I spoke to Anderson Minnow farm earlier this morning. They told me that they start with their 2 smallest size shiners on the spawning mats at the hatchery. I asked about the ovarian parasite and she responded by saying all of their fish are tested and are disease free. Anyway, I ordered 2 boxes of the smaller golden shiners for my new pond and wanted to put the information out there for anyone trying to figure out what size shiner to order.
Heppy

Hey Heppy, how much did the 2 boxes cost? The website doesn't give pricing. thanks and best of luck!

The only thing I would say is to photograph the shipment as you received it and when you opened it. I had an unfortunate experience where one box of GSH I got from Anderson was DOA and I didn't photograph it and then they refused the refund .

I'm confused, you are buying probably thousands or 10s of thousands of minnows and EVERY fish is checked for an ovarian parasite? How in the world can they say something like that? it is a chemical test in the water in the bag? Do they filet open every 100th fish?

Someone help me here!

Nothing is ever 100%.

It's likely that they spot check with a highly sensitive test.

The sensitivity and specificity of the test is determined and then sample size and frequency are tuned to give a certain level of confidence in the result. This is my experience with livestock testing e.g. brucellosis surveillance for cattle.

E.g. "APHIS conducts surveillance on animals at slaughter by testing their blood for presence of Brucella antibodies. Around two million animals are tested annually. Surveillance is more than sufficient to detect one affected herd out of 100,000 herds at a confidence level of 95%."

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocu...sis-eradication

I've ordered larger size GSH from Anderson and in the 1st box I lost about 15%. I called them, they sent an entire new, full box shipment.
Theses were 3-1/2-4" fish to avoid predation. around 400 or so in this larger size and was about 125 shipped overnight.

All,
Here is the link for disease testing and counts per box. They are graded by length. http://www.andersonminnows.com/disease_inspection.pdf
http://www.andersonminnows.com/species3.php
Daviddunn, I want to say it was about $120 a box but I don’t remember the exact amount. On their website just request a price list and they will email it to you. I’m happy to report the 3 boxes of FHM are producing tons of offspring I put in the pond the first week in August.
Bocomo, Thanks for the tips and explanation!
Snipe, Did you have lots of reproduction from the bigger size GSH with the larger fish in your pond?
Heppy

I've got quite a few GSH yoy in the pond.. I thought they were part of the FHM Fry but after some sampling, we determined about 1/4 of each net were GSH. I'd say it was quite successful, considering my recent flood and what seems to have stayed put.
Funny thing is how many Gams have shown up! Wasn't expecting that at all, but I'm learning to expect surprises more often..

Snipe,
That is good to know as a pond matures that GSH will give you reproduction in your main pond. I’m wondering if the native crayfish GSH and FHM will get along as a poly culture in my forage pond. I guess I will find out tomorrow!
Heppy

Snipe,
I was reading on another post that you prefer Cedar. Do you put live or dead Cedar in the pond? I was also thinking of “natural” home furnace filters for spawning. All suggestions welcomed.
Heppy

I believe fresh cut cedar is better because the "green" seems to hang on longer, decay is slower in general. Dead cedar doesn't provide the density fish prefer to use.
I have read where some filter media types are good for spawning matts but my take on that is if other, more desirable structure is not present these make more sense.
About the forage base.. I put 3 pounds of Virile crawfish in when I stocked my FHM and that was last June. My flood a month ago produced literally 1000's of Crawfish shells from the molt. They were everywhere the high water mark was. Obviously they done well with few predators present fairly quickly.

Thanks for that information Snipe!
Heppy

I agree with Snipe 100%. Green cedar added in February and March still has a lot of leaves. Cedar I let dry for several months then added has much less.

I towed a fresh cedar out to a old brush pile and it sunk without any weight added barely got it out before it sank.....

Thanks for the input Snipe, ShortCut and Pat Williamson! It looks like I will be adding cedar. Do y’all find that whole trees or limbs spread out in shallow water works best?
Thanks!
Heppy

Whole trees at least at first.... I prefer them standing then you can add wherever you want around it. Seems better in less than 8’. (Thermocline) but I have them both ways. That’s for fishing, for spawning lay flat in shallow water.

Thanks Pat! I will do them both ways eventually. I am primarily concerned with maximizing production of GSH at this point before I introduce the real predators (100 SMB, 100 WE and 250 BC fall of 2020. Time to break out the pole saw and cinder blocks tied together in a fan shape in shallow water.
Heppy

Hint buy empty sand bags and fill them and tie them to tree or branches .... easy peasy and cheap

Thank you for that very helpful tip Pat!
Heppy

Heppy, depending on your goals and abilty to move it... some cedar is better left whole and others cut and bundled. If you've seen the recommendations be sure to add fluffy cover and dense. I cut the big stuff up and bundle it to make dense cover. Lessons learned, use nylon cord to tie it together. I used galvanized fence wire and in less than a year am seeing it rust through. My water is pretty saline though. Just go with nylon. Much easier to work with! My tank was full so we used a drag line, boat, truck and quickish release to move it in place.
Now, put on the long sleeves and get busy!
Here is a pic of my tank with some initial cover. More has been added and more will be. This was the "easy" stuff.

Shortcut,
I have seen the posts about fluffy and dense cover in other posts. The water feeding my ponds is spring water. I will be using nylon (per your recommendation) as opposed to galvanized wire even though I do not have a salinity issue. The cover I use with the cedar will not be mobile with the exception of the shallow water cover I can rearrange as needed with my tractor and Jon boat. My main pond is 111 yards across the dam and 189 yards from the corner of the dam to the furthest point on the opposite shore for a total of 2.7 acres with a maximum depth of about 10 feet. All of the fish I will eventually stock are in my area, just not found in ponds around here. My goal is a multi species pond with some for harvest in larger not necessarily trophy species. I really appreciate the advice you have given. Thanks!
Heppy