Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Suckers?

Many fish especially omnivorous types will eat fish eggs. Bgill and about every Lepomis (sunfish) will do it, many minnows will do it, trout do it, even humans do it. Any fish egg laid in a vulnerable position will probably soon get consumed by another fish, invetebrates and no doubt puddle ducks. Nest spawners are very defensive and defend the nest against most all invaders. Goldfish or koi in moderate numbers are not usually heavy predators of eggs of nest pawners. I've seen bgill bump and bite humans trying to get them out of spawning areas. Broadcast and nonnest spawners are usually adapted to lay more eggs to compensate for egg predation. Often egg laying location helps in success of the hatch and often helps in reducing egg vunerability to predation. This behavior trait brings into play the concepts of habitat diversity that is available in ponds vs lakes. Larger systems sometimes are better suited to sustain diversity of the fishery due to more specialized habitat diversity being available for successful spawning in the larger systems. Some species will not be able to succeed in small systems due to improper habitat or even due to unnatural crowding during various life stages. This brings us back to full circle of TyW33's original question; fish diversity for ponds. One might be able to stock them into a pond but will they be able to maintain populations against all forms of predation and competition? This may or may not be good based on the goals of the manager; it all depends.

Off topic. Threads often digress from the original topic due to the complexity of the aquatic habitats. Everything in the ecosystem is interconnected to everything else. It is hard to discuss one topic or change one item in the system without impacting something else that impacts another thing; food web; circle of life and all that stuff. Pond and lake ecosystems are not a simple food chain of one or several taxa.

Discussion about posts on this board:

TyW33 may call our discussions bickering but I do not. I call most of it questions and discussion sessions. Things usually get passionate when misinformation is delivered or perceived. Many of us deal constantly with mistruths from much of what we hear from the general public. We try to combat it in various ways.

If someone made the statement that koi are goldfish (or vice versa) or koi are basically the same as goldfish in a group of knowledgeable fishery people or in the college ichthyology classroom or even among a meeting of goldfish or koi fanciers do you think no one would bother to correct you just because you are a student or because you haven't yet taken ichthyology? You made what I perceived as an emphatic statement that was incorrect. I challenged you. Other casual readers could easily take what you wrote as factual. I basically asked you to prove yourself and additionally teach yourself the differences/similarities between koi and goldfish and then come back and edit your information. You could probably get all this info from various spots on the web. If your information is read by others who know differently from what you stated, then your credibility or reliability as an author/expert is tarnished or compremised.

Asking a question is one thing, but when making a statement of fact be able to back it up if you are challenged. By starting your Apr 17, post with "anyone ever seen koi?" this portrayed or delivered an attitude. There are numerous fishery biologists, fish raisers, & fish lovers here that frequent this board, most all have no doubt seen koi. I was trying to get you to fix what I thought was a problem. After you studied the facts and you still felt you were correct about koi vs goldfish and could prove me wrong then I would stand corrected and fix MY post pertaining to what I said about your koi and goldfish issue. My major professor in college always said "show me I'm wrong and I will change your score". That is very fair. I try to help and teach on this board.

When I see what I understand as bad information anywhere I am participating, I will challenge it. When I am proved wrong I am always willing to change, adapt, and learn..