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Hello,
A little history on my pond, I bought the house/pond from a friend. It's between 1/3 & 1/2 acre, 8-12' deep. He had it stocked with LMB, CC, & BG. He had a "fish kill" (suspects low D.O.) and found lots of BG, LMB, but only 1 CC. Not sure if the others are still alive or were eaten as fingerlings.
It now has a submersible pump for aeration (runs full time) and he restocked with 20-LMB- 20-CC and not sure how many BG & FHM.

After I bought it, I added 20# of tilapia, 10-6" LMB, and 25-6" CC. I feed a butter bowl full of fish food every afternoon. I never have seen any of the CC. I do see the tilapia, LMB & BG. The pond is pretty clear and had quite a bit of grass growing from the bottom. I soon will be adding 7# of FHM, 3-grass carp(permit pending), & 50-RES.

Any comments? Am I over stocking?

Hi Fountain, welcome to the forum! We are happy you found us.

Experts will arrive shortly, but I can respond to a couple items:

First, is the aquatic vegetation troublesome? If so, it's important to ID it to ensure it's a GC preferred forage item - they prefer some vegetation over others. If you want it knocked back a bit, and it's a type of vegetation the GC will forage upon, then I think 3 GC is more than enough.

I like your idea of adding forage, but not FHM. They will only serve as a snack for your fish at this point. I'd try to establish a different type of forage - such as GSH or other LCS. I'm not a LMB guy so others can chime in, I'd just hate to see you throw your money away on FHM that won't make it to spawn....might as well just increase your pellet program and save the money.

We'd love to see some photos of your pond! Also, what are your goals? Trophy Bass or BG? Balanced fishery?

Again, welcome aboard - keep posting!

Finally someone who listened to my mantra....glad your a fountain and not a drain. Welcome to the best pond site on the web.

I know very little about the total balance thing as I am still learning, best I can say is your 7# of FH's will be appreciated by all your fish but especially your LMB, they will feast on them, likely eliminating them all within a month or two. What can they say, they aren't called large mouth because they eat very little.

As soon as I figure out how to post some pics I will. My goal is to have a balanced pond (little bit of everything) but I'd really like to grow some big CC and LMB!!!

Pic is posted in Image Gallery - Fountain Pond

Good job Fountain...excellent looking pond! Keep on posting. Did you read my questions RE the importance of vegetation ID? Can you get a few samples and photograph and post for us or ID them yourself?

Best I can tell, the vegatation is Widgeon Grass or Naiad. The previous owner added Cutrine-Plus and had 1 grass carp (I never see it). So now the weeds are under control, but in the future I'd like to control with GC instead of adding Cutrine.

With you being so far south, do your tilapia survive the winter?

I just stocked them this past spring so I'll let you know next spring if they make it through the winter. I've read where some start dying at 52F and others have made it to 42F.
Here's a pic of one feeding yesterday