Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain A few fathead minnow questions

1. How many fatheads would you stock per acre in advance of stocking LMB and BG fingerlings next spring/summer?

2. How many fatheads, on average, are there in a pound?

3. How much do you pay for fatheads?

1. It's probably too late in the year in PA to get any FHM spawning now; I'd try to stock ASAP in the Spring with LMB delayed as much as possible (Fall 2008?). If LMB delayed until Fall, 10 lbs/acre FHM in the Spring should be plenty; if LMB going in sooner, I'd want at least 20 lbs/acre of Fatheads.

2. That figure's around here somewhere, and someone will know it.

3. $6.95/lb in bulk, delivery included.

I have heard about 300-500 fish per pound.

Edit: It may have been 125 per pound. I don't remember.

Fathead Minnow
(Pimephales promelas) per lb.
small (1.5) 740
medium (2.0) 300
large (2.5) 150

The Bait Industry in Illinois,
Michigan, Minnesota,
Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin

http://www.aquanic.org/publicat/usda_rac/tr/ncrac/tb105.pdf

The number of fatheads per pound is directly dependant on how big the FHM are. Obviously if they were fry there would be a lot more per lb than if they were old broodstock. I recall that this information has been provided in a past post. Instead of looking it up, here is close to what I provided earlier.
At abt 1" = 700-800/lb (plump vs thin bodied)
at abt 1.5" = 500-600/lb
at 1.75" =350-450/lb
at 2" = 290-325/lb
at 2.5" = 150/lb.

RobA, my fish guy just delivered 60lbs. of fatheads & 60lbs. of golden shiners to my pond 10 days ago.

It's around $8-9/pound, but I don't have the invoice with me right now.

He's out of Harrisburg, so PM me if you want his contact info. He might be able to hook you up within a week.

As far as fatheads or golden shiners, I would put them in now. They won't spawn this year, but they will be ready to rock in Spring '08. Plus, you'll have that nice warm fuzzy feeling inside for the winter months.

During this last stocking, I put in 5 rainbows, 5 brooks, 5 browns, 5 tiger trout, and 5 golden trout along with about 15 HSB. The trout were all about 14-15" each, and the HSB were about 1-1.5 lbs. each.

Thanks for the offer. I'm taking Monday off and will be buying 15-20 lbs of fatheads. There is a fish hatchery about 30 miles from me that I've been talking with. It's close enough for me to drive to and get the fish. He charges $10/pound for fatheads.

I'm 2 hours from Harrisburg. You must be a little further. Your guy delivers to your area? What does he charge for that? Maybe for the next stocking I'll check you guy out and compare net prices.

Because I usually place some larger orders ahead of time, and then add substantially to my order when the fish truck is at my pond, my guy gives me a token delivery fee of $50 to $100 or so.
My guy delivers as far as into Ohio, WV, NY, NJ, and even trout to CT I think. He is not raising all of these fish though, so sometimes he is simply a middle man between the actual hatchery and end user. Therefore, he'll drive to different state to pick-up fish, and then deliver along the way. The HSB that I got were from North Carolina. The trout were from a hatchery near Harrisburg.

But the truck drives right up to my pond. I couldn't transport some of the amounts of fish I've ordered myself.

Sounds like you've got a good source close by.