Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Golden Shiners - What size to stock?

Hi guys. As an update, I coated the tank with black epoxy paint. I stocked it with 5 pounds of medium shiners (the only size available). I'm planning to grow them in the tank and hopefully get some fry (ordered spawning mat). Once I have fry, I'll transfer most of my bigger shiners to the pond and focus on raising the fry.

I bought a mechanical feeder that should work if I can keep the bears away. I am feeding Purina 200 starter. I also added fertilizer to try to stimulate algae growth.

Here is my issue, the water entering the tank is 50 degrees F. It is still only hitting highs around 70 most days here and the tank temperature is about 54-55 F. I would like to add a heater to get the temp to 70+. The problem is that all of the heaters that I have seen for sale are de-icers. They have a thermo-regulated shut off and I don't know if the heater would shut off below 70. Anyone know?

I also dug a hole by one of the inlets into the pond. I flooded it and added fertilizer and some branches. Then I put about a dozen shiners into it as an experiment. We'll see how they do.

This is an old thread but I wanted to update my efforts. I tried a few times and have not been able to successfully reestablish shiners in the pond. I used fish raised artificially for bait and it seems the bass ate them all without th reproducing.

I just started what will likely be my last attempt. I put a 35’ minnow seine across a narrow section of the pond. I wrapped and zip-tied a metal chain around the bottom to get a good seal. Now there is an enclosed area of about 30’ x 30’. The depth of this section ranges from a couple inches up to about 4 feet. The bottom is mud and I threw branches in for cover and hopefully a place for eggs to be deposited.

I was able to locate a pond loaded with wild shiners but it is an hour and a half away. On Saturday, I caught 50 shiners averaging about 5-6 inches. I used a small hook and line. I put 20 in the enclosure and released 30 into the main part of the pond. I probably should have put them all in the enclosure but chose to see if these bigger, wild fish might be able to evade the bass. That was probably a mistake. I may go get 50 more this weekend. I let you know if it works.

Theeck, thanks for coming back to post an update.

Every pond is unique. Personally, I love reading about other people's experiments. Even when it didn't work, I usually learn at least one more tidbit of information.

Good luck on your most recent experiment. It is OK if a few GSH escape your net, but not good if some predators manage to break in. Maybe fish for predators in your "safe zone" sometimes when you are at the pond to make sure they are NOT in there? Then you can determine if you have a reproduction problem or a predator problem stopping your establishment of GSH.

Thanks. Good idea. I tried to chase any bass out by walking around in the water but it got so murky, I really couldn’t see. I’ll probably try to stock 50 more on Saturday if I can catch them. Our daily creel limit for baitfish is 50.

Update: I took my son so the creel limit doubled. I stocked 100 more averaging about 6". Based on my research, a 6" shiner should weigh about 4 to 5 oz. That means I have stocked about 35 pounds, maybe more. I removed 6 bass at around 10" - 12" and added more brush piles. I hope the shiners spawn soon before they get eaten. I also removed 9 big mussels (or clams). I figure they compete with the fry for plankton.

Shiners don't spawn on brush, they spawn on submerged grass and dense submerged underwater weeds in shallow water - think 6"-18"........ Good luck!!

A customer has them reproducing in his pond. His pond naturally lowers in mid summer, grass grows to the waters edge, then in the Spring the pond water level rises and the grass is covered 6"12" with water. They spawn like crazy in those grassy areas..

I thought I heard a mention of shiners possibly spawning on live or dead grass/hay. There was another post here on the forum that said shag carpet "might" work or a coco fiber spawning mat.

Might be worth a couple of different tests.

Would be awesome if they spawned on coontail. I've got coontail for them! (they might, I don't know)

I am really curious if they will spawn on dead vegetation. We had a 2yr drought and when the water came up this spring it submerged a lot of weeds that had been growing out there. I could probably use a big flush of shiners.

I was reading that they would spawn on brush like cedar branches. If not, I better get some spawning mats. There are some light weeds in the pond summer but not a whole lot. There is also some filamentous algae at times.

