Problem Fish
Pond owners should be aware of potential problem fish species. These fish, once established in a pond, can harm good fishing and cause the pond to fall far short of its fishing potential. Fish that are considered problem species are bullhead, common carp, buffalo, sucker, crappie, perch and miscellaneous sunfish species.
Bullheads
Bullheads, often called "mudcats" or "yellow-bellies," are not desirable in ponds because they often overpopulate and roil the bottom, making the water muddy. Overabundant bullhead populations produce few bullheads of desirable size. In addition, their presence often limits the success of channel catfish.
Carp, Buffalo and Suckers
Introduction of these three fish species into fish ponds is a serious mistake, unless you are only interested in growing fish to eat. They compete directly for food with small bass and bluegill, destroy bass and bluegill habitat, and can only be removed by totally draining or chemically treating the pond. Because of their bottom feeding habits, common carp make the water extremely muddy. Common carp reproduce quite successfully in ponds.
Crappies
Although both black and white crappies do well in large lakes, they usually do not do well in small ponds. Once crappies become established, they prey on small bass, compete for food with adult bass and bluegill, and tend to overpopulate. This produces a pond full of small, slow-growing crappies.
Perch
Yellow perch are much like crappies in ponds. They are prolific, compete with other game fish, prey upon small bass and bluegill, and usually don't grow well. Perch are much more suited to large lakes and should not be stocked in ponds.
Miscellaneous Sunfish
Many pond owners have difficulty identifying the seven sunfish species commonly found in Indiana. These include bluegill, redear, longear, warmouth, pumpkinseed, green and orange spotted sunfish. Only bluegill and redear are suited for Indiana ponds. When stocked into fish ponds, the other sunfish usually produce an undesirable fish population. Green sunfish and warmouth are aggressive feeders and compete with bass and bluegill for food. If they get big enough, they even eat small bass.
The pumpkinseed, longear and orange spotted sunfish do not grow big enough to interest fishermen and they overpopulate easily.
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