Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water Fish Kill caused by water influx?

I've found 4 floaters in the pond in the last few days...all of them HSB's. The only thing I can figure is that the 10 inches of water influx did something. I can't imagine what? I sure would assume that it would OVER oxygenate the water??

Any ideas? I've never had a floater in this pond that I've found, EVER. No winter kill, no summer kill, no nothing. But I get a big rainstorm and it kills my favorite fish??

Cold rain? Muddy water? Sudden algae bloom die off?

Belly Full of Fire Ants appears lethal.

Although it's the wrong time of year, there have been pesticide/herbicide residue runoffs into ponds that have caused problems in the past.

Is the pond aerated?

Blister beetles is another possibility, blister beetles occasionally kill horses.

No aeration - too big to be affordable to do right based on my research.

It was a cold rain, and a LOT of it. It probably changed the depth by almost 3.5 feet all told. It was darn near 9 inches of rain in 48 hours.

As of this morning I could see a dozen dead stripers and a couple of large bluegill. That's only at one small end, I haven't even walked the edge yet.

My IN pond is ~60F top to bottom with the changing season. If the rainwater was quite a bit colder, it would all have gone down. It could force the anoxic water up to the fish zone. Much of your good oxygenated water could have gone out your overflow if it is top drawn. If you were >3.5ft below overflow, then none of your good water would have flowed out, so shoots that theory.

I bet this did it.

Another vote for a turnover caused by rain.

Without aeration, my thought is that the cold rainwater sank, and mixed the anoxic water below the thermocline with upper water, creating the kill. It might not have been the loss of O2, it could have been the hydrogen sulfide in the water too.

The combination of reduced DO and anoxic water together was I think the cause. HSB are extra sensitive to certain conditions such as low DO and maybe hydrogen sulfide.

Well it wasn't a HUGE fish kill, but it certainly hurt. I made a full lap around the pond and counted 30+ fish floating...which given that many may have sank and others have obviously already been eaten tells me I likely lost dozens more or even hundreds.

Predominately HSB was the main loss. 90% of the floaters are HSB. Found one LMB in the 2 lb range, a half dozen large BG and, oddly, 3 giant CC's.

I've got pics but the connection from home this morning is slow as molasses for some odd reason. Nothing really special, just dead fish.

Very depressing. I wouldn't care at all if all the CC's died off, and there's plenty of BG's and LMB's that I can spare some. But the HSB's are a real heartbreaker.

So given the size of this BOW (7+ acres, average depth of 16 ft, deepest is just under 30) would some sort of partial aeration have prevented or lessened this? I can't afford to aerate it completely...way out of my price range.

With CC being involved ( slightly better DO lower lethal limit)most species of pond fish would be effected. Hope for the best. Have you seen any alive ?

Yes seen many alive and working the shores. The only CC that were killed were very large ones...15 lbs and up.

This isn't a complete kill by any means. The pond is 7 acres and well stocked. I've taken hundreds of crappie out of it this year alone and I don't have a single crappie floater.

Unless it's not over yet?

Good that a bunch are still alive. May be good to do a seine survey if possible to judge the young species and numbers.

I'm wondering if the kill wasn't caused by a turnover, but instead due to rapid die-off of vegetation due to temp change? Maybe that's why the kill seems localized somewhat....the fish in or near the large vegetation were affected the most, but those out in 'clear' water were not?

Loss of DO in relatively calm conditions does expand or diffuse outward from the source. Wind and current will determine spread, and amount or degree of DO deterioration.