200' x 50' Pond Want To Stock, But With What?

[Brian Rinaldi]

Hello, My Name Is Brian And Im New Here. My Grand Mother After 30 Years Finally Bought Her Dream Home, A 37 Acer Farm House!!! Being Already Exited At The Fact That Their Dream Came True, But When I Found Out That The Estate Had A Pond, I Became Super Overwhelmed With Happiness. Since I Love Fish, The Ocean, And Have Extensive Knowledge In The Area Of Marine Biology, I Figured That It Would Be Nice To Stock The Pond. Sadly Though With The Exceptions (Crawfish, Catfish, & Tilapia) I Specialize Only In Saltwater Species. So here I Am Now, Asking "The Garden Pond Forum" Community----- *What Is Your Oppinion Of What I Can Do With The Pond*-----



-What's In The Pond-
- 1'' Gold Fish :goldfish:

-Ideas Of What I Would Like In Pond-
- Crawfish
- Catfish

-Depth
- 4' in Winter
- 5' in summer

- Dimensions-
- 200 Feet Long
- 30 Feet Wide

-Other Information
- The Pond Has A Natural Lining Of Slate On The Bottom
- The Pond Is Surrounded By Cattails (May Have To Do Some Demolition On That)


]

-----Update-----
We Now Have Chickens :razz:

 

[sissy]

do you have any predators in the area besides the chickens :razz: looks rural like my property and guessing you are not filtering it .You can google natural fish for your area and see if there are suppliers

 

[j.w]

Brian
Nice huge pond there you have to work with and will hold lots of fish! I only have goldfish so can't help you w/ those other types you want in there. Don't think chickens will like it in there tho

 

[Brian Rinaldi]

do you have any predators in the area besides the chickens :razz: looks rural like my property and guessing you are not filtering it .You can google natural fish for your area and see if there are suppliers

Yes, I Was Up There Recently And Saw A Few Badgers at the chicken koop i think if they had the chance they would eat fish, And no we dont filter it

 

[markd]

Tuna? (Chicken of the Sea)


Sorry, had to be said.

 

[Catfishnut]

Brian,

Do some research on St. Peter's Fish (tilapia). This might be something you may find beneficial and interesting.

Catfishnut

 

[Brian Rinaldi]

Tuna? (Chicken of the Sea)


Sorry, had to be said.

.....

 

[sissy]

badgers are thieves and destroy anything they can get hold of .little bandits

 

[addy1]

to our group!

 

[Waterbug]

It really depends on what you want.

Koi, goldfish, carp, catfish, bullheads will generally stir up the bottom. That can cause a pond to be permanently muddy depending on soil. Catfish and Bullhead are good to eat but normally require feeding to get to a good size. Check specific Catfish species temp requirements vs growth. Many of these fish can keep macro algae down either from eating it or the muddy water.

A more standard stocking in Conn I think would be Largemouth Bass and Bluegill (many different common names, but I think in the northeast Bluegill is the most common common name). At least that was standard in the northeast when I kept mud ponds 40 years ago. The bass eat the Bluegill. Bass would eat Crawfish too. They don't stir up the bottom so clear water is more likely.

Trout could be a possibility if conditions are right. I'd say this would be the Holy Grail of farm pond fish. A functioning trout pond can raise property value.

You can check with your local Farm Extension and/or Fish & Game. At a minimum they can tell you of any illegal fish, any local issues and hopefully an idea of what other local people have successfully raised. At best they have some program you might be interested in and/or will test water for free and recommend improvements. If you want to catch and eat some fish a pond has to be treated more like a garden, with thinning and keeping a strong food chain or by just feeding.

Left on it's own a single species will tend to dominate so you have a lot of fish but all small. Or they all die.

Since Talapia need 70F+ water, and under 50F for sure mean be death, that would probably be tough in Conn even as an annual type fish.

 

[Sheetmetalman]

I would go with large mouth bass, blue gill and Channel catfish--All great natural fish both to eat and set and watch if the water is clear, and it should be with a slate bottom. I have white (albino) channel cats in with my Koi an Goldfish and you might go that route instead of common channel cats since they taste just as good, grow just as big, and are much easier to see in your pond. with a slate bottom you may want to add clean sand and gravel to the shallow end of your pond because the Bass and Bluegill use it to make bowl shaped nest on the bottom when they breed. In such a small pond I doubt the Catfish will breed--but they are cheap to buy from fish farms (who usually deliver to farm stores in bulk tank trucks for pick up twice a year)--in fact if its set up your area like here you can order all 3 fish species at the same time and here you can buy different sizes if you want to get a jump on when you want to start fishing your pond