Hi fellas,
In the past few days, I've lost 4 large grass carp. Pond is 3/4 acre.
Today there was also a catfish.
Each of the fish had been eaten pretty good by the pond turtles by the time I pull them out, but I'm wondering if a snapper or other predator is the cause for the kills. Every heard of a snapper attacking large carp?
We have a dozen or so pond turtles, but I haven't seen any snappers.
There is a typically dry creek channel that connects to other upstream ponds, which fills with water and runs thru the pond during heavy rains like we have had here in Texas the last couple of weeks. So there is always other life making its way into the pond from time to time in this periodic stream.
The grass carp are large, they have been in the pond since construction and stocking ~25 years ago (as long as they stocked sterile). Old age seems odd for them all to go at the same time and doesn't explain the catfish.

Pond has aeration but even so, carp are known to be resilient in low DO environments.
Any thoughts on the cause on the kills?

Thanks,
Jeremy

My guess is the turtles are not guilty. But I don't have another perpetrator. Snappers will usually suck in prey, not unlike an LMB. So they grab bite sized critters. Red ears etc won't cause any trouble.

All of your turtles will help clean up carrion though.

Do you have bluegill, bass etc in the pond? If so I would expect them to be earlier indicators of a water quality issue. Both carp and catfish are relatively bulletproof. So water quality is unlikely.

No new predators? River otters or even cormorants seen lurking in the shadows?

Could be old age in conjunction with some sort of environmental stressor, any really strong cold fronts the week before?

I wasn't sure if an alligator snapper would go after ~15lbs carp...but ya never know.

There were some strong storms recently but nothing the fish haven't experienced before, especially not to wipe out 4 of those guys that have survived a long time... seems too coincidental.

I had a big kill of around 60 or so BG when starting up aeration a long time ago due to so much toxic sediment disruption. Didn't loss any carp though, those guys just beached up on the edge of the water till everything stabilized....they are super strong fish.

Vortex, I do have a heron that visits each day for some snacks but he has been coming for years and never gets anything too big. He's too lazy, lol.

It almost has to be some type of new predator going after them but I can't figure out what it is.

Congratulations. Wish I could get rid of mine.