I’ve been a long time lurker, I have usually been able to find out what I needed to know by reading old discussions. I finally decided to become a member because I am currently experiencing a devastating fish kill event and would like to get some advice. I have a .75 to 1 acre pond that is probably at least 30 years old. I’ve lived here for 18 years and the pond was already well established, healthy, and full of bass and bluegill. I’ve managed it primarily for trophy bass during my ownership and it has been fantastic – my pride and joy, loved by my family and friends and our primary source of fishing recreation.
Overnight Wednesday morning 06/26/2019 we woke up to hundreds, likely even thousands, of dead fish. Everything seemed fine the evening before, I was actually walking around the pond that evening appreciating that the water was starting to clear up from the recent heavy rains and watching the fish swim around. I talked to our district’s DNR fish biologist about my situation and he seems pretty convinced that this is a water turnover event caused by the heavy rainfall. I think it is due to runoff from my neighboring farmers field or some other type of contamination. The farmer just sprayed his field with liquid manure (and maybe something else) days before this last large rainfall and I believe that is what has led to this large fish kill event. I’ve experienced minor fish kills over the years with this pond, but nothing has been like this – something is different about this time, but I’m not sure how to determine and what to do about it. The weather is not my neighbors fault, but I feel stuck with a bad situation.
I’ve been thinking about adding an aeration system to my pond for years, but the expense has always simply been too large for our budget to handle. This fish kill is looking like it’s going to totally wipe out my fish population at this point, so I think it’s time to make an aeration system work somehow – unfortunately too late to save my fish. From my understanding of pond construction, I really shouldn’t need aeration – my pond is constructed just right for its intended usage – fish. Most of the pond is about 5-6ft deep with the deepest area being about 8-10ft deep. By my understanding, the shallow construction should prevent stratification and large turnover events – it has certainly worked well to this point. It is also my understanding that aeration is less effective in shallow ponds like mine. Further, I’ve read that aeration can actually cause turnover and fish kills since the purpose of aeration is to circulate the water and prevent stratification. Those are additional reasons that I have put it off as not necessarily that important for my pond.
We spent all evening yesterday removing as many of the dead fish as we could. We nearly filled the dump bed on my ATV and this morning there were nearly just as many more. Do you think this is just the first time in 18 years that my pond has experienced this extreme of a turnover event and that is the likely cause? We have had plenty of similar large rainfall events over the years and not had this happen. Previous fish kills that were obviously from low dissolved oxygen events primarily effected only a few of the large fish while this event is effecting everything – all types of fish of all sizes. Do you think my best reaction is to get an aeration system installed as soon as possible? I am a design engineer by trade, so I will likely piece together my own system to save money. Any other recommendations or observations?
