Jighead,

Thanks for the welcome and great to hear from you again. How are those trout doing?

First, my experience with FH and Gambusia is all in warmwater ponds and fishes. My remarks have to be qualified by that.

Is it possible for both species to thrive in the same pond?

In my warmwater ponds with predators such as HSB and/or LMB, the FH simply do not survive....regardless of the presence of Gambusia. In spite of very favorable spawning structure, the FH do not survive past one growing season due to predation....but that isn't all bad. After all, the purpose of the FH is to be eaten by predators and they are good at accomplishing that. The FH are a great starter forage, but extremely expensive on a recurring basis.

I have Gambusia in ponds large and small...doesn't seem to matter. They have flourished in one old LMB pond for an estimated 75 years without intervention, i.e. pond management.

As to spawning rates, Gambusia spawn every 28 days. I don't know the numbers for comparison to FHs, but a fish that survives to spawn is certainly more prolific than a dead fish that has been eaten.

Also how do the two compare as to ease of capture by predator fish?

Clearly, the FH is far easier to catch. I've seen them swimming, very briefly, near the top of the water column in wide open water. The life expectancy with that kind of behavior is virtually zilch. The Gambusia, on the other hand, hide in shoreline grasses and do not venture far from those....when they do, they are zilch also.

Don't worry about stirring things up...I've been doing that all my life. You may want to go back to a thread on Crappie in which Todd Overton and I debated the merits of Gambusia. Todd was, and presumably still is, negative on Gambusia stocking, and I was positive. Look at all the data you can and make an informed decision.

I'm of the opinion that one reason that fish sellers are negative on Gambusia is that they are naturally occurring in many areas. In East Texas, you can't keep them out of your ponds, not that I would want to anyway. As a result, there isn't a big $ market for them in those naturally occurring areas.

One additional comment. My observations of stomach contents are that Gambusia are consumed by BG and small LMB. As the predators get larger, the Gambusia plays less of a role for them as forage...but they feed the BG which are then eaten by larger predators...so in effect, they help all.

Gambusia over a multi-year forage program in warmwater ponds with predators, far surpasses the FH....it isn't even close.