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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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At this point in time your current plan appears good to my thinking and experience. This assumes you will get the ordered fish in a good timely manner with no delays. From what I have seen for growth of SBS, those 5"-7"ers if stocked in early to mid- May should grow at least 2" some maybe 3" by Fall and range in sizes from 7"- 9+". Be aware that not every fish of a species will grow at the same rate. Some individuals of each spawn or litter are slower growers of runts. Hopefully you don't get many of those slow growers from your supplier - it is a gamble of the fish business. Try to pay attention the the size range of the SBS that you receive. Return back to this thread and report the growth of the SBS and progress of the pond fishery in early October.
If you want good habitat cover for the small fish, plan to have pretty long lengthy areas of dense brush like structure. It can be numerous 2"-3" dia small tree trunks with the trunk bases anchored to shore. Then when structure provides too much cover or it needs to be replaced just pull out the tree tops or replace when smallest branches rot up after 2-4 years.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 01/24/25 05:48 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
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Sounds good Bill....I'll just mention that as I've said before, I'd rather not get committed to feeding. Along the way if it's necessary, happy to adapt. I will definitely report back on the size, etc. of the stocked fish as to growth rate and everything else. I like the idea of the "dense brush-like structure"- any chance there's a link or images, etc. so I can see what they look like in practice? I've seen YouTube videos of various methods/approaches, such as "planting" parts of trees in quickcrete in blocks, and sinking them. Any thoughts on that? Note that I live on 12.5 wooded acres, so I have TONS of trees available in all forms: growing strong, dead, dying, the usual. So lots of options; just want to be sure I approach things the most effective smart way (for example: I know that people stress the organic balance in the pond, so I'm guessing that w/trees/foliage, it's not "the more the merrier.")
Last edited by BJ Nick; 01/30/25 01:58 PM.
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Update: I'm getting to put in the order to Jones for Spring stocking, but there's a couple of small issues to resolve:
1) for the 50 SBS I'm ordering, the choices are now: SBS: 2-3" - $1.69/ea or 3.5-5" - $4.19/ea
(At the same time I'm ordering 5 lbs. FHM and 3 lbs. GSH, and in the fall I'll be adding 12 HSB 5-7")
The difference is significant, obviously: $209 as opposed to $89. is there a compelling reason why I need to opt for the larger size SBS? At the smaller size will they be too vulnerable to the 5 - 7" HSB arriving in the Fall?
The other question is which stocking day I should choose: March 15th, April 12th, April 26th, May 24th (fall stocking date is Oct. 25.) My inclination is to take the March 15th date; yeah, I'm rarin' to go....want to get going! But I'll wait depending if I need to.
State of the pond at present: my 1/4 acre body is ~6' deep on its way to 12'.....with plenty of rain coming up. Is there a good reason I should wait till April? (May is asking too much of my patience.:-) Again, the fall stocking date is Oct. 25, so they'll have a good 5-6 months before the HSB arrive.
Thanks for any wisdom- I want to get that order in right away!
Last edited by BJ Nick; 02/03/25 05:10 PM.
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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BJ - Mainly because you are in TN I would stock on Mar 15 if you can get the SBS for that delivery. I would stock the 2"-3". If you live at the pond, then see if you can get some (as in 3-4 lbs) of small size fish food (size 2mm-2.4mm) ) from Jones when SBS are delivered. If Jones will not sell you just 3-5 lbs of fish food, I will arrange with a local fish farm that will ship you some appropriate pellets for those 2"-3" SBS. Feed those SBS some good quality pellets and those SBS will be 6"-7.5" long by Oct 25 when HSB arrive. You may need to build a feeding ring round or rectangle to contain the ¼-1/2 cup of pellets that are used as feeding the amount once the SBS find the feeding area. Start adding just a small handful of pellets at first feed training until minnows learn the routine and lead the SBS by example. By June-July I would be increasing the size of the fish food to 4mm-5mm, thus you don’t want to initially buy a lot of first batch of pellets. The HSB will also get growing on those 4-5mm size pellets.
Use the unused money by buying the smaller SBS to find and install good habitat to help protect minnows when after HSB are added in the growing years of 3-5 and beyond .
