Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Safe to stock 'mature' catfish?

I have run into a bit of a snag with my plans to stock catfish in my pond.... basically there just isn't any supply of catfish fingerlings in my area. So I am forced to look into other means to get them. I have started catching and keeping the smallest catfish I can in hopes of stocking them once the rest of the pond 'population' grows a bit. My question is this:
In a pond with a good amount of forage fish (shiners/fatheads/mudminnows) would a half dozen or so 12-14" catfish wipe out my 2-3 inch bass/pickeral fingerlings or would I be safe to stock them?

Thank you.

Pottsy - Personally, I prefer to only stock catfish if you plan to catch and/or eat them. When larger, each catfish takes the place of one predator. Myself I prefer the other types of predators to catch and/or eat. Catfish have a place in the pond ecosystem; however make sure you want or need them and your pond has enough forage to feed them and still allow your other predators to grow. Don't get too many hogs at the feeding trough; this will cause predator growth to suffer.
Stocking the larger "wild" catfish now with only fingerlings in the pond I think is risky. If the catfish were already trained to eat fish food it would be less of a problem of them eating your smaller fish. They would fill up on pellets and eat fewer fish. Wild "larger" catfish are probably used to eating fish and they get them at night when the other fish are "sleeping"/resting. Catfish are similar to owls; nighttime predators. No chasing required; open their mouth and swallow. I would wait until your fingerlings are larger (8-10" long) and more forage is available before adding 12-16", nonfeed, trained catfish. Your fingerlings are expensive catfish food even if only several get eaten by the catfish. Patience and choose wisely.

Bass/pickeral? Do you have pickeral as in pike or pickeral as in walleye?
With those two predators I would wait 3-4yrs to see if your forage base can maintain itself before adding a third predator. My experience with bass in a weed-free pond, they will eliminate the minnows, shiners and mudminnows in short order. How big is your pond? And how many bass/pickeral did you stock per acre? Remember, bass for sure will reproduce and their young will be HUNGRY all the time. As the bass get to 10-13" they should be able to EASILY eat every adult/breeder shiner in the pond. What species of shiner do you have in the pond?

Hey Bill,

In this instance I am refering to walleye as the pikeral of choice. I do indeed have plans to catch and eat the catfish, they are actually one of my favourite eating fish. You are confirming my suspician that the 'wild' catfish are just too big and hungry to safely put in the pond at this point (darn). Like you say my fingerlings make expensive food. The pond is just a little over an acre and a quarter and is a 50 bass/50 walleye split. The minnow population currently consists of Mudminnows, Sticklebacks, brassy minnows, Red Belly Dace, Fatheads, and common shiners.

Thank you.

Pottsy - Those two predators by themselves will be pretty hard on the minnow populations esp when the bass spawn to make more bass. Have you considered putting y. perch in the pond instead of catfish? Perch young will provide forage for bass and walleye. Can you buy perch pellet trained, so they don't eat as many minnows/ yet spawn and make forage. You should be able to easily raise perch to 13" in your pond. We have them to 14-15" when on trout chow.
Do you have SMB or LMB? SMB have a smaller mouth and won't be as "hard on" the larger breeder minnows as the LMB.
Brassy minnows reach abt 3" max. Common shiner and mud minnows (3" ave)are commonly a stream fish. Common shiners get a good size (4-4.5") for brood stock but they normally spawn in riffle areas. Sometimes they use nests of other species such as chubs or SMB. How well are they spawning in your pond? I will try them in my pond if you are having success. They have been suspected of spawning on gravel shoals of lakes that have no inlet streams.

I put 30 walleye per ac.(4-5"most4.5") in my perch pond last May. The pond has a few resident SMB that are feed trained. I try to keep their numbers thinned.
Lots of minnows as forage, golden shiners dominate then bluntnose minnows common. Caught a walleye in late May 2002 @ 12.5" and fairly plump for a small walleye. You should expect growth of 10-12" for walleye your first year in the pond with ample food. Bass may slow walleye growth due to competition. Keep close eye on your minnow populations for density. It will take about 10lbs of forage to put each pound of weight on your predators. That's a lot of minnows.

I haven't really considered perch... but since you have mentioned it I have checked around an there doesn't seem to be any supply of captivity raised perch in my area. The reason I am getting is that they are very numerous in natural waterbodies in this area and little demand.
I have a half and half split of SMB and LMB.

Your information on common shiners seems to be correct by my observations. They seem to be breeding in the area around my water inlet... where it is shallow, gravelly, and slightly moving water. I also know they are spawning like mad in my neighbours minnow only pond where all of the shoreline is gravel and the only inlet is my occasional overflow water.
Now I notice that my largest population of shiners is actually the Bridle Shiner... these seem to be less picky about spawning conditions... and multiply ALOT!
http://www.cnr.vt.edu/efish/families/bridle.html

10lbs... that is a very large amount of minnows indeed.