Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Just stocked a new pond in Ohio last week.

My 1.5 acre pond was built last summer and I started to fill it last Fall. It is 15 feet deep at the deeper end and probably averages 11 to 12 feet deep. I added 1 gallon of FHM last Nov. when the pond was half full. This spring I added 2 more gallons of FHM, 2 gallons of Golden shiners, 750 blue gills 2-4", 150 red eared sunfish 2-4", 150 LMB 5-10" and 50 CC 6-8". Will any of the blue gill or bass spawn this spring? Do I need to add more FHM's? Will this stocking plan work? Thanks for any advice!!

seantOH

Two more questions. Will any of the bluegill or bass spawn this spring? Should I add anything else for forage? Thanks!!

seantOH

My BG have not started to spawn yet here in central PA. Few more weeks of warm weather and you should start seeing them make there beds in the shallow areas of your pond.

I wonder if the LMB may eat some of your BG and RES before they have a chance. Is there a reason you put your LMB in now and not the fall?

Only time will tell, but I do see some issues with your stocking plan. 5" bass can be eaten by 10" bass. So if you stocked bass that ranged in that large a difference, there is a chance your bass will be eating each other...

Bass also tend to feed on sunfish(BG, RES) in the 1/4 to 1/3 their own length. So, if a number of your BG and RES are in the 2-3" range, they will be very vulnerable to predation by your larger LMB.

The GSH may take some pressure off of your sunfish, but at the detriment of getting them established. The FHM will also take some pressure off your sunfish. I would stock as many of them as you can afford to keep the predation on them and off your sunfish and hope the sunfish grow and grow fast. I would also stock more GSH as well.

As has been said, you should have waited until fall to stock the LMB, or you should have stocked the LMB at a smaller size. Say the 2"-4" size, the same size as the sunfish you stocked. The fact that the LMB were 5"-10" in size is what is really going to cause you problems.

Thank you all for the responses! The local marine biologist at the fish farm convinced me to add the bass now. They were supposed to be 6-8" LMB but they weren't very consistent in size. Would it be beneficial at this point to put in 25 or 50 adult BG to insure that I get some spawning this summer? BTW all of the fish are feed trained but I have yet to see anything rise to the surface to take the feed.

seantOH

Is it legal to stock Tilapia?

You may want to consider that as well.

In my experiences, many fish farm 'biologists' are in the business to sell fish and not necessarily dispense the best information for your goals or needs. You are now testimoney to this observation and sad fact. A couple of your larger LMB will likely produce a small spawn in 2011. 10" LMB do spawn in the north. Your larger BG may spawn in 2011 but it won't be till later in the summer Jul or Aug because it will take the larger ones until then or later to grow into maturity. RES will not likely spawn in 2011. 150 LMB can produce a lot of predation on the few fish that you stocked. Calculate this: plan on each juvenile LMB to eat abt 200 fish per yr - often 300-400 fish depending on size of forage. Do the math. Although the bass will survive, be skinny, and not grow if they only get 20-50 fish to eat per yr. A gallon of minnows (1.7-2.5") has about 1400-1600fish.

It will help if you add 4-10 pr of adult BG this spring - 2011 so you are sure to get some young BG early in the spawn season - June. NOTE make sure that you add pure strain BG and not green sunfish! Know the difference.

If the CC are not eating pellets then they are probably also eating some of the smallest minnows. A new pond does not have a full matrure community of benthic invertebrates.

Getting a few new young pellet trained fish to eat pellets can be tricky in a new expansive 1.5 ac pond. Just about always, small feed trained fish such as fingerlings are very WEAKLY habituated to eat feed. Often they resort back to eating natural foods because that is instinctive. If nothing else the minnows-shiners should be showing up for pellets. Are you using a feeding ring? This helps fish to find pellets before pellets wash to shore.

Bill,
50,000 fish consumed by my LMB per year.... Wow the pooch is screwed!!! Okay fortunately I do know the difference between BG and GSF. I have access to other ponds with bluegill or the fish farm sells 5-6" BG. Are they large enough or do I need to find bigger ones? By the way, thanks for the great information! My original plan was to wait until Fall for the LMB... should have stuck to the plan! Had I realized how many fish the LMB would eat I would have waited. The fish farm guy was convinced the BG would get out of hand and that is why he insisted that I stock the LMB now.

sean

What is a feeding ring? Where can I buy one or how can I make one?

BG get out of hand with POOR pond management. LMB get out of hand with poor pond mgmt. All reproducing fish can get out of hand with poor pond mgmt. Your kids can get out of hand with poor managaement! Moral of the story; practice good pond management. The 'marine biologist' should have explained a little of this to you if he really cared about you.

