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Stocking Dad's Pond

Started by Guest_EricaWieser_* , Jul 01 2011 09:05 PM

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13 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_EricaWieser_*

Guests

Posted 01 July 2011 - 09:05 PM

Hi everyone,

I am looking for stocking suggestions for my Dad's pond. It's six feet long, five feet wide, and about five feet deep. It has a waterfall in the back and a lily pad in a submerged bucket on the right wall. I dug the pond with a shovel a couple years ago, and Dad inherited it when I moved out. I was just at the pond today, and I saw that it has about three or four inch-long goldfish in it (the rest all died). So we're looking for some stocking suggestions.

Fish requirements:
1. Be able to survive a Cleveland Ohio winter if Dad keeps the pump on and the waterfall breaks the ice for about a half foot radius.
2. Eats the algae that grows in the pond
3. Eats bugs enough that Dad barely ever needs to feed it

I said that I would ask my fellow NANFA people, because there are some pretty smart experts on this forum. How would a couple of the smaller sunfish do? Like an orangespotted sunfish? Fish suggestions greatly appreciated.

Edited by EricaWieser, 01 July 2011 - 09:06 PM.

#2 Guest_Newt_*

Guests

Posted 01 July 2011 - 09:30 PM

First things first: find out what the local regulations are. Stocking of ponds is usually pretty tightly regulated, and your fish options may be limited.

That said, I think most sunfishes and killifishes, and a few slackwater-loving cyprinids would do fine. The five-foot depth will help stabilize summer temperatures, and if the ice stays open any temperate-zone fish should be able to survive.

Certain pond dwellers, especially golden shiners and Pimephales species, will happily eat some kinds of algae but not others, and they do not make a clean sweep like plecos or snails. If conditions are right for algae growth not even the most dedicated algivores can eliminate algae. Just as in a tank, you have to adjust abiotic conditions to control algae. Reducing nutrient levels through water changes, filtration, and periodic removal of accumulated leaves and muck will help. Live plants will also help, by competing for nutrients and, in the case of floating and floating-leaved plants, by reducing available light.

As for feeding, if the pond is bare it will probably attract mosquitos but little else. Structure, in the form of plants in and around the pond, driftwood, etc., will bring more. If you don't mind being an insect murderer, you could even hang a bug-zapper over the pond so that zapped insects drop into the water.

#3 Guest_EricaWieser_*

Guests

Posted 01 July 2011 - 09:34 PM

If conditions are right for algae growth not even the most dedicated algivores can eliminate algae.

When I looked at it today I didn't see any algae. The water is crystal clear down to the bottom, which is dead leaves. I think he hasn't fed the goldfish all summer, and they've eaten whatever they could.

Edited by EricaWieser, 01 July 2011 - 09:37 PM.

#4 Michael Wolfe

Board of Directors

North Georgia, Oconee River Drainage

Posted 03 July 2011 - 04:03 PM

I kept pumpkinseeds in an outside garden pons when I lived in Cleveland. It was a much smaller, pre-formed pnd, and they made it even when it froze over solid. And they were bright and healthy in the spring. A smaller minnow might also be nice, but you will have a hard time keeping any alive in a pondful of p'seeds. On the plus side, they are large, and colorful and bold, so you will be able to see them. They will usually quickly convert to floating cichlid pellets (since they are greedy pigs) and that is also fun as it means they will come to the surface to feed (when your dad remembers to feed them).

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#5 Guest_EricaWieser_*

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Posted 04 July 2011 - 07:59 PM

Trip report here: http://forum.nanfa.o...0201#entry90201

It would have been nice to find some pumpkinseed or orange spotted sunfish, but all we could catch were bluntnose shiners, johnny darters, round gobies, and crayfish.

Edited by EricaWieser, 04 July 2011 - 08:01 PM.

#6 Guest_Mike_*

Guests

Posted 04 July 2011 - 09:01 PM

I have keeped Central Longear Sunfish, & Green Sunfish in my garden pond, I did have a winter kill though (I'm in NW Indiana) we lost power and my pump quite working. Now I have a garden pond heator I keep in there for the winter. If we loose power and freezes over its OK because when the power comes back on it melts a hole in the ice again.

I think pumpkinseed or orangespotted would be good too.

#7 Guest_jasonpatterson_*

Guests

Posted 05 July 2011 - 10:49 AM

First things first: find out what the local regulations are. Stocking of ponds is usually pretty tightly regulated, and your fish options may be limited.

