AS-507
Sea Grant Tip Sheet Series |
 Fathead minnowPimephales promelas |
| Common name: | Fathead minnow |
| Scientific name: | Pimephales promelas |
| Production potential: | Easy |
| Marketing potential: | Potential: High Size: 1-3 inches Market: Bait |
| Temperature requirements: | Growing: 70oF Spawning: 65oF Lethal: NA |
| Feed requirements: | Protein: 30-38% Fat: 3-8% |
| Spawning requirements: | Spawns during cool periods in summer and sometimes fall, eggs hatch in 5-6 days. Females lay from 200-500 eggs per spawn, spawn repeatedly during spawning season.Two methods are used to produce fry. The first is the wild or free-spawning method which 500-2,000 broodstock are stocked into ponds. Egg hatching and growing of yound to marketable size occur in the same pond. The second methodbis the fry transfer method. In this method, 20,000-25,000 broodstock are stocked into ponds in a ratio of five females per male. Fry produced in either method are trapped and counted then transferred to rearing ponds. In either method, rocks, tile, bricks, or boards are placed into ponds to provide spawning sites. |
| Most common production systems: |
Ponds. Fry are stocked at a rate of 50,000-300,000 per acre. |
http://www.ansc.purdue.edu/aquanic/publicat/other_pubs/as-507.htm
