Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocking a new pond with RES, YP and SMB

Comments:
1. "other scenario" - Stocking SMB in spring with YP is doable. As with everything you do in or to your pond, it always has pros and cons. The big 'trick' is to know all the pros and cons which there are usually several to numerous. To be aware of them all,,,, requires extensive ecological and biological knowledge and experience. Very few pond management "professionals" have a good ecologically based background and they basically have enough information to mainly sell fish and/or manage with one primary goal.

Here are just a few implications of your 'other scenario': A. the smaller the stocker SMB are the less likely they will remain pellet eating esp if there is lots of natural food in the pond. Spring stocked SMB will be last years fish that have eaten pellets longer - maybe a good thing. Larger pellet trained fish tend to resume eating pellets quicker than small fish. B. Spring SMB tend to be harder to locate and cost more than fall SMB - supply & demand. C. Previous number of years of domestication of brood stock affects how well fish and their offspring learn to eat pellets and stay on pellets in new surroundings. D. Changing a fish's habitat and those in "item c" can have a big influence on how well a fish resumes eating pellets or readily learns to eat pellets. E. Adding extra forage fish could be counter productive in that it provides more forage and fish could be 'tempted' to eat live food vs pellets.
F. I would stock YP after they have spawned to minimize problems, unless YP are not available after mid to late April. IMO you want the first spawn of YP to coincide with a prior spawn of SMB resulting in small bass present to aggressively eat hatchling YP and not eat pellets or other forage species; maybe an unreasonable desire or wish. This can be 'tricky' with SMB as the primary predator. Thus you should be prepared to manually adjust fish numbers. Ultimately you may need some HSB to help control YP if SMB are not recruiting or if they and their offspring are strong pellet eaters. Everything will appear good to great in the first few years. To achieve a great long term fishery you will need to closely monitor & adjust the balance of all fishes in the pond. G. Establishment and long term survival of crayfish in ponds in a new science and little is known about species of predator, species of crayfish, best type and amount of habitat, and other variables. H. Presence or lack of plants will also be a big variable as to the balance of fishes.

A pond fishery, especially one that is more naturally based, is a very complex interactive, ever changing food web functioning in a complex watery soup where both are strongly influenced by numerous external forces such as climate and day length.