If you don’t live at the pond the SBS should still grow well on the natural foods available in the pond and should be around 4”-5” by fall. If your pond water is murky all summer due to rain inflows it may take a little longer for SBS to finally find the feeding area, however minnows will find the pellet feed first and SBS will soon learn from the minnows for the feeding zone.
Last edited by Bill Cody; 02/03/25 07:13 PM.
aka Pond Doctor & Dr. Perca Read Pond Boss Magazine - America's Journal of Pond Management
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As optional information for buying lesser amounts of tested and pond user proven high quality excellent fish growing pellets Optimal Fish Food company sells starter fish foods in 10 lb buckets. I suggest something like this to get those new fish growing for their best performance.
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Really good info here....first off: I do live at the pond: it's about 40-50' from my office window, so a full view....one of the charms of this location. But the thing is, like I've mentioned previously, I'd really rather keep the pond as "natural" as possible....avoid having to "train" the fish and then be tied to that commitment, plus I'm sure there are other factors (cost?) etc., and I'm not sure it's worth it to me to gain a lot of extra size. However, I will NOT skimp on keeping the fish healthy; no cutting corners there....but are you suggesting just doing the feeding for a set time period to get them started....? Please clarify. Regardless, I'm going go ahead and order the fish as you suggest, for March 15...and proceed from there. If it seems like the feeding is so much of a better idea that I can't pass on it, I'll definitely reconsider.
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent  Lunker
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Will you be picking up bagged fish from Jones or have them deliver them to the pond? The delivery fee is based on the fish order size...($$$) They have a $500 minimum order size for free delivery plus a flat (IIRC) $39.95 per address delivery charge no matter what size the order.
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Yes, I'll be picking up the fish at their facility in Nashville on March 15th. The order is under $500 this time and Nashville is only ~an hour away, so no big deal. And the fall order for Oct. 25 will only be about $60 (HSB) so I'll just do it then too. Makes sense.
Note: Bill Cody stressed several times to insist to them that I need to be extra careful to get ONLY the exact fish I ordered, etc., so I made sure to emphasize that to them. We'll see. I'll look over them very carefully while I'm there.....with the GSH/FHM/SBS they're so small (2-3") and it's my first time with this, so I'll just do my best. And I'll probably ask them to give an extra look while I'm there.
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Okay - pellet feeding is not necessary for growing the SBS and HSB. Without pellets they might not grow as fast, however the fish should be healthy and provide some good angling fun. Both you and us will learn more about this fish combination if you periodically return here and give us some fishery updates.
I reverse estimated the possible carrying capacity of this fish combo of SBS/HSB. The main variable to this is how much fertility will be in your pond's natural production.
Without pellet feeding, I think your stocking numbers are good and appropriate for a NO PELLET for 1/4 ac pond of natural sustaining foods. I calculated what the SBS-HSB estimated carrying capacity will be when the fish have been in the pond after 6-8years. We have to keep in mind that there should not be a lot of reproduction recruitment for these two species. SBS recruitment minimal and HSB none, thus if the HSB eat most of the offspring from the SBS,,, fish growth as carrying capacity will be mostly from the initial stocker fishes. I estimate the SBS without pellets could be 9" long and each should 0.62lb X 50 SBS for total SBS weight of 31lbs X 4 for = 124lbs/ac. of panfish Then with 12 HSB if they grow to 14" long will weigh 1.4 lb each for 16.9 lbs of predator X 4 = 67.6 lbs HSB predator/ac. TOTAL fish pounds per ac = close to 192/b per ac. that to me seems a very reasonable fish poundage for a natural carrying capacity for growing fish. As the pond ages past the 6-8yrs with some stocked fish attrition there might be some growth available for the existing stocked SBS/HSB.
I see this as a very good fishery experiment for all of us as a learning experience. Please keep us advised as to how this fish combination progresses.
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Sounds great, Bill. Of course I will check back and report in on what's going on. And always willing to adjust/chance course as needed. I really, really want to enjoy these hot summers swimming out there; otherwise I'd be more open to standard combos like LMB and BG. My question about crayfish: do you concur? Or is there any way I could maintain a reasonable stock of them out there that wouldn't 1) damage the pond liner, and 2) be so easy for the bass to catch that it isn't even worth it?
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Why would you want crayfish and where would you get them.?
I am not sure how well the HSB would utilize them as forage as each one lives in a different pond niche.
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by PAfarmPondPGH69, October 22
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