Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations fish death

Last summer I stocked my 2/3 acre pond with yellow perch, hybrid bluegill, and largemouth bass. It is 10-16 feet deep. All of the fish did well all summer. I aerated all winter. This spring I am finding a lot of dead fish. The fingerling bass I planted are now 10" plus fish that are floating up now and then and look to have been dead for a long time. My bluegill are around 5" or so and are dying now. I find a couple every day or so and some of them are even still partly alive. There are some red sores on the sides of some of them that are faint. I have no idea how the perch are as we rarely ever saw them anyway.

I have pulled out dead fish that total about 10% of the stocked rate.

Where do I start? This pond is my baby and it is terrible to just watch the fish die.

Brian

I can't tell by your registration information where you are located, but it sounds like you had a classic case of winter kill do to suffocation. What fish that did not die were stressed and now being attacked by bacteria as the water warms.The water has not warmed up enough for the optimum immune system response but the bacteria are lined up like hogs at a trough. The reddened area sounds like an aeromonas bacteria that is umbiqutous to most waters.When fish are healthy it does now harm. As with any fish disease it's when fish are stressed that they come down with problems. This will take it's course, and depending on how bad it is you may have to restock.

To prevent this next spring you need aeration in the winter. I aerate my ponds 24/7 365 days a year, but run a smaller compressor and separate airline to a diffuser in less than 6 feet of water to leave some water open, but not enough to mix the entire water column.

I came through this winter fine and probably feed up to 250 pounds of largemouths, another 100 pounds of bluegills, about 70 pounds of yellow perch, and another 70 lbs of smallmouth bass all in a .62 acre pond. (I raise to sell to taxidermists) See http://www.ligtel.com/~jjbaird/bairdfish2.htm

What size is your pond and what kind of average depth do you have?

I also snowblow the snow off my pond in winter.

Whoops sorry! I now see your pond is 2/3's of an acre and up to 16 feet deep. (I wish one could see the post at the same time one replies!)

In the least you need to snowblow the snow off your pond to allow photosythesis and to prevent a aquatic plant die off that uses oxygen.

If you are serious you should invest in an aeration system that uses a diffuser connected to an airline powered by a small compressor. I think you could get by with a 1.5 cfm compressor and the whole system shouldn't be more than $350.00. Electricity may be about $5.00 per month.

I would run an additional airline to the shallow end of the pond at about five feet and connec this up in the winter just before your ice forms. If you choose to run it in the summer (excellent for your pond and can prevent an early fall dieoff of fish) have an airline connected to a diffuser that goes out to the center of the pond. Or you could simply suspend your diffuser in winter a about 4 or 5 feet below the surface. Orange juice jugs work well for this. Don't use milk jugs as they detteriote to fast.

I did aerate all winter. I had open water all winter. We did have pretty thick ice but the hole got down to 20 ft in diameter or so. I have never heard of a D.O. problem with an aerator.

I welcome any ideas.

Brian

Brian,

Tell us how you did it and what kind of system you used. Aerating incorrectly in winter can almost be as bad as not aerating at all.

I had some losses and stressed fish my first severe winter when I aerated incorrectly. My mistake was to aerate in the center of the pond in the deepest water with a system that is almost too big for the pond. You can't mix too much in the summer but you can mix the water column too much in the winter. I use a 1/3 hp compressor that puts out 4.2 cfms in summer but back down to a .8 cfm compressor in winter. That one winter I had problems I was using the 4.2 cfm compressor with two diffusers in the deepest water. That was too much mixing for winter.

In winter your water gradually warms up the deeper you go to about 39 F. or a little more. Warmwater fish need this relatively warmer water in winter. and if you mix the water too well there is no warm water santuary and they become stressed.

Do you have a lot of aquatic weeds in the pond? Did you get deep snow on top of the thick ice? You may have had a die off of aquatic weeds resulting in decomposition that used too much oxygen.

