Pond is 2yrs old, 3/4 acre, 22-25 ft deep in the middle and very cold. Then shallows out. Ton of habitat and fhm. Put 20, 12-14 inch rainbow trout from a fish farm in during April. Sitting on the dock today feeding the minnows and look down to see a 12 in rainbow just hovering in a ft of water. He was not interested in eating as the minnows were all around him. He would swim off, but then come back again. Didn't look sick but we have never even seen one let alone one hanging out in a ft of water. Any ideas?

What's the water temp?

That trout and probably others are stressed due to too warm of water. Water may be cold deep but it could not have very much dissolved oxygen - DO. It is not normal for a trout to be that shallow in a warm watrr pond in the heat of summer. The fish is probably very stressed and looking for DO and the heat is killing him. Just because the pond is deep and has cold water deep does not mean there is adequate or high enough DO in the correct water temperature for trout.

This is a common misconception of new pond owners who think because the pond is deep with cold water in the bottom trout will survive. Temperature can be cold enough but very frequently the DO becomes too low in the heat of summer for the trout to survive. Trout typically need 5ppm DO compared to other fish who can survive okay at 3ppm or lower depending of some other factors.

Ah, that would make sense. Anything I can do short of putting in an aerator? Do lmb require less, they seem to be doing fine. And ot has been unbelievably dry I'm ny here. Has rained for 20 min in 10 days. No rain in sight.

LMB require far less DO than trout and can tolerate much warmer temps as well.

No idea what the water temp is?

No clue of the water temp. I am going out this weekend and will see. It fluctuates so bad from spot to spot. The surface is pretty warm, then in the deepend it is freezing when you get down a bit.

What is the DO level down where it is cold? That is the biggest question!

Absolutely but when Green Lantern said:



I wondered what the water temp was in the foot of water that trout was in.