Thanks so much for your kind support and info. We had a compressor pump running 24/7 with a good quality bottom diffuser which was set in about 6-7' of water. The hole in the ice was small because, the pump probably wasn't strong enough to make a bigger one. It was so freakin cold here for days on end.
Ditto with what Theo said.
It should have made a bigger hole even in the "freakin' cold" weather of Ohio this winter.
Now Canada I can understand but not Ohio. I'm thinking it may have been undersized or there was some other problem. If it was undersized or not producing enough flow for some other reason, it may have allowed oxygen robbing muck to build up over the years due to less than adequate destratification. And it may not have exposed enough of your pond water to sufficiently prevent winterkill.
I have a 1/8th hp compressor for winter and it makes an opening 20 by 30 feet in the dead of winter. I'm actually going to move it closer to shore next winter as it stressed my caged fish somewhat. No problems in the pond however.
Today my husband installed the new Weathervane pump.
Do you mean rotary vane? If it's a 1/4 hp rotary vane it should have plenty of air flow possibly more than you need for a 1/4 acre pond. Not a problem most likely in summer, but I would move your diffuser closer to shore in 3 to 4 feet of water this time before ice up. Or put in an alternate line and diffuser to hook up for winter. If you have sufficient air flow during the other seasons it should not only eliminate an anoxic water layer, but subsequently keep oxygen eating sediments from building up that rob your pond of oxygen under the ice, that produce anoxic gases.
Our son rakes the pond ( edges ) and beyond about x3 a year. No we do not have a lot of muck on the bottom, nor rotting weeds.
Are you sure you don't have a build up of muck in the deepest water? With a stream running in, you would be amazed at how much silt and sediments you get that builds up on the bottom, and it if your pond truly is 15 feet at 1/4th acre you/ve got a steep sided bowl for a pond. With a steep sided pond all sediment will makes it's way to the deepest water where you can't see it. In some of our lakes here that are very deep (one over 100 feet deep) all the sediments slide down the steep slopes until they encounter a flatter bottom.
We have a Amur which does a good job on the weeds. I use Curtine in the summer for the algae. There are frogs, bullfrog tadpoles, turtles, snakes,(northern water snakes ) and dragonfly. The eco system was doing great.
The same species exist in shallow ponds and swamps but they can't support larger fish over the winter.
My son found another BG this morning which looked sickly. A small one with redness by its gills. I am not sure it is sickly because it was weak to begin with, and now fell victim to a virus.
Most likely bacterial, probably initially a water mold that started under the ice. Very common with winter stressed fish. Water molds (fungus) and bacteria are facaltative pathogens that are always present in a pond etc., but only cause problems when the fish is vunerable due to stress. Most of our native fish live below optimum temps in winter which means their immune systems are not running optimally either.
Or it is sickly because of some sort of pollutant in the creek water. We have a shut off in the creek, so when it storms we can shut it down. We also have a filter box in creek and in the box in the pond.
Some kind of pollutant is possible but 99.9 percent of fill kills are due to oxygen depletion/hydrogen sulfide build up under the ice. Coming out of winter if a fish kill has been observed that jumps to 100 percent! Typically if a water body is literally poisoned the fish die immediately. And poisoning rarely occurs in the winter. Also viruses usually cause quick fish kills and aren't active in really cold water. Bacterial infections are usually fairly slow compared to this taking a few fish at a time. Most likely your morbidity problem will take it's course and be over soon. Most of the fish that will die have probably done by now with most of them having expired under the ice.
I would like to get some fathead minnows from Jones Fish Farm, next weekend, but not sure if I should do this just yet.
It shouldn't be a problem now if your problem was oxygen depletion. Personally I'd wait and take an assessment of the damage first. I'm also not a big proponent of stocking fatheads unless it's a beginning fishery or they are able to reproduce and hide enough to sustain a population.
Our pond is 9yrs old, and the joy of my life. Destresses one just to sit by the water, especially after a long work day - in health care.
I know the feeling. Been there done that although I've never had a full fledged fish kill. However 9 years is plenty of time to have a pond build up oxygen robbing sendiments to a fish kill.
If it was me I'd wait until sustained temps in the 70's and do some fishing to determine the extent of your losses. If you have a good diffuser/compressor system going I'd run it 24/7 to keep the pond destratified and the oxygen levels healthy from top to bottom to get the benefical bateria working on the sediment.
Then decide from your fish population assessment what you want to do and what your goals are. If you don't have many fish left to speak of, get several dozen fatheads from a local baitstore and stock them. You'll have thousands by the middle of the summer.
Restock gamefish this fall or next spring?
I'm hoping we can get some input from others here especially the aeration experts. Theo has pretty much said the same thing I did but more succinctly.
