Common Questions When Initially Stocking A New Pond - Pond and Lake Management 

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Yes, Channel Catfish work well in ponds. You can stock them at 30-40 per acre or less. Some hatchery recommendations are much higher than this, but unless you plan to fish them out as they get to a couple pounds, then we would stock at lower rates. We like to stock the Channel Catfish in year 2. Avoid stocking Bullheads. Thank you for the question!

Should be fine if they aren't big enough to eat all your bass up even add some white crappie

I only have a small pond in a 12ft round livestock trough, with 4 ibc 275gallon totes plumbed in for filters and water volume, it’s more of an Aqua phonics attempt… anyway, today I bought 16 bluegill, 10 red ear sunfish, 2 largemouth bass, and 5 dozen crayfish. Right now the bass are too small to eat the crayfish, but I’m sure in the future some will get eaten. In a natural pond, I’d say it’s much easier to keep crayfish because they can burrow into the mud, but I’d definitely add some rip-rap type rock for them to hide in, some will survive to breed and future generations will adapt to the ponds ecosystem I would think. All my fish and crayfish are in the water trough together, I expect losses of course… when these fish are raised and eaten, I’m gonna do 2 or 3 baby sturgeon next time, the fish farm I went to has them at specific times of the year, I’m really excited about that, grow em up to like 3 or 4 feet/years then it’s bbq and smoker time!

Thanks for watching! No, phytoplankton and zooplankton are going to naturally show up so it is not something we are typically concerned with. In some parts of the country, fertilization could be needed to provide nutrients that the phytoplankton need, but if the nutrients are there, the zooplankton will show up after the phytoplankton.

Crappie is a very tricky species to manage. A lot of the cautionary tales you are reading are likely valid. Ultimately it is your pond and if Crappie is your favorite fish, then we will do what we can to increase the odds of success. It just becomes much less predictable. There is a lot to Crappie, so it may be easier to give us a call to discuss your specific scenario and goals. Even if you aren’t in one of our service areas, we can give advice and potentially point you to someone in your area that could help. Our number is 1-800-753-4573. We would be more than happy to walk you through our process in developing a supreme Crappie population! Thank you for watching and commenting!

You could, but we often recommend against it, or at least warn people about it. Largemouth Bass will almost always out compete Smallmouth Bass in a pond setting. So eventually you will end up with only Largemouth Bass unless you supplement the Smallmouth occasionally. And when you are stocking more predators you really have to make sure you are harvesting enough to make room for them. If you want great smallmouth fishing in a pond, they need to be the only reproducing predator for the most part. But if you don’t mind the Largemouth Bass out competing them over time then it doesn’t hurt to have some in there just to see what happens. Just don’t expect trophy fish out of those smallmouth if they are mixed with Largemouth Bass. Thank you for the comment and for watching!

Fish are cold-blooded so their metabolism slows down as the water temperature drops. In southern states, you can often get away with feeding a small amount through the winter months. In northern states, you will notice your fish stop coming to the feed in the fall. That is when you should stop feeding. Ultimately it is all based on when and how much your fish will feed. As soon as they stop coming to the surface to eat the feed you should stop feeding. Thank you for watching, and for the comment!

Here in southwest Tennessee, the fish basically disappear when it’s cold and usually aren’t interested much in feeding during warm spells. I also see differences among species with Bluegills coming first to the party, then the catfish and lastly the Triploid (sterile) grass carp.

a fish hatchery just look up one online

Sounds like you have water quality and/or oxygen issues. I would consider aeration to make sure you don’t lose all of your fish again. 40 Bluegill is pretty light. It could take them some time to fill out the pond with more Bluegill through reproduction. Before spending too much on stocking I would want to find out what is causing the fish to disappear.

And or weeds

Thank you for watching! There is really no way to tell a male Largemouth Bass from a female visually. The only possible way to sex them without killing the fish is to use a sexing probe while they are spawning. This involves essentially putting a small tube up into the oviduct and seeing if eggs are present. Even this method is very tricky and has to be done at the right time.