Can anyone provide an update? There was some discussion in the past of having fish farms that were in areas where spotfin shiners were found in the streams and lakes natively (most of midwest) experiment with keeping a multiplying population in a pond (using appropriate spawning disks) and then possibly if it is self-sustaining offer these for sale along with or in place of the less hardy FHM. I'd love to see these available in more fish supplier locations. In my experience they offer many unique advantages.
Also there was some interest in trying to raise and sell Lake Chubsuckers (a pond chubsucker that also has advantages as a unique forage fish) Any updates from anyone?
I had great success with SFS. They fed almost year around as long as we had open water and were vigorous swimmers, could avoid predation, and spawned repeatedly once water temps were favorable. Sadly I'm afraid my two episodes of fish kill this late winter and early spring might have wiped them out. I can't seem to see any at feeding time. I don't have a way to restock unless I drive to Ohio. Oh well, it was a great run for the SFS in our SW MI pond.
If don't know yet if pond truly is a blank slate (not sure yet as I stocked about 100 3-5" yellow perch last fall and they might still be around, hard to tell as they don't seem to come to the feed either.) But if it is, that makes it easier for me to try another experiment with another unique forage/predator combination.
