I just stocked my pond Saturday afternoon. My concern is I can see some fatheads floating and see some BG on the bottom dead. Of course I can only see a very small portion of the bottom so I'm concerned there may be dead BG through out the pond on the bottom. I am assuming these fish will float at sometime and maybe I'll have a better idea of how many I lost. I'm hoping some of the pro's on here could chime in with a little advise. My stocker came highly recommended and were great to deal with, but they lined my coolers with big black garbage bags and filled with oxygen which may have been ok but the rubber band holding the bag closed came loose and the oxygen escaped leaving my BG gasping for air by the time I got to the pond. I have no way of knowing how many I lost. Any thoughts??

Sorry to hear that Corkman.

Sounds like your fish were pretty well stressed from transport to begin with. Did you acclimate the fish to the pond for temp and chemistry before stocking? By that I mean, did you float the bags in the pond to let them slowly come to pond temp? Did you exchange some pond water with the bag water to acclimate them to the chemistry change between the pond and bag waters?

Yes I did acclimate but not as well as I would have liked. The fatheads were in a normal clear bag and didn't lose their oxygen so they were easy. The BG looked in bad shape so I guess I may have made a bad decision I poured some pond water in the bag but it didn't seem to help, so I floated the cooler and all out into the pond and let the bags float out of the cooler while I held the top of the bags. This allowed the pond water to push the air out of the bag so the BG were sandwich between 2 plastic walls. One bad decision after another starting with the fish guys using the trash bags. I'm not looking to put the blame on them, I just want to correct any issues that I may have to my stocking plan. They will be in the area again June 18th. I have no problem buying more fish if need be. Can I have too many? These are forage in a new pond before I add LMB and HSB next year.

What size were the fish, how many were in the bag, and how long was the travel time? Do you know if the fishtruck is relatively local, or have they trucked the fish in from a ways off? I'm not trying to assign blame, just curious about the particulars.

I ordered 1600 of the smallest CNBG they had and 400 RES. I let them know ahead of time so they had my 2000 fish in their own separate tank. This was the last stop of the day for the truck which I wasn't crazy about. The hatchery is in the southern part of the same state that I picked them up in. I live on the NC/VA line in VA and the hatchery is in NC. They put the 2000 fish in 3 separate bags/Cooler lined with bags. The problem was the water in the trash bags spilled over the edges of the cooler this caused tension on the rubber band seal causing them to pull loose. It took me 45 min or so to get them paid and to my pond.

If they were piping at the surface by the time you got to the pond, then I would contact the hatchery and see what they say. 2000 fish in 3 bags in one cooler seems crowded to me, even if the fish were small. I can see the potential for trouble, such as the failure you describe.

I do think it unlikely you lost ALL of your fish, but there's little doubt that they were heavily stressed by the misadventure.

+1 to Sparkie's post. FWIW IMO if there is a bright side to this unfortunate situation, the strongest and best fish are the ones that probably survived.

How many dead fish are we talking about? Dozens? Hundreds?

They may stand behind the fish ,, had something like that happen with Arkansas Pond Stockers and they replaced the entire order free of charge , I figured i lost 30 percent of the first order.

They were in 3 different coolers. I only had an issue with 2 of the coolers. I'm sure a lot if not most of the fish are fine. Again I'm not looking to place any blame anywhere, this was my first time stocking, I thought I had a good plan. My main concern is I don't know how many are dead. The dead BG I have seen are on the bottom and I can see a very small portion of the bottom so there could be thousands dead. I have seen only a hundred or so dead BG but how many are in deep water that I can't see? I guess my main question is will it hurt anything to add more next month in case so many died that it affects my stocking plan? I may be worrying for no reason, I just really want to do this right.

Will they float to the top in the next few days so I have a better idea?

Again I am not putting any blame on the hatchery except I think the trash bags were not the best idea. I think everything would have been fine if they would have stayed sealed and the oxygen would have not been lost.

IMO not all dead fish float to the surface. My thought is it comes down to what they have in their stomach and intestinal track when they die. That is just my opinion.

Corkman,
I realize you had some trauma during your stocking process...sorry, to hear it. Just wondering if you had your water quality tested (i.e. pH, hardness....) prior to stocking? If all is well with the water, I think it would be safe to try it again and stock some more. If the water was never tested, it might be a good time to have it checked before investing more $$$ in fish. When my pond was stocked, my fish supplier never put more than 200 CNBG or RES per bag/bx. The FHM were ~1500 per bag/bx. At $7 extra to package ea. bag/bx, I had no problem with making the decision to split the fish up. I was fortunate enough not to lose any, but my fisheries guy insisted that I haul the boxes inside my pick-up with the a/c running (as I stocked in August / September ). Just a li'l food for thought on your re-stocking. Good luck. Keep us posted on your progress.

My ph is 6.8 didn't check anything else. I do have a lot of tadpoles living in the pond already. I can see some algae growth starting. I assumed all that was a good sign.

Corkman,
A pH of 6.8 is very adequate...your hardness is probably not too far off. I only mentioned it, because that's the first thing these guys here beat in my head, and it's true. When the water is right, you are way ahead of the game. I wouldn't be afraid to replace those fish that didn't make it. The trip from my supplier to the pond was a little over 2 hours, but they rode in the cab boxed in the a/c. Your experience was unfortunate, but fish are fairly inexpensive. Hopefully, the fishery will do you right...

Corkman,

I'm pretty sure I know the company you used. They are a great family operation, and they take great pride in their products. A call to them might put your mind at ease.

One of the things I really like about them is that they do short trips. When they come to northern/western Virginia, they load up the night before, drive up here and stay in a motel overnight before delivering the next day. So even if you were the last sale that day, the fish would have probably been on the truck for less than 24 hours.

Ken

Ken I agree. They have been great to deal with and I'm not even planning to tell them what happen. I am more concern with my stocking plan and if I lost enough fish to make a difference. If you don't think I can over stock at this point, I will just add some more next month to be safe. The advise that you and Travis have given me has gotten me this far. I wanted to contact both of you guys to get your advise but didn't want to be a bother. What would you do?