Two years ago we built a 3 acre pond with a depth of 24ft. Last year we added 150 14" crappie and 150 9-11" bluegills,sunfish, and pumpkin seeds. We also added a few gallons of minnows. This winter we added a gallon of freshwater shrimp. I have been searching for info on these shrimp to see about spawning. Do you think they will reproduce? If so, when?

Wow, that's a deep pond! And a lot of big fish! The big fish may eat most of the shrimp. What species of shrimp did you add? Can they survive winter in your area? I put some ghost shrimp in my 1800 gallon pond but they didn't survive (either winter or the fish eating them). Shrimp, like ghost shrimp, will breed in a pond. After mating, the female holds the eggs under her body and uses her swimmerettes to fan them to keep the eggs oxygenated. Once mature, the little babies float off. They are very small and most will get eaten by small fish. I don't know of anyone with a stable population of ghost shrimp in a pond. Scuds are smaller, different sorts of shrimp that are native and may do better in a pond. They are a little bit smaller, and fish love to eat them too. Crayfish are larger crustaceans that would have a better chance of surviving being eaten by your sunfish. What kind of minnows did you add, fatheads?

Here are some pages on my site of interest. I plan to make a better native fish page but it's not started.
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/farm.htm - farm ponds
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/shrimp.htm - shrimp and crayfish
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/misc2.htm - native fish
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/rosies.htm - fathead and rosy red minnows

Yes we added fatheads. The shrimp came from a bait shop in MPLS Minnesota. They are common in some northern freshwater lakes. I think they are scuds. I was hoping to find info on them, that's how I landed here. Great forum by the way. We are in northern MN. There are lots of other things going on that provide forage for the fish also such as mosquito larvae, mayfly larvae and numerous other insects. All species spawned this last spring. Only a couple of weeks after the birds must have dropped the larger fish in. ;) There was a school of young of the year panfish swimming around the rocks all summer. The pond was made by a company that builds harbors. They started by pumping a low area below my folks house out into another low area. They then brought in the earth movers and went to town. It looked like a pit mine at one point. They stepped the breaks to prevent sluffing. The grand kids love walking around and catching the panfish. Another two years of catch and release and we will begin to manage the populations. I hope that a giant bird drops a couple of 5lb bass at that point also. This will help to control the populations also.

It's been spendy but VERY fun. It also has an island that the wind driven aerator is located on. The sides are rocked for further sluff protection and sodded for aesthetics.

Your pond sounds very interesting. I've seen the wind-driven aerators for sale but never communicated with someone who has one. Maybe you'd like to share some photos of your setup here, on my farm pond page, or on the Pond Showcase game fish pond section or something.

What fish did the bird drop in? A shiner of some sort showed up in my pond; I never added it.

Oh, that was a joke. It's illegal to transport live fish without a license in our state. So since it's illegal for us to stock the pond. The birds must have dropped those fish in. ;)

I'll get some pictures in the next month when everything melts and greens up.

Uh, huh, it was a big bird, perhaps the never-before-known previously-thought-extinct flying Dodo bird.

Yeah, thats the one!!! The large fish transporting one!! hahaha

A Tarydactal stork...heehee :o you know the ones with the fish baby blankets they carry in their mouths... :rolleyes: