I called the Pennsylvania fish commission about fish that would be good
to keep the insects including mosquitos in control in my pond which is
spring fed and does have an overflow into local streams. They said that
I shouldn't use exotics and recommended blue gills or minnows. They
gave me the name of a local hatchery and they recommend golden shiner
minnows (notemigonous crysoleucas).

The hatchery said Golden Shiners eat tiny zooplankton (microscopic
creatures), crustaceans (water fleas and crayfish), insects, small fish,
and algae. Sounds great. If the population gets too large they can be
used as bait fish for fishermen.

Does anyone have experience with these?

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On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 22:15:49 GMT, "Stephen M. Henning"
wrote:

I called the Pennsylvania fish commission about fish that would be
good
to keep the insects including mosquitos in control in my pond which
is
spring fed and does have an overflow into local streams. They said
that
I shouldn't use exotics and recommended blue gills or minnows. They
gave me the name of a local hatchery and they recommend golden shiner
minnows (notemigonous crysoleucas).

The hatchery said Golden Shiners eat tiny zooplankton (microscopic
creatures), crustaceans (water fleas and crayfish), insects, small
fish,
and algae. Sounds great. If the population gets too large they can
be
used as bait fish for fishermen.

Does anyone have experience with these?

Yes, but only as a fisherman!

I stocked golden shiners in my pond for a food source for bass. It is
true that they are on the bottom of the food chain and eat algae,
bugs, etc. They reproduce by sticking eggs on plants and stuff. I
tossed in some and have never seen them again. They may have very well
have reproduced though but I can't tell for sure because I also stuck
in fat head minnows. One of the two species reproduced and I had a
billion of whatever until the bass got big enough to eat them. Now I
see a few here and there this year. I'm hoping that they will
reproduce once again. I'm looking in my hatchery catalog (Zetts) and
they have 100 breeder shiners for $60.00. It'd probably be another
$15.00 to package and UPS them to you.

I tend to like bluegills. They have good personalities whereas the
shiners won't. You'll see the bluegills hanging out on the pond edge
and can feed them.



"Stephen M. Henning" wrote in message ...
I called the Pennsylvania fish commission about fish that would be good
to keep the insects including mosquitos in control in my pond which is
spring fed and does have an overflow into local streams. They said that
I shouldn't use exotics and recommended blue gills or minnows. They
gave me the name of a local hatchery and they recommend golden shiner
minnows (notemigonous crysoleucas).

The hatchery said Golden Shiners eat tiny zooplankton (microscopic
creatures), crustaceans (water fleas and crayfish), insects, small fish,
and algae. Sounds great. If the population gets too large they can be
used as bait fish for fishermen.

Does anyone have experience with these?