How to Raise Stock for Your Fish Pond

Buying fish for your pond can get expensive. Luckily, if you built your pond correctly, it can actually be a great place to breed and raise your own stock for a pond. Another great benefit of raising fish stock is that there is very little need for you to intervene or help the process along.

Things You'll Need

  • Pair of cat fish
  • Fishing pond
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Instructions

    • 1

      Buy a pair of catfish. For this example we will use catfish since they are one of the easiest species to grow and multiply in your pond. If you want to use another breed be sure to research the fish species before starting to try to breed them. Important things to look at are whether they are cannibalistic, how hardy their eggs are, how many eggs they lay, resistance to parasites, and a high survival rate in your climate.

    • 2

      Build the right size of pond. This is largely dependent on your reasons for the pond. If you want it for fishing, you are obviously going to want a larger pond. If it's just for show you may just want to buy a few Koi fish from your local pet store and call it good.

    • 3

      Provide the right environment for breeding. Cat fish especially like places to hide where they can lay their eggs. Consider things like rocks with ledges and tree stumps to help encourage breeding.

    • 4

      Feed your fish correctly. Most fish will live well off of insects and small stock fish (flathead minnows are great for this). The industry standard is to provide about 10 pounds of minnows for every 200 catfish. If it's winter time do not try to feed your fish supplemental floating food. During the winter months your fish will stay in deeper waters and so will not be able to access the floating food you provide. Invest in food that sinks during the winter.

    • 5

      Temper your fish before introducing them to your pond. Just like the shock of stepping into a cold shower is uncomfortable for us, being introduced to cold water without tempering can be deadly to a fish. Take the container that your fish came in and slowly add water from the pond to it every hour until the temperature of your container is the same as the ponds. Then you can introduce the fish to their new home.