Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - Can a person stock too many redear sunfish?

Everything that i have read is that to stock around 5 to 1 BG to RES. I am wondering why this is. BG can overpopulate and RES don't so why not stock the same ratio? I was thinking about stocking 300 RES and 300 BG in a 1/2 acre pond. Any thoughts

Great question. There are many things (known and unknown) that can act to increase or suppress recruitment in fish. None of the guys who were looking into RES non-stunting ever said what they thought was provable but some of us thought that there is a trait/condition/adaptation that RES have which will turn off negative recruitment.