Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Looking for stocking advice

Hello all,

I am looking for some advice on stocking a pond that I had dug on my property in May of 2015. It is about a 1/3 acre pond (not very large compared to the other posts I read on here) and let's say the max depth is about 15-16 feet.

I'm really looking to stock the pond because I have heard it's good for keeping the water clean. I might do some light fishing, but the pond's main purpose is swimming. There is a large beach area at the front and a float out in the center. Field runoff is essentially zero, as there is a big hill behind the pond and the ground on each side mostly runs away from it. I have a windmill that I will be installing on the hill behind the pond for aeration as soon as the spring weather breaks.

I had looked into some recommendations on other sites and came up with

10 bass
20 croppie
10 catfish

I also had some numbers written out about the max I could do for my pond's dimensions, but then my brother, who lives down the street and has had a 1/2 acre pond himself for years, didn't think those numbers looked right and recommended I visit these forums.

To be truthful I have no idea if I'm on the right track with the numbers or the species. This is all really new to me. I've fished and been around fishing all my life but know nothing about stocking a pond. Can anyone help?

I'm real new at this, so I can't help much. I have learned that crappie is a no go in your size pond. Unless maybe you just do 1. Yellow perch seem popular in your neck of the woods. You might research them here as there are several threads about them.

Are you going to feed the fish?

I wonder if a RES pond would be good in your situation? I would stay away from BC.

Ok, this is the kind of advice I'm looking for. Thanks. I think I came up with crappie as an alternative to bluegill because I have heard bluegill are nibblers and my wife didn't really like the sound of that (haha) but I know the bass have to have something to eat. I have been trying to do some research on these boards but the amount of info that doesn't relate to me that I have to sift through is sort of overwhelming!

Sorry, I'm new enough at this that the acronyms are sometimes tough for me to sort out. Don't know what RES means.

Do you have anything currently stocked in the pond?

HBG ( hybrid bluegill )**they do nip at swimmers** HSB (hybrid striped bass ) YP (yellow perch)
RES (redear ) could be a good combination.

If you are around the pond you could also pellet feed and would give something for the guest/kids to do at the pond as well.

For qty:
I think to start if you're not looking to fish much you could go low on the stocking rate:

5-10HSB, 50-75HBG, 25YP, 25 RES

I would stay away from all 3 you listed personally, but if those are your favorite fish , could do the LMB and CC, no crappie.

I'm not sure, hadn't even thought of it. Should I? What are the pros & cons?

Very much appreciate your advice, but trying to avoid the ones that nip at swimmers if I can. Is there a good alternative to HBG? Also you're definitely not the first to say I should avoid crappie. Can someone tell me why? Just curious.

for me, it's pure enjoyment.

Crappie if successful in spawning will stunt and over populate. You will be left with 100's or 1000's of small stunted crappie.

Pellets would be a way to supplement the forage requirement for your fish. If you choose species that don't spawn well it will help to feed the existing fish. For a swimming pond I would want to control the population the best I can. ( Also if you're around the pond a lot it is fun and something to do )

Another note, Catfish can muddy the bottom which can cause turbid water...not the best look for a swimming pond.

If you feed the fish you can go with hybrids that do not reproduce or reproduce much. Little reproduction means no food for the adult fish. And you can go with just one species. Fish don't easily live on bugs alone.

If you don't feed the fish, you will need some BG or LMB or something like crappie to produce little baby fish that act as forage for the larger fish. Eating of the fry by the larger fish actually helps keep their populations in check.

If you enjoy your pond as an outdoor activity (not so much for fishing) I would consider feeding the fish for fun. Feeding the fish allows you to pick a species or species' of hybrid/s without the complexity of all the species living together and balancing out to where you do not have a bunch (read "too many") of any one kind that would cause them to stunt.

I am trying to relay the basics as I am not experienced enough to be overly confident, but hopefully this gives you some ideas on where to start thinking/researching.

Crappie are known to overpopulate and when that happens you end up with tons of skinny crappie that are 4 to 5 inches long with big starving eyes.

I would think that an all Hybrid Striped Bass (HSB) Pond would be cool if you could commit to feeding most everyday. Somebody correct me if every other day would be sufficient.

Ok, thanks! I really am just looking for something that is going to help with the algae and keep the muck down. I had heard catfish were good for that but you are saying the opposite.

I live two miles from Lake Erie, so I'm not really looking to fish. I was using blue dye and copper sulphate to help the looks and control the algae last summer. This year I'm installing the windmill for aeration and was thinking maybe fish could help with my algae problem. I have chickens, rabbits, and am looking into possibly getting goats and cows so I don't really need something else to feed regularly (haha). If something besides fish could help me more with controlling algae, point me in that direction!

Tilapia could be your ticket then...

Do tilapia nip at swimmers at all?

Questions I would have are:

-Do they nip at swimmers at all?
-Where can I get them? Never heard of anywhere selling them.
-Can they survive winters?

