I wanted to circle back and share Brian Zimmerman's reply. He sent a great email and asked me to feel free to share it. Hopefully others who are interested and have the skills to do so will start raising some of these species of minnows. He gives several good suggestions but I'm not aware of any way to source many of them that he suggests. I may simply use my pond to raise these minnows if I could learn more about how to do it, and learn how to get set up to keep them all separate, feed them, ship them etc. I bet the learning curve is quite steep and long...
From Brian:
Nope none left at this time. Seems there has been some talk about my fish lately and I sold out of those two species real fast. I do think your pond is ideal for these two. You could also potentially add several species of minnows. Fathead Minnows would probably work for a while but are unlikely to persist long term there are better choices. Also definitely do not stock eastern banded killifish in your area they are invasive and probably illegal in your area. I will have more of both western banded killifish and lake chubsuckers by mid to late July and could sell you some then. You are correct that you should not need a large number of them to get them going in a fishless pond. Other fish you should consider would be blacknose shiner, blackchin shiner, and golden shiner. You could also stock Iowa Darter, Least Darter, and Central Mudminnow. If you would like a small predator your pond would also be suitable for Grass Pickerel if you do not plan to stock bass, they do not compete well with bass. If your just trying to grow some big redears then having a diverse forage base and a small predator to keep the number of young sunfish low that will help the redears not get too abundant and get large. I would also consider looking into getting ghost shrimp, also native to natural lakes and wetlands in MI. If you want other sunfish species maybe consider Northern Longear Sunfish or Warmouth Sunfish.
Pass this info along to others on the pond boss forum...
I'm sorry I don't have much right now but I do this as a hobby on 1 acre of land in a dozen little rubber lined ponds so I can only produce so much each year. Check back in July or August and I should be able to help you with small groups of fish to get things going. I am happy to provide fish to stock in ponds that are native to your area. I'm also happy to give advice as to what species might work in your situation and pond. I have limited experience with stocking ponds but I have a great deal of knowledge of what habitat and spawning requirements and native distribution is for a wide variety of non-game fish. I enjoy working with people who want to think outside the box for fish stocking in private ponds and have a new or empty pond to start from.
thanks
