Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My Fish Kill

2 acre with average depth of 7 ft - deepest is 11. Have lost about 12 inches of depth due to drought. Limited aeration with a fountain. We noticed the fish gulping for air and they stopped eating. This happened after a 1-2 inch rain which I hear the worst thing for a pond after long drought. Over a period of 1 week we lost about 36 2-6 pound LMB and a couple dozen BG. no catfish or grass carp.

We immediately (1 week later) installed a Kasco aeration system and set up the 3 diffusers 2 feet from the shore for emergency air relief.

It appears the worst is over but it was weird that only the bigger LMB died off first. Are the LMB more sensitive to low DO than the other species? The fish appear to be "back" as they are eating a back in their normal spots.

Everything sounds normal... The biggest LMB are usually the first to go. Your aeration investment, is the best investment you'll every make!

Oh yeah, welcome to the forum!

You may want to go ahead and harvest your BG heavily now. If not, you'll be facing serious overpopulation and subsequent stunting issues. With all those LMB gone, they are gonna run wild!

How many "pounds" of LMB could an average 2 acres hold? Wondering whether there were too many LMB in our pond to begin with since they were never harvested. Should I assume "all" of the big LMB were killed?

In general, a pond can support between 50-100 pounds fo LMB per acre. The higher end being those ponds that are very fertile. So, let's go middle of the road and say your pond supports 75 pounds of LMB per acre, so together it supports 150 pounds of LMB.

How old is the pond? What is the stocking history of it? Answering these questions can perhaps give a better final answer.

Assuming anything in pond management usually isn't good. However, there is a high likelihood many if not most of your bigger bass were killed.

We stocked 50 6 inch LMB 2 years ago. I assume they would be about 1-2 pounds by now and I didn't see many of those dead. Can I assume most of those are still alive or is it possible or somewhat likely that many of those 6 inchers were "fish food" on day 1? Do LMB eat allot of their own kind?

What is the reasoning behind this? I've never heard this before.

The "cold rain" mixes and cools the warmer surface water allowing the the Low DO and "dead" water at the bottom to break through the stratified layer effectively making the entire water column low in DO. Just like heat rises cold water "falls"

Yes, they are cannibals.

Most fish kills I'm told occur after a hard rain in conjucntion with poor water conditions prior; that's exactly what happened to me and I had a tube supplied fountain working at the time.

My understanding is that late summer cold fronts under the right conditions can cause an algae bloom to crash hard leading to a dissolved oxygen sag. It is the sudden die of algae that kills fish.

Hello from a pond noob. We have about a quarter acre pond with mostly sunfish and perch, and three huge channel cats and three algae eating carp. Also huge. When my husband and I were out having docktails the other night, and feeding (lightly) the cats and carp, I noticed that all of the medium sized fish are gone. Not floating, not dying.. just gone.. We have the six huge ones left and a myriad of tiny tots..

Where did my fish go? It is as if they just vanished overnight..

Thank you for any help at all... I'm afraid to go out there in case there is something awful hiding under the dock eating my fish.. Just kidding.. kinda.

The medium size fish probably were dinner for the large catfish. They are very efficient predators when they get upwards of 15 inches, or more.

Oh I see. I am familiar with that phenomenon but didn't think about cold rain in the summer. (We see this here in early fall.) However if we are talking the south and temps we have had I suppose any rain would be cold!

Gosh I can only hope. It seemed as if there were hundreds of sunfish and perch, that vanished over a two day period.. We wanted to rid the pond anyway, so that would be good news.. thanks so much, Spinnerbait!

The fish are most likely still I the pond.. If you haven't seen any dead I'd be willing to bet they're all still alive and well.. Do you feed everyday at the same time in the same place?

I doubt that the catfish ate a hundred fish in 2 days! But they will dine on them. If it's only 2 days since you seen them then they're probably still there.

Oh I see. I am familiar with that phenomenon but didn't think about cold rain in the summer. (We see this here in early fall.) However if we are talking the south and temps we have had I suppose any rain would be cold! [/quote]

Most thunderstorms that produce hail carry with it some very cold rain in the summer. The temperature of that water immediately cools the top layer and allows the bottom low DO layer to mix. I'm talking about a "big" rain +2 inches or more normally. In may case it was also accompanied by an algae bloom kill. The rain is the "final nail" that did them in.

Spinner and Bluegill, yes we surely do feed about the same time every evening, and prior to this, the sunfish and green perch were like piranha.. the water would boil with fish.. I didn't think the cats could eat that many, for sure. They have been large all summer and seem to just eat the floating feed. We did have a few heavy rains, but we supplement the pond with water from our aquifer every couple of days and have a bubbler going 24/7. The heavy rains never seemed to bother the fish before as the water is fairly coolish anyway. Maybe they are staging a coup.

During my recent fish kill all of my "normal" BG that fed near my dock left and did not come back until the oxygen levels increased. My guess is they found a better place with more DO until their feeding place improves. They did come back though.

RbaumPond... well, rats! I was hoping they had move south for the winter and we wouldn't have to deal with whatever we have to, to rid the pond of the perch. We are of a mind to catch the cats, The Three Musketeers we call them, and get rid of the rest with whatever means we have to, but we also have geese and whistling ducks that visit so poison is out of the question. My husband thinks we should just drain it and start over, but I'm hesitant because I've heard that you end up with more problems. Anyway, thanks a bunch for all the help you guys have provided noob pond folks. We bought the place in January and the pond has been in place for a decade I think. The boy has dredged up bones, buckets, and things I don't even know what they are. It's a jungle down there.

Draining and starting over shouldn't cause more problems unless it's clay lined and the operation that removes the muck is careless and also removes the clay liner.

I think that's the best option, it allows you to clean the bottom, contour it and place structure where you want it, and it allows you to stock the pond with the fish that YOU want. It also ensures that all the unwanted fish are gone.

The geese really contribute to the nutrient load in the pond, they poop on an average of once every 10 minutes. I used to tolerate them on my pond, but not anymore. With the waterfowl, I'd seriously consider stocking some Redear Sunfish (RES) when restocking the pond.

When you say "perch", I'm assuming that you aren't meaning Yellow Perch, correct?

What are your goals for the pond? We can help get you going in the right direction.