I thought I would pass along my recent feeding lesson. a few weeks back I started seeing 6 to 10 cnbg dead a floating on the pond every day. These cnbg were in the 1 to 4" range. Only found one that was in the 6" size. I studied a sample of these dead fish and could see no soars or bites taken out of them. they were just dead and floating. Every day for at least a week it was the same thing. Now this pond has a good quantity of cnbg and so I could not figure it out. So I caught a sample of the water and asked Todd Overton to run the hardness and Alkalinities. Harness 55, alk 130, ph 7.2. Todd suggested maybe I was over feeding, he said he had seen it before and suggested I stop feeding for a week and see what happened. Will, I am a little hard headed and so I did not want to stop feeding all at once, but I did cut the feeding back by 2/3's and by the next day the fish quite dying. I am guessing with the cooler nights or the reduction of bg through lmb eating bg at the feeders, I was over feeding. I hope that if someone else has this happen to them they will reduce the amount of feed they are feeding. Todd Overton was dead on with his recommendation. Thanks once again Todd.
Did Todd think overfeeding was a direct or indirect cause of death?
Tracy did this stem back to the low DO from the well you had? Or is this a separate incident? Glad the fish quit dying! Was it due to nutrients and waste?? He didn't mean they were eating to much did he? I'm curious, I haven't had any mortality but I haven't backed off feeding yet either for the winter. I may need to back off also. They are still eating well. Guess I'm asking the same as Bocomo about direct or indirect effects. Very glad for you though. I know that was killing you before..good to finally know why. Lets your mind rest a bit!!
I would have never guessed that your situation could be "cured" that quickly by backing off on the feeding. You don't think that was just a coincidence? Whatever the reason, glad your problem looks to be solved. BM61.
All I can say is Todd and I discussed what I was seeing, and that was 6 to 10 cnbg in the 1" to 4" range floating every day for that week or longer. He said, it might be due to over feeding and he had seen it before. So, turn off the feeder for a week and see. I am telling you the dying fish stopped dying. That's all I got. It even surprised me. I waited for a week of this before I reported here. Just saying !!
Glad we have Todd to rely on..... He is sharp. And he thinks outside the box at times
How much were you feeding?
If the fish weren't eating all the feed, then possibly the fish food was decomposing and chewing up O2, but then usually that affects larger fish first.
It would be interesting to see what Todd has to say about why it only affected those size fish, and why not the larger ones.
BrianL, I was feeding about 90 seconds per feeder per day, maybe a little less. I set the feeding time up last late spring and the food would be gone in a matter of two short minutes or less. The fish stopped dying or floating the next day after reducing the feed. Essup, I seam to be getting good at killing of cnbg. Lost about 25 really nice ones a while back due to aeration diffusers and water well causing a low DO. I am now doing things different and have gone weeks with out killing any off until this last go round. I have a lot of cnbg and recently caught some big ones on spinner baits, This was after the recent fish dying episode. To be honest, I was really surprised the fish reacted so fast to reducing the feeding time. The only thing i can come up with is that I feed 3 different sized fee, maybe the cnbg were choking on the larger sized feed (1/4" sized) All I know is Todd was dead on, Maybe a SWAG !!
If the fish weren't eating all the feed, then possibly the fish food was decomposing and chewing up O2, but then usually that affects larger fish first.
It would be interesting to see what Todd has to say about why it only affected those size fish, and why not the larger ones.
Same here. The timing just seems curious. Recovery after just one day?
Overfeeding?
Guilty!!!
This was 2 years ago, one year after stocking. I may have been a little too aggressive with the feeding
Tracy, sorry to hear of the mort's, I hope you get it figured out. Nothing worse than finding floaters
1" to 4" CNBG might choke on a pellet by getting it stuck in the throat which could happen if you are over feeding and the smaller fish are cleaning up extra pellets. I have seen a few small RES choke and die from eating pieces of nightcrawler that were too large to swallow. Once a piece gets stuck in the mouth it makes getting water over the gills difficult and they suffocate. It's one possibility.
Sparky, like I said, it surprised me that I saw the difference the next day after reducing the feed. Like a light switch, on and off.
Keith, that is a fatty for sure.
Shorty, these one to four inch cnbg must have been choking on the larger feed, like u said they may have been feeding on leftovers after the feeding frenzy. Its all I can come up with no other ideas from me!
Tracy, what kind of feed and mix are you feeding? I reduced my feeding times back to 64 seconds(from 81 seconds plus hand feeding) a few weeks back when that last cold front came through. The 2 midday feeding weren't as active, so I reduced those two feed time to 4 seconds each, and dropped the other spins from 9 seconds to 8 seconds. I am straight Optimal for the last month, but have been feeding a mix of AM 400(10%), AM 500(40%), and Optimal(50%). I think our pond, fish type, feeding, and general location are fairly similar....
Tracy, I suppose you could go"back" to feeding like you were and see if they start dying again. Not trying to be a smart alec but would seriously like to know the outcome of a experiment such as that. As you know my pond and cnbg are similar to yours and I could have the same thing happen to me someday. Good luck
Brian, Cargills 1/8th 3/16 and 1/4" feed. And have never had any issue with it in the past. I have noticed a reduced amount of cnbg at the feeder that usually has the most cnbg feeding. Might be due to a spawn or reduced by lmb, not sure but I was seeing some food floating after the fish feed. I thought of them gorging or choking. And Flame, I would not want to start this all over again, it seams to me I have killed enough this past 2 months
. Right now everything looks good. In fact I have been thinking of catching and eating some of the larger cnbg, it's been 23 months sine first stocking and there are some really big ones in the pond.
