Thanks to all for their help. I looked at more pictures of white carp and I think JKB nailed it. Although some of the juvenile white carp have more darker bands on them, my fish was uniformly golden. The mouth looks a lot more like a sucker than a grass carp or asian carp. The body shape is more correct. I'm going to assume it was a white sucker. Compared to the other fish in the minnow bag it looked like a monster!
What would it have done if it did make it in to the pond? Stir up the bottom? Eat the vegetation?
See picture below of a white carp. This came from a web page that looks like it has a lot of potential for identifying fish.
http://www.fishbase.gr/identification/Sp...mp;resultPage=1I'll attach the photo too.
Checked the pond today, overnight the FA showed up. Just needed a little warm weather and bang there it was. Only a thin rim by the edges and easily raked out. Saw a bit more thin stemmed aquatic plants that popped up out of nowhere, poking through the dead leaves on the bottom.
Do minnows eat FA or any fine plant material? Dead or decaying leaves? Aerator is running at night to try to cool the pond as it really warmed up quickly last week.
The minnows must have found hiding spots as I don't see many. Did find 2 dead fairly large golden shiners probably didn't handle the stress well but the rest apparently are alive and well.