Ohio is pretty lenient regarding stocking private ponds on your own. If there is no water flow into or out of the pond (so that the fish could escape) then you can release any legally caught fish you like into a private body of water. I don't know about ordering large amounts of fish for stocking; there are much more qualified people on here to answer that question for Ohio.

#8 Guest_Skipjack_*

Guests

Posted 05 July 2011 - 03:55 PM

walking catfish (Clarias batrachus),
diploid white amur or diploid grass carp (Ctenopharygodon idella),
silver carp -- white bream (Hypopthalmichtyhys molitirx),
black amur -- black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus),
bighead carp -- bighead -- bighead amur (Aristichthys nobilis),
rufe (Gymnocephalus cernuus),
round goby (Neogobius melanostomus),
tubenose goby (Proterorhynus marmoratus),
snakeheads (Channa spp. and Parachanna spp.),
white perch (Morone America),
three spine stickleback (Culaeea aculeatus),
sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus),
eastern banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanus diaphanus),

Other than this list and threatened or endangered species you can pretty much legally put whatever you want in an Ohio pond.

Edited by Skipjack, 05 July 2011 - 03:58 PM.

#9 Guest_jasonpatterson_*

Guests

Posted 05 July 2011 - 06:44 PM

Darn, and I bet her dad had always dreamed of a garden pond full of sea lamprey. :biggrin:

#10 Guest_NateTessler13_*

Guests

Posted 06 July 2011 - 10:21 AM

walking catfish (Clarias batrachus),
diploid white amur or diploid grass carp (Ctenopharygodon idella),
silver carp -- white bream (Hypopthalmichtyhys molitirx),
black amur -- black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus),
bighead carp -- bighead -- bighead amur (Aristichthys nobilis),
rufe (Gymnocephalus cernuus),
round goby (Neogobius melanostomus),
tubenose goby (Proterorhynus marmoratus),
snakeheads (Channa spp. and Parachanna spp.),
white perch (Morone America),
three spine stickleback (Culaeea aculeatus),
sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus),
eastern banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanus diaphanus),

Other than this list and threatened or endangered species you can pretty much legally put whatever you want in an Ohio pond.

I want to add to Skipjack's point by stating that fish stocked in a pond need to be obtained legally. In Ohio, you cannot keep "gamefish" that have been seined. Many species of fish fall into the "gamefish" category. Please visit this link for more information; Bait collection regulations

I wanted to make this point because, Erica, you mentioned putting orangespotted sunfish in your father's pond. You can certainly do that, however, they need to be caught via hook-and-line, and not in your seine. Seining and keeping sunfish in Ohio could get you into trouble.

#11 Guest_Skipjack_*

Guests

Posted 06 July 2011 - 05:32 PM

Great point Nate. I missed that, but should not have. Thanks. Matt.

Now that Nate has me thinking. Grass pickerel are a gray area worth mentioning.

Edited by Skipjack, 06 July 2011 - 05:38 PM.

#12 Guest_EricaWieser_*

Guests

Posted 06 July 2011 - 07:11 PM

I want to add to Skipjack's point by stating that fish stocked in a pond need to be obtained legally. In Ohio, you cannot keep "gamefish" that have been seined. Many species of fish fall into the "gamefish" category. Please visit this link for more information; Bait collection regulations

I wanted to make this point because, Erica, you mentioned putting orangespotted sunfish in your father's pond. You can certainly do that, however, they need to be caught via hook-and-line, and not in your seine. Seining and keeping sunfish in Ohio could get you into trouble.

You don't have to worry about that. It turns out humans (or at least me) are too slow to ever dream of catching an orange spotted sunfish with a seine. We did go out with the seine, but everything other than minnows and gobies just laughed and swam circles around us. If we ever do go looking for orange spotted sunfish again, it'll definitely be with hook and line. *nods*

Edited by EricaWieser, 06 July 2011 - 07:19 PM.

#13 Guest_Skipjack_*

Guests

Posted 06 July 2011 - 08:30 PM

Good news Erica, next years convention might be in Ohio. I bet you will have the chance to learn how to really work a net, and keep those fishes from giggling at you. Too bad it is such a log drive, and I probably won't make the trip.

#14 Guest_EricaWieser_*

Guests

Posted 07 July 2011 - 05:20 PM

Good news Erica, next years convention might be in Ohio. I bet you will have the chance to learn how to really work a net, and keep those fishes from giggling at you. Too bad it is such a log drive, and I probably won't make the trip.

I'm moving to North Carolina on Wednesday. >.<