Thanks for the replies so far!

That totally makes sense focusing on the forage fish and their spawning first. I think all the local(ish) fish farms seem to have are silver shiners and Fathead Minnows for forage fish. Most don't seem to sell any forage fish whatsoever though. I just have no concept of how much feed those forage fish might need and don't want to stunt the whole environment by dumping them into a desert. As far as their preferred environment goes I have no problem spending some money building it now if it'll make things better later. Do you think stocking this early in the process with the forage fish will stunt things?

Thanks

Last edited by MT90; 09/24/25 01:19 PM.