In my brief research on them, I read something about them not being able to survive in cold water. In Northern Ohio it gets real cold in the winter.

Customers that I know with swimming ponds have never complained of the tilapia bothering swimmers. Tilpaia tend to be more shy than BG. There are several places in Ohio that sell them depending on your location. Tilapia do not survive in regular outdoor ponds during Ohio winters which can be a very good thing because they will never over populate a pond and denude it of plants nor make the pond muddy by searching in the sediments for food. Sometimes when the goals change for the pond, it is very hard to get all the stocked fish of one species out. Not the case with tilapia, you can add more or less each year based on the pond conditions and need for algae control. What other type of plant - algae control management can you use where you can then eat the management method at the end of the year. You can't eat algacides nor any herbicide. Plus all the small tilapia that consumed algae all summer long will when dying feed the predator fish.

When most edible plants are gone the tilapia will eat some of the organic sediments to get the bacteria attached to the organics. Tilapia have the ability to digest many different things that serve them as food.

The main disadvantage is that in pond with LMB you have to allow for bass predation of the stocked and new young tilapia. With LMB one usually needs to stock larger tilapia and often more tilapia because bass are eating either the stockers or lot of the baby tilapia. Baby tilapia are the main algae eating army.

I found an article in my local newspaper from 2012 about stocking Blue Tilapia to combat algae problems. The woman in the story had a 1/4 acre pond (smaller than mine) so I think I have found my solution.

My only other question is can they be stocked by themselves, i.e. with no predator fish? I don't much care to have bass or other predators in the pond as I stated above I'm probably not going to fish.

Since your goal is swimming and your favorite fish is perch, you can raise yellow perch very successfully in a 1/3 ac pond. If you use perch and if you don't harvest enough perch to control their reproduction, I suggest you use as a predator either walleye, hybrid striped bass or smallmouth bass - in that order. Although with proper management predators are not needed to control perch numbers.

If you stock pellet trained perch you can easily raise 13"-14" yellow perch in your pond. Type and number of predator fish present will determine how many perch you can harvest each year. If you don't feed them pellets then expect there to be fewer YP per acre and the size to be mostly 8"-11".

IMO forget using largemouth bass if you stock perch(YP) and use tilapia for algae control. LMB eat too many of the little alga eating tilapia and it costs more to add more adult tilapia to get good algae control.

I know of several local ponds that have and stock only some tilapia each year. Those ponds are very clean and owners are very impressed how clean the tilapia keep the beach area and shorelines. I am suggesting that all new swimming ponds in my area try just tilapia for the first year. If you don't like the only tilapia option then it is very easy to start a completely new fishery next year.

Another option you have is to just stock only female yellow perch and tilapia. Tilapia produce lots of babies that thrive well with yellow perch. All female perch won't overpopulate and never bother swimmers. If you want a few perch to eat each year restock more female perch to compensate for the harvest number. I help manage several ponds with this option.

Bill, what is the easiest way to trap, or harvest only female YP? Can you identify during times of year that they are not full of eggs?

I think I am going to go with Blue Tilapia only for this year and see how it works out. Like I said above, I live 2 miles from Lake Erie so when I want to go perch fishing, that's where I do it. I really just want to control algae in the pond.

With just tilapia you don't have to be real concerned that tilapia are large to avoid predation. A pond with only tilapia will be impressively clean by Jul-Aug. You may eventually get some larger submerged weed growth. If in later years in August weeds persist add one white amur (grass carp) to help tilapia in their plant control.

Best and most dependable time to sex yellow perch is the spawn period. Doing it at other times creates high chances for mistakes. It only takes one male to mess up a good plan of all female perch.

So if I am going to do tilapia only should I still get mature brood stock (4"-7") or would I be fine with just fingerlings?

8 brood stock would cost me about $105, whereas 15 fingerlings would be about $35. Just curious. Thanks for all your help!

Your money is much better spent if you buy the brood stock. You could easily spend that much money on algacides. You want them to spawn as soon as possible to start producing the baby tilapia. Remember it is the babies that are your algae eating army. The adults will work on the larger forms of existing algae and some Chara. The babies consume lots of the new fresh tiny string algae that is trying to grow and would cause you problems later in the summer. When you get the tilapia try to get at least 3 largest ones which will be males and 5 medium sizes ones that will most likely be females. They should spawn at least 3 times during the summer. It helps if you 3-4 times per week toss in a small handful of fish food or cat/dog food for the adults. This keeps them conditioned to eat pelleted food and makes the them much easier to catch in August. Just use the artificial pellets or pet food as bait under a small bobber in the shallow beach area to fish for the adults. Pond raised tilapia are very good eating and often better flavor than store bought tilapia.

Try to come back here to your thread later this year and let others know how well they worked in your swimming pond with just tilapia. I think you will find that using tilapia is a better way to control your algae than what you used last year.