May I ask who sold you the fish? Just a little 'nose trouble'. For adult BG stocking, you can do both buy some and to be sure catch a few locally. I prefer the 7"-8" size for adding adult BG from other waters because you can usually recognize male vs females esp close to spawning season of May-July. Two pair of 8" BG (4 fish) can easily produce 30000-40,000) fry in a newish pond with low predation pressure on the BG nest. 6-10 nice mature BG can be easily caught in a couple hrs of angling.

Not much information is on this Forum about feeding rings. Basically a feeding ring is just a tool to contain floating feed and keep it from floating to shore in the pond. It is usually made from 1"-2" black irrigation or black polyethylene tubing. Use a connector and caulk or tape the fitting to help make it water proof. It could be made from several 'swimming noodles' linked together. Minimum ring diameter is what can be achieved with that particular tubing. Rings can be made from thin wall 3"-4" drain pipe with elbows - square shape. Tether or anchor ring near shore where pellets can be placed in the ring. Actively feeding fish or waves can splash pellets out of the ring. to prevent this a wind baffle can be added. A wind baffle is just a thin piece of 4"-8" high plastic (vinyl siding) or similar material that is attached (zip tries) inside the ring to minimize splash-out of the pellets. Once fish learn location of pellets the ring can be moved or eliminated.

Bill,

Thank you very much! The point is well taken about management. I will get the ultralight out and hit a couple of local ponds soon. I will also construct a couple of feeding rings. Thanks again!!

seantOH

seantOH, I constructed a feeding ring a number of years ago and also added an old window screen about 4' below the ring to catch food so it didn't drop all the way to the lake bottom. I don't have any data on whether it's better or more detremental to a pond tho.....

If you are absolutely certain of your fish id skills, then go for it! Try and get some big BG males in ASAP, and you still have a couple 3 weeks for the female BG.

The other number to remember is that it takes roughly 10# of forage fish to put 1# of weight on ONE LMB.

A ring can bea as simple as using 1/2" PVC made into a square to hold floating pellets in a single contained area over deeper water.

I use the 10' Pipie with 4 elbows and didn't glue it.

The smaller the diameter of pipe the easier it is for pellets to get blown splashed out of the ring. Small dia pipe has very little free board. Think about it.

Yeah I found that out early on. However don't make it so big a heron can stand on it!

Should I be seeing baby BG in my pond by now? I see a lot of baby FHM but no BG yet. They were stocked back at the end of April.

seantOH

The small BG ('fry') could be there you are just not seeing them. In OH it may take a few more weeks until they are evident.

Thanks Bill! I will keep looking.

seantOH

Still looking for yoy bluegill. My bass are getting hungry (the ones not eating pellets). I did some snorkeling over the 20+ bluegill beds and saw no eggs or babies last weekend. What should I do? Should I stock more FHM or continue to wait on the bluegill? Thanks!!!

seantOH

If you saw Bg on nests / beds, then in a new pond you should have a BG hatch. Snorkeling you will very likely notr see the eggs they are really hard to see among the nest materials. If you pick up a stone from one of the nests and look closely you should see a few small light yellow eggs attached. Eggs will be slightly smaller than buckshot about the size of small bird shot. FHM will be hard to get now in late July August due to heat and difficulty of transporting.

It does not supprise me that using your stocking method that the BG are now just spawning. Transplanted BG often experience delayed spawning untill they recover from transplant shock and get adjusted to new pond conditions. Next year when they are more established you should see their nests in early June. Some of the youngest ones that you stocked (2") likely won't spawn until mid-summer next year. The larger LMB (7"-10") likely ate some of your 2"-3" stocker BG.

Since you initially added larger bass before forage was well established, those non-pellet eating bass are experiencing stunting. I would buy FHM as soon as you can get them in late Aug-Sept. The YOY BG, yet this year, will not provide much food for those 5"-10" LMB. Your initial LMB will be behind in growth for at least 2 or more yrs. 150 yearling bass need LOTS of food to grow properly; much more than your initial 2 gallons of FHM.

Bill,

Thanks once again for all of the good information! Hopefully other new pond owners will read this thread and learn from my mistakes. I actually saw beds/ nests in June of this year and swam over these inactive nests mixed in with the active ones. I suppose that is why I am surprised not to see any small BG in the pond yet. I will try to track down some FHM as soon as possible. Thanks again and take care!!

seantOH

Sean - the BG fry may be holding and foraging in open water and will not frequent the shallow areas until they are larger 1/2"-3/4 or when predators chase them into the shallows. It is possible that most of the BG eggs were robbed - eaten from the nests and few eggs hatched.

Yes BG will often become pelagic (open water) when small and feed on plankton until they get some size. Then they will look for near shore cover or brush piles etc.