Since esshup let me know that shiners don't spawn on brush, I ordered some spawning mats to put out. I actually had shiners nipping at a Rooster Tail yesterday so there are shiners surviving in the pond. I took the net down to chase any bass out and put it back up. Hopefully that takes care of the problem with the enclosure. Now I need to get some more shiners to put in the enclosure since the shiners probably left for the main pond too.

Here's the pond:
[img]https://i.postimg.cc/vx6XVgcg/013.avif[/img]

Some grass (Japanese Stiltgrass) hanging into the water (possible spawning cover in addition to the mats I ordered):

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/p5DzvDmZ/015.avif[/img]


The enclosure:

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/RqjgzRDc/016.avif[/img]

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/R3gNcgHy/018.avif[/img]

I caught this one in a nearby swamp yesterday.




It was the only shiner I caught there (bluegills were pretty plentiful). I read somewhere that mature shiners are normally sterile because of some parasite but I stocked it in our pond anyway.

Golden Shiners as small as 4"-5" will spawn. So, keep trying!

So this one is too big to spawn? Thanks for the help.

No, it's not too big to spawn. Here's an article by the owner of this forum. https://americansportfish.com/golden-shiners/

I honestly don't know any way to tell if a particular shiner is infected or not.

Anderson says they stock 2.5" in spring in new production ponds and have excellent results with reproduction that year.
Now, this is obviously without predation, so take that into account.

I stocked 100 more this weekend. In total, I put 375 shiners averaging about 5.5 inches into the pond this spring. The pond is no more than 1/4 acre so I think I put enough in. They should be close to spawning and the 100 we caught on Saturday and put in the pond seemed to be ready (a lot of them appeared to be full of eggs). I think I am done stocking for this year. We'll see how it goes. There are still a lot of bass in the pond but I did remove some. There are shiners that have survived from the earlier stockings though. He's a pic (not real clear) where you can see a few swimming off the edge of a brush pile.

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/Tyz409vy/112.avif[/img]

https://i.postimg.cc/vHhRVwpv/125.jpg

I am probably boring people with my updates but I caught 5 more biggish (7.5") shiners at a local swamp last weekend and stocked them. I have now put 380 shiners from 5" to 8" into the pond this spring. I also had put brush piles and spawning mats in. This past weekend I cut down 4 small (4' to 5') red cedars and threw them into the shallows for spawning cover. The water temperature was 69F on Sunday so they should have started spawning or will shortly, I hope.

This pond is on a recreational property and hour and a half away so I only get to it on the weekends. Last weekend, I also started fishing out some of the big bluegills in hopes that there will be less predation on the fry if the shiners manage to spawn. While fishing for the bluegills, I ended up catching one of the shiners I had released so there are still shiners in there. I will try to take a bunch more of the bluegills over 5 inches out this weekend. I'm hoping for the best.

You're not boring anyone!

Keep updating the forum.

^^^ What he said!

Thanks guys. I was up there over the weekend and was able to find a school of the adult shiners hanging around a brush pile in about 2 1/2 feet of water. I only saw 1 or 2 initially but I tossed in some chick starter and it started as feeding frenzy. There were dozens of them eating the feed. I think it is a good sign that these fish seem to be in good shape. I am feeling optimistic about spawning but still have thoughts in the back of my mine about that parasite that causes sterilization. We'll see what happens. I am thinking I should see fry in the next couple weeks or so if they spawn successfully.

I wouldn't worry about the parasite. A customer has a 4 acre pond where the GSH have a self-sustaining population. His Hybrid Crappie and HSB are growing VERY well. Last week or 2 weeks ago a 16" Hybrid Crappie that was 3 years old weighed 2.25#. It was stocked as a 3" fish.

Very encouraging report, esshup.

Aren't the parasite infertility problems like a time bomb that nukes older females? If you either create a self-sustaining population, or continue to stock wild-caught adults (that presumably include a significant number of young adults), then you should get good Golden Shiner production in the pond?

See this - disease probably transmissible

https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthre...golden+shiner&Search=true#Post491632