Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Minnow Source

Good advice so far. You are much better off in the long run if you stock fewer minnows that are hand sorted rather than stocking to get lots of unsorted fish for immediate high volume forage. A few forage fish (several lbs/ac) stocked before they spawn will provide many more same species of forage than you could readily and economically buy.

'Silver shiners' will be your golden shiner (GS or GSH) and 'bull minnows' will be banded killifish. Both are suitable forage species for almost all sport fish ponds. Note that golden shiners are known to be bait stealers and a nuisance for anglers fishing with small hooks and live bait such as worms. But GSH can be a valuable forage fish in certain fish combinations. It depends on your goals.