Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain working on 1/4 acre pond in south ms

i had a pond that was full of mosquito fish,sail fins, and small gsf and was thinking of a fish kill months back, but out of nowhere i have caught in the last month 3 to 9" bg and 4 to 7" cnbg and have caught at least 30 decent size of the two with very few gsf. i was wondering what can i do to have some predators for the sail fins and mosquito fish. i can see 1000's of them every time i feed the fish. i thought they were few fish in the pond but know when i feed the bg will tear up a soho cup of feed in minutes.

what fish will eat sail fins and mosquito fish?
and also what will control bg numbers in a 1/4 acre pond with management?

Only fish that can adequately control a BG population is the largemouth bass. I bet they'll like your sailfins and mosquito fish too.

Welcome to Pond Boss!

Depending on what your goals are will help with the LMB issue. I have the same situation as you and I have been adding LMB any time I get a chance to.

But I want to grow some large HBG, RES, GSF, and such, so the more LMB I have the better they take care of all the offspring.

I am suppressed the GSF have not hammered your GAMS.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do. Also some pictures would be nice.

Thanks

Sailfin mollies and mosquitofish will be eaten by just about anything that can fit them in their mouths and since neither gets overly big, that includes most fish.

well i think the explosion of gams and salfins are because the pond was 3/4 covered with pond weeds and i took out 1/2 of that and now the fix are in open waters for the bigger bg and gsf to get to now. i have caught some 5 to 7' gsf that were fat as can be.

goals- to raise decent size bg/cnbg/gsf(yes i actually like the greenies since there are not to many, they are aggressive and fun to catch) but would like to have maybe 15-20 bass just to control bg/cnbg/gsf numbers so i can have a descent fishery given the small size of the pond i have at this house. i will post pics of the progress and fish i currently have in the pond.

aslo i keep catching in a minnow trap what look sorta like bull minnows but they have almost a golden specks down there sides. they are all about 3" long i thought maybe they were some kind of mud minnow but living 2 blocks from the gulf of mexico i am way more familiar with salt water fishing then fresh water. but the house i bought came with a pond so why not make the best use of it as i possibly can.

Pictures!

We need pictures. (or at least like to see them)

LOL

If you are woried about the LMB overpopulating and jsut want a few predators to control things you could add some Euryhaline fish such as red drum, mangove Snapper or southern Flounder. since you are so close the coast you probably could get a couple in the esutaries around you. they can be a little cold sensative but other than that once acclimated over to fresh water they will thrive but not be able to reproduce. I know of a pond here in florida that has 2 nice snook and a couple 20-30" tarpon in it. It has lots of BG in it and they seem to be doing well. You might be too cold for Snook or tarpon but redfish and mangrove snapper can handle the cold a little better.
I just added some to my pond that is in about the same startingpoint as yours. somthing differant to consider.