Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose SMB/YP/RES in one acre dug pond

When the pond becomes stabilized after 6 to 8 yrs and it appears you have too many forage fish then you can start the WE addition by adding 6-10WE and removing one SMB for each walleye added. Keep in mind that each WE will eat around 1000 small fish per year which is why you should remove an adult smallie (10"-14") for each new walleye.

Please help. The fish hatchery (in Ohio) is telling me they only have <5" YP due to slow growth this year. Would you think that these are mostly male?

Good conclusion. Slow growth this year of YP is possibly due to mostly males or lack of food. If fish are pellet trained then more likely mostly graded males. I would look somewhere else. Do you have the ability to haul fish yourself to travel about 100mi for better perch? PM me the name of the fish farm and I will give you options.

PM sent

Any other ideas where to get 6"+ YP at a reasonable cost near 30 miles west of Indianapolis?

If you find some close, I would appreciate hearing about it also.

Will do

Can small (2-3") redear be reliably ID'd by the red spot above the gill? I want to check each fish before I put them in the pond because I do not want BG.

No, at that small of a size many will not show any red/orange/white. Other features can fairly accurately give them away but that isn't 100%.

Well, we'll get the 3-4" and only put ones with red in the new pond. We can put some of the others in a fish tank and the rest in the LMB pond. Better to have fewer RES and no BG in the future SMB pond.

My only concern if you may go male heavy by doing that as the males tend to have the more noticeable coloration...

Is there typically a problem with RES being contaminated with BG?

Suppose it is dependent on the source. Look up a thread by John Wann. He bought some RES for his HBG pond and ended up with BG getting in.

Edit...I was just at a fish supplier here in eastern Ohio. I was asking about adult BG 6-9" size. He said all he had was a mix bag of BG and RES. Last year when I wanted adult RES he didn't have any. Some of what I saw this year looked really good.

Here is the link to Wann's thread. here

I better check every fish for a red patch. I think BG will ruin hopes of a SMB pond.

What do folks know about Herman Brothers out of Peoria, IL? I am still looking for YP.

Top notch! AND, Nate Herman is a regular on here....goes by n8ly

http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showprofile&User=2670

Great - Sent him a request for info from their website. Maybe they can help me out. I'll let you know. Maybe we can work out a package dealon delivery if you are still interested in YP too?

I still want some, but I'm just looking for a few to try and overwinter in a cage.....I doubt I could be of much use, quantity wise. I was hoping to find some close and would just be able to run over and get 30-40, as an experiment.

These things are harder to find than I thought they would be.

I only need the enough to get a population going, but 180 mile each way is a long drive!

sprkplug - yellow perch at sizes of 4"-8" will overwinter real well in a cage. Once they get bigger than 8"-9" they get a little territorial and begin beating each other up in small spaces, thus the cage needs to be bigger or fish fewer density per cuft.

Thanks Bill. This all came about after talking with you at Esshup's place this past summer. Your encouragement and enthusiasm was all the motivation I needed. Wish me luck.

Make a trip up here with a cooler and an aerator! I think we could catch some out of the pond.

Thanks Scott....I've got one more lead to pursue, and if that doesn't work out......

Any guess on the percent females in YP purchased under 5" at this time of year?

Well - We are going to chance it and get some of these today unless someone feels all these smaller YP are males. Even if 10% are females, at least I can start to build a population. My thanks to sprkplug for the lead!