I am using a 1/2 hp compressor with a very high flow bottom diffuser. It was installed by a local company. The diffuser is in the deepest hole that is in one corner of the pond at 16ft. There is a lot of area of the pond that is 10ft deep that is further away from the diffuser.

I found a few more 10"+ bass this past week that have been dead a long time that were fingerlings last spring.

I found a yellow perch today alive and well. That is the first fish I have seen alive this year.

I have very little aquatic plants and keep them cleaned out extremely well.

Brian

Cecil,

When you switch from 4.2 cfms (summertime)to .8 cfms (wintertime) are you using the same tubing system or do you have two seperate line systems. Just curious.

Russ

Brian,

If you had one species of fish dying, this would lead me to think a problem associated with a bacteria or fungus (all expert comments welcome here) but your posts indicate that you have a number of species floating. Have you had any water analysis testing done on your pond??

Russ

I have only had bluegill dying this spring, but am finding dead bass that have been dead a long time. I would love to have my water tested just to be safe. Do you have any good places to get it done?

Brian.I was wondering if at the time that you stocked the pond if you started with a forage base of any kind?I have seen this in ponds that are stocked all at one time without starting a forage base.The pond seems to do great all summer but after a long hard winter the food sources have been diminished and run out before the spawn can replenish them leaving the fish stressed and vulnerable to disease as posted.DOC

Brian,

1/2 horsepower it way to big for a pond your size at least in winter. In summer it won't hurt anything (except higher electricity bill than necessary) but in winter there is too much mixing even if it is off to the side. You were mixing and chilling the water this winter too much! I don't know who sized your compressor, but they either didn't know what they were doing or wanted to sell you more than you needed for more profit.

I will say it again. You need to run less air into water on one side that is under 6 feet. My .8 cfm still mixes better than I would like as it drops temps in the deeper water 2 degrees more than I would like. And thats a long ways from the center. You would be surprised as how far an underwater current can go.

As far as Russ' question about the tubing system I have a separate weighted airling and rubber diffuser set up for winter, and simply change the compressor, duck tape the ends of the summer airlines and hook up the winter airline to the small compressor. That way I don't have to move diffusers around which is a pain, and I don't kick up any possible hydrogen sulfide on the bottom which can be very toxic to fish.

Brian, I would guess anything your fish were stressed. Your larger fish will succumb first i.e your bass and larger bluegills.

To lake doctor we stocked 100 pounds of fatheads last fall . This was twice the suggested stocking rate but the previous year we had a bad minnow death.

To Cecil, my mistake I have a 1/4 horse compressor. My pond guy said he has not had any problems this winter.

We had a cormerant invation today and dead perch floated to the surface. This was the last species I had hope for. I think they shook them loose from the bottom.

What would kill all 3 species of fish. These are my babies. I do not know what to do.

Brian

Does anyone know of a source for a thermometer to measure the bottom water temp? After last years winter kill I would like to monitor water temp on the surface and on the bottom.

Any ideas?

Brian

You stocked a 2/3 acre pond with 100 lbs. of fatheads?

Most of the pond managers around here stock at 100lbs per acre. It was stocked last spring with 66lbs but a lot of minnows died in the first couple days and the fish cleaned out what was left quickly and they never had a chance to spawn. I had no minnows all summer. They offered to restock them in the fall dirt cheap. I went with 100lbs so if I had a die off I would still have enough to establish themselves. I realize most people on this sight stock much lighter just to last until the bluegill start to breed but a lot of ponds around here with a lot of stone piles and rocky shoreline never need restocking of the minnows.

Brian, I could put you in touch to have a biologist come out and take some temp and DO readings for you. I think that one of us is around your area.
Robert B fishmgr@hotmail.com

Thanks but I have no problems getting readings this time of year. I would think my DO would be no problem with the aerator running. What I would like to find is a temperature sensor I could rest on the bottom to monitor the temperature all winter. Sort of a weather station to keep an eye on things.