I went fishing last week and noticed bluegill are on beds and spawning like crazy. No blue gill spawning in my pond I have several mature bluegill but this is their first spring in my pond. It looked like in early April they may have started to fan beds but seem to have stopped. I even went for a swim and could not locate any spawning.

The cichlids in the pond have started reproducing in March so just curious if anyone has any insight on what my BG are waiting for. I have probably 150 adult fish I bucket stocked in the fall. Here are some of the fry being protected by the parents if anyone is interested.

Did you go fishing in ponds/lakes that were larger than your pond?

Your pond could have been warmer than a larger BOW.

I am NOT a BG expert, but is there a chance that your BG already pulled off their first spawn?

Didn't someone in OK say their bluegill had already spawned?

To me, that sounded super early, but I don't discount it.

The bluegills I observed on beds were in a very large BOW. My pond is almost 1/4 acre I would assume. I guess it’s possible but I haven’t seen any fry. I have tons of fat head minnow fry. My pond is sand base so I would assume the beds would be easily spotted. I did notice two back in March in deep water but appeared to be abandoned at the time. We did have a small front come in and I assumed it may have disrupted things. My daytime highs are in the low 80s and lows in the high 60s.

I only have 11 HSB and they aren’t very big. Also only a few small numbers of piscivore type cichlids. I don’t believe any in numbers to eliminate all BG fry. I am excited for them to spawn.

The beauty of having BG, is that if you missed the first spawn, they will be more than happy to pull off a few more spawns as the year progresses!

Awfully considerate of those hard-working BG I would say.

Males will dish areas out and "display" as well.. not always spawning behavior.
Spawning beds seem to be a bit deeper and once the males move in, they generally stay put. Some nests may be used for some time, other males may takeover other abandoned nests. My point is once it starts it pretty much continues, rain or shine. It's not a one-n-done deal.

Maybe they are waiting to get fat on cichlid fry! Was it just me or were the BG circling the Cichlid nest like sharks. There is a really good view of a BG coming in and taking a fry at 1:46 to 1:47. To see it better you can slow down the video to 1/4 speed in the settings

Great, now we are going to have a bunch of Bluegills joining Pond Boss as new members.

I can see them now, telling their buddies, "If you go on this Pond Boss site they publish how-to videos showing the best way to capture a tasty meal!"

"However, I must warn you, it is a bit of a fetish site. They talk about BG sex, a lot!"

If the fry get spooked and dart off from the parents the blue gill will dive in and try to grab a few fry. It amazes me that those cichlids can be 1/4 the size and will run off the blue gill. I think it's the risk vs reward. A starving BG I think would pose a more serious threat. I put them in as a forage species and they are reproducing well. I so far have kept gambusia out otherwise that may have been my go to for small forage. I do believe gambusia are major predators of swim up fry.

I'll update when I see some gills on beds.

Depending on location in Fla. BG can spawn 8-10 mths of the year based on water temps. Likely BG have spawned at least once this year and now the more tropical cichlids are spawning. There is a lot of background activity in the videos. I thought I saw (in addition to BG) CC and GSH.

I still have not observed any BG fry. I have fertilized which should create a bloom soon. With the water levels dropping I wanted to provide some natural screening and plenty of food for the tons of FHM fry I have been seeing gathering in large schools. I am getting several wading birds I’d prefer to hunt elsewhere.

Ewest you are correct I have likely too many CC which I do enjoy but I'm afraid they may turn into fish eating machines as they mature but I had planned on harvesting them when they are of appropriate size. Those are not GSH they are actually tinfoil barbs from Asia. I am very curious to see if they reproduce as well.

Here are the channel cats being fed. I had trouble finding these guys. I had them shipped in originally as tadpole sized fish 2” maybe. They disappeared and started to re appear when they got to a certain size.

That is a lot of fish and all plenty big enough to decimate small fish! Very few yoy/fry will survive long with that many hungry BG and CC.