Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Wisdom of adding Bullhead Minnow

I caught a bunch of minnows that I have ID'd to be Bullhead Minnow in my crawfish trap.
Would it be unwise to just throw them in the pond? The pond was stocked in early June with BG, RES and about 6 or 7 lbs of Fathead Minnow. Added 20 medium 4-8" Yellow Perch about a month ago.
Will adding the Bullheads hurt anything? I am thinking just more food for the BG,RES and YP. Will the Bullheads reproduce and help - or perhaps compete with the Fatheads and not be as prolific?

I am guessing all the minnows will be wiped out anyway so maybe it just doesn't matter.

Bullheads are usually considered undesirable in ponds. They are prolific breeders, and compete for small forage species.

EDIT: I was assuming you are talking about bullhead catfish, of course. I had never heard of a bullhead minnows until I just looked them up. They look 100% harmless.

Bobad is right. You don't want them. They somehow escape predation and can become a problem. We thought that one of my friends was going to lose a thumb or maybe a whole hand from being finned by one.

Yes.

In general, no matter what species you're talking about, the answer is "yes".

Thoroughly research any species before adding and you'll never regret it. In many cases people have bullheads without significant detriment to their fish community, but unless you have a great love for eating and catching bullies, I'd leave 'em out.

AATWheel, Guys I think he is talking about a true minnow called a bullhead minnow - Pimephales vililax. I give him enough credit that he does have a true minnow and not young bullheads. I don't think he is talking about small or young of year (YOY) bulheads, maybe I am also wrong in my guess.

The bullhead minnow has a subspecies Northern Bullhead Minnow that occurs rarely and sporatically in the southern Ohio River drainage streams and very rare or not present in northern Ohio streams that drain into Lake Erie which is the watershed area that he lives in (NE Ohio).
Asleep AT Wheel, If you have minnows and not young bulheads then I doubt very much that you truly have bullhead minnows. If you really have bullhead minnows you better contact someone in the academic community or ODNR because you have a new distribution record for this species.

You have likely misidentifed them which is very easy to do unless you have had some specific fish identification courses or training that dealth with or covered shiners and minnows. Picture keys are not very acurate for identificaton of the shiners and minnows since there are so many species that superficially look very similar to each other.

Posting a photo of a bullhead or bluntnose minnow will NOT be good enough for anyone to specifically identify either fish. One needs to see a magnified area of the snout for presence or absence of a crescent spot, the peritoneum color needs to be seen and or the pharyngeal teeth need to be seen to verify identity.

I think your minnows are very likely bluntnose minnows (Pimephales notatus) which are quite common in all Ohio streams. Bluntnose and bullhead minnows look very much alike and are separated by only a few small specific morphological details. In some situations I think bluntnose minnows are a BETTER forage fish than fathead minnows. Bluntnose minnows are a very good forage fish and will not cause any problems in your pond unless they are harboring INTERNAL or EXTERNAL, active or LATENT bacterial, viral or parasitic organisms obtained in the wild state.

Adding fish from local public streams or public waters is very risky business due to the vulnerability of these wild fish coming in contact and being constantly exposed to lots of pathogenic organisms that occur in the uncontrolled public waters. Once these pathogenic organisms (parasitic, bacterial or viral) are released into your pond then they will be pretty much a resident active or latent pathogen until the pond is drained and disinfected. The choice and risk is yours to make. Be prepared to live and deal with any consequences.

Here you go try this :

Pimephales vigilax aka Bullhead minnow -- pic included

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=2934

Thank you for the responses. I am going with Bill Cody's knowledge - they most probably are bluntnose. They are not bullhead (cat) fry - these are true minnows. I went to the Wisconsin Fish ID site (thanks ewest) and looked at the examples there. These minnows have what appears to me to be a more triangular snout than the bluntnose shown, but it is awful hard to tell the fish are so small. I did not use a magnifying glass and my eyesight ain't what ist used to be.
I am more concerned about viruses, etc. And now I feel bad - I have been adding crawfish that I trapped in the creek to the ponds. No doubt there is a risk there as well. I even dumped in a bucket of creek water. Guess I won't do that again.
I probably won't ever drain the pond as it takes to long to fill - not much runoff, and it is an emabankment pond. I would more likely live with the problems that come in from the wild. I am guessing it is not a matter of if, but when the contamination occurs.

There is a small creek within 20 feet of the big pond, and the small pond that has been there for 25 years is 15 feet away. The blue heron and canada geese have already visited as well as the turtles and crawfish that are now resident.

I did see a lot of small sunfish that appear to be GSF in the minnnow traps, along with some catfish fry. Hopefully these won't hitch a ride into my waters anytime soon.