lmoore,
Thinking along the same line, I asked the same question in
this thread. So I didn't feel like it was totally resolved whether OSS are good for SMB. Even so, I will share a few thoughts.
OSS were indicated to be associated with above average standing weights of LMB in a survey of 42 Oklahoma ponds. All the same, it is not known whether their presence was responsible for this and it isn't know how much forage they supply. But at the very least they don't seem problematic for LMB. My hunch is that they would provide forage to SMB and make a contribution. Also, I don't think they would overpopulate or create any issues like that. They occurred in 38% (16) of the 42 ponds and averaged 14 lbs/acre standing weight with a maximum standing weight of 64 lbs/acre. Of interest ... their standing weight averaged more than Golden shiner and had maximums greater than golden shiner. So perhaps they are bit more resistant to predators? Perhaps or perhaps not enough samples.
One consideration is production over biomass. They have found a positive correlation of this ratio to the negative power of (weight at maturity). What this means is that prey that mature at small weights yield the most production relative to their biomass. Based on this metric the OSS is in the neighborhood of 2.86. Presumably a stable population with a minimum annual biomass of 40 lbs may be able to produce as much as 110 lbs of forage. Production over biomass not nearly that good for RES which metric is about .85. So 40 lbs of OSS may provide as much forage annually as 130 lbs of RES. Here we are considering the biomass low being at the time prior to spawning activity. RES will provide fishing opportunity where the OSS will not. A fair proportion of the RES production will outgrow SMB gape which reduce consumed forage weight. It's not clear to me how strongly OSS can persist with SMB but for the 38% of those 42 ponds they appeared to be strong enough to persist with LMB. So ... its an experiment ...
