Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water removing ornamental fish from pond

Hi all,

I have a small earth pond with about 100 -120 ornamental fish (a few carp, but mostly orfees and goldfish.)

I am looking into treating the pond with alum/ lime but am worried about doing something wrong and killing the fish. Is it crazy to think I could catch them all in a net and transfer them to somewhere safe (kiddie pool?) until I reassured myself the pH was healthy for them to go back into after treatment?

We feed them every morning so maybe it wouldn't be too hard to catch them? I don't know, have never tried.

The pond's pH is already a little low around 6.5 from what I can tell. So I'm a little concerned.

You could try a seine net if you don't mind getting wet. You might want to check and see what is legal in your area and what is not, I know Nebraska has regulations regarding the size of seine nets that can be used. Here is what Bass Pro Shops offers, you local fihing shops likely have similar seines.

http://www.basspro.com/Frabill-Minnow-Seines/product/15951/-634902

Shorty,
Your thoughts were my first thoughts. Then I saw the above info in one of karmann's other posts.

With a seine, I'm afraid he'd look like I do when I get out of my canoe to fish good holes in the Shenandoah. I regularly find myself stepping off a ankle deep rocks into 10-20 foot deep holes. My friends tell me that only my hat and rod seem to be visible from shore. But -- it is fun!

I guess, on second thought, it might be a good idea. It is about 96 degrees outside right now.

Ken

You can custom order bigger and deeper nets, they are just expensive. The idea of using an off the shelf siene to capture as many fish as possible is the idea. The ones you don't catch may or may not survive but so long as you have few to put back in you should be OK.

If it were me I would try to get the PH level up before applying the aluminum sulfate. If you went that route you wouldn't have to worry about the fish.

catmandoo,

I am a she but I get it.... we're not that far behind you temp wise, here in NY today. Ugh. Anyway, naw, don't mind getting wet; I've fallen in my pond before.

Karmann, do the jar test first, it might be that your fish are part of the water clarity issue.