. Getting them at the golden shiners almost 18 months to get established has really helped keep the numbers up. Hopefully they will continue to stay at a strong population. Bluegill and Redears are also doing well, getting really big and fat!
Did have a huge rain fall that added alot of turbidity to the water, but back to normal levels
I looked into aluminum sulfate but super expensive for my size pond. Going to treat the catails soon as they are getting overpopulated again.
Will update with pics sometime soon.

Super glad, all is going well for you now. Looking forward to your pictures , soon.

Quick update.

Added a few more hybrid striped bass to make up for the ones I lost. So total HSB should be around 40-50.
Crazy how many FHM I have, the bass and bluegill are fat but the FHM population is very very strong. I see schools of FHM everywhere, young and old.
The Golden Shinner population is also very strong, I suspect the large ones are just not getting eaten yet. So they are keeping the shinners populated.

Caught my fish bass out of the pond! See attached picture. Keep in mind the bass where added late fall and where only 4-6". So growth is great for about 8 months. Have not got a stripper yet.

The bluegill are just massive and fat!! Crazy.

I still feed 3x a day with what I have left from my pallet of Optimal.

Are you teaching those strippers to pole dance too?

IMO you will have lots of minnows/shiners until the first hatch of LMB are 8"-10". Then expect to have noticable losses of minnows shiners. .

Haha! Stupid autocorrect...

Definitely not seeing anymore FHM, as LMB are getting very big and fat. The population of shiners has dropped also. I do see a lot of small Bluegill which is a good sign as there is still plenty off food for the predators. But, I still have not seen or caught a Hybrid Striped Bass. I think I should have between 40-50 in the pond, but they should be pretty big if compared to the growth rate of the LMB.