Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Shallow pond depth...is it feasible (1st post)

Fingers crossed that it IS sealed. I would not add any more fish until that is known. Adding the correct amount of fish to meet your goals will be a more expensive proposition now that there are adult fish in there. Typically fish for a new pond are stocked as fingerlings, 1"-3" long mainly because they are the cheapest to buy. Now with the adult fish in there, you will have to stock other adult fish or stock 40%-50% more smaller fish to make up for predation.

Many people don't realize how many fish a single largemouth bass will eat in a year. A largemouth bass will Bluegill up to 1/3 their body length. It also takes 10 pounds of fish to put 1 pound of weight on a single bass, plus another couple of pounds or more of fish just to keep that bass alive during the year, depending on how big the fish is. If a bluegill is 2.5" long, there are 1,000 fish in 10 pounds.

For instance, in April I can stock forage fish in a new pond, i.e. minnows and Bluegills. 10+ pounds of minnows per acre and 3,000 2.5"-3.5" Bluegills. Those Bluegills will grow enough to pull off a successful spawn in August or September. The next year in early May I can stock 50 3" largemouth bass per acre. By late September, those bass have grown to 12"-14" and are between 1 and 2 pounds. Stocking 2.5"-3.5" Bluegills vs. 4.5"-6" Bluegills is a huge price difference.