Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Pond Paddlefish???

Does anyone have a reference for the minimum pond size that will support healthy paddlefish. My pond is a bit over an acre with a maximum depth of over 10 feet. I do not aerate, feed, or fertilize, but have never seen a dead fish in the pond since building and stocking it with BG, LMB, & CC in the fall of 2004. Only a few BG have been removed by fishing.

Well, I ordered some paddlefish from Jones Fish Hatcher to be delivered this fall. I hope that they survive, cause they are pricey.

How much were they?

$30 per 8-14" fish

I hope more at leaning towards 14" or you have mostly small bass...

I just found a supplier for 18"-30" (or up to 50 lbs) paddle fish. I don't know how much interest there would be in them though. Still waiting on final pricing, but should be much less than the ~$3 per inch that has been described here. 18" minimum would avoid predation fears also unless you had some 20lb Blue Cats in there.

Would many people be interested?

They feed exlusively on zooplankton and gather pytoplankton incidentally. They should be a good way to reduce some over abundant fertility without causing any harm to the base of the food chain.

Transportation will be fun to figure out since their gills do not articulate. I would need to devise a way to create a moderate flow in the tanks.

I hope my bass do not eat them up. I am guessing that Jones Fish Hatchery would not bring me expensive forage fish. I am actually more worried about the channel cats. I have some 2'+ ones in the pond.

Rah, at that size with 24" Cats, they will likely be high priced snacks at 14" and less. Paddlefish are very docile and constantly moving slowly in order to breath/feed. The long fusiform body makes them easy prey for anything that has the gape to get it in it's mouth.

Rex, I don't think a CC that is 24" has the gape to get one down. What's the dia of a paddlefish that is 12"-14" long?

I'm not sure Scott. The grower I talked to said they don't add much girth till they hit a length of 17-18 inches...I envision the smaller ones being similar to a walleye in shape.

FYI- In Oklahoma there is a very active paddlefish fishery in a number of rivers. It is especially prolific in Grand Lake in NE Okla. The tributaries of Grand Lake are the Neosho and Grand Rivers. Paddlefish are normally harvested by snagging in the spring when they run up river to spawn. Snagging is prohibited in the Grand
River but permitted in the Neosho. There is a daily limit of 1 paddlefish per day, which is the most generous in the country I believe. I have taken a 40 lb paddlefish myself 2 years ago. It was a female and I made caviar and ate the flesh. Both were superb. The flesh is like other cartilaginous fish I have eaten such as sturgeon and shark insofar as the muscle fibers are interlaced so that the meat does not flake like, say, cod fish or grouper. The federal fisheries guys raise them and have been stocking in several tailwaters including Texoma. Since they are native to the great plains rivers they must like running water but in Grand Lake they reside all year long in the lake itself and only are in the rivers in numbers during the spawning run.

I sent Jones Fish Hatchery a note and they did not think the bass and CC were a problem as long as there were plenty of minnows. I can see minnow-sized fish near the edges, so I guess I'll give it a try.

I hope they work well and look forward to hearing future reports about them.

Couple years ago I purchased Qty 100 paddlefish from a very well qualified aquaculture producer near Lexington KY. I purchased 10"-12" juveniles for $10 each and have successfully used as part of a polyculture trial in my operation. This same producer spawns and raises these fish every year. Many are sold/distributed to research. If available, he sells surplus stock to fish farmers and private buyers... and at what I believe to be fair price. Edit 7/25/15. Kentucky producer does have surplus paddlefish to sell this August and September. He will answer questions and mentor if asked - very nice guy. He will sell 20-30 same size and price (good long-term stocking # for most one acre ponds), or much larger quantities if you're fortunate to have larger and/or "fertile" waters to support higher population nutrition.

I saw an ad on Indianapolis Craigslist under farm for pellet trained paddlefish for sale out of Frankfort KY.Looks to be the same farm!I would like to have some paddlefish at some point but I am not sure that my pond is fertile enough yet.