I agree that the HSB wont attain a size to threaten the RES for this growout and I think its a great idea. I'm no expert but I'll throw out some ideas.
In a fertized BOW, 2000 2" BG can attain an average length of 6" in one season in Alabama. I take this reference from Swingle. The stocking plan of 100 RES is at a rate of 2000 RES/ACRE. IMHO, RES would not be able to attain the same length as BG at this stocking rate. I think I would lean toward a smaller number of them. I only say this because it could be that they wouldn't attain enough growth to eat the largest of your snails if there are too many. Ideally, the RES grow large enough to eliminate the snails completely utilizing this resource for growth. Were it me, I would feel more comfortable with number like 40 and I would prefer I think 3-4 inch RES if I could get them. At 40, the stocking rate is 800/ACRE.
If your HSB attain an average length of 5.5 inches, then 400 would weigh in at 30 lbs or 600 lbs/ACRE. I think at 40/ACRE the RES could attain lengths of 7 - 8 inches if starting at 4". At an average length of 7.5 ", they would weigh about 12 lbs or 240 lbs per acre. There will not be many FHM left and so the fish standing weight will be less than 1000 lbs/ACRE at the end of the grow out. No need for aeration unless you just wanted to be safe. Grown to this size, most of them should survive well in your big BOW. Just some ideas to chew on.
Thanks for that info.
I was more worried about the RES getting big enough to eat my precious HSB, but after the stats you quote and after also just thinking about it, I decided that was not a problem.
I agree with you on the lower RES stocking. I threw out the 100 number as I am not sure what the minimum is they will sell. I'll have to get these from the route truck and my experience in the past is if you request larger sizes what I got before I think was the runts from the year before or something. The small fish I got at a later time were much better quality. Even if I have to buy 100, I could put just 40 in this pond and put the others in another pond. They likely would become fish food there, but that might be better than over stocking in my target pond.
Thanks for the growth numbers. One thing I am confused about is the late date in the season I will be getting the fish. She said call back first of June so I would say likely it will be mid June or July before I get the HSB. How much will they grow before winter? I worry a little about winter kill as this small pond is only 8' deep in one small spot in the middle of it. My intention would be to go as late as I could in the fall then try to get at least part of the fish out and transfer to other ponds even if they had not grown terribly big. If I could get them up to 6" or so I think they would have at least a decent chance for many to escape predation. Or is that an issue?
My thinking is that as soon as some of the fish reach about 6" start taking some out to make room for the remaining to grow. Get a bunch out by winter then let the remaining over winter in the forage pond. This would kind of hedge my bets. Would have some fish transferred to larger ponds but would be subject to predation. Would have some fish left to get bigger in the forage pond for later stocking but at a higher risk of winter kill.
I do have good aeration in the forage pond. No feeder but when I can't feed got a daughter and grandson nearby that can fill in as needed. Feeder would be nice as it could feed multiple times a day. Guess I could move my dock feeder that feeds my main pond to this pond later in the season when the fish got some size.
