Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Types of fish to choose Stocked 1.5 acre pond. 3 days later fish dead

I looked at your Youtube video of the dead fish. Your water was pretty muddy, actually highly muddy to be stocking fish into it, however fish can survive in very muddy water for relatively short periods; they do that all time in rivers and streams during flood events. To me it looks from the video that you have too high of a percentage of the stocked fish that died to be a poor quality of fish problem. However it is unknown it the stocking procedure was faulty.

First thing that I would do is a simple water quality test. Go get a bucket or or large tub of your pond water. Then get a few SMALL fish from your grandma's pond and put the fish into your container of pond water. Monitor it to see if they live or die in 3-7 days.

IMO I would not stock a lot of fish in highly turbid water like that in your pond. First I would let the water clear to at least 12" or better 16" before stocking fish. In pond water like you currently have, what will the newly stocked fish be expected to eat??. The water is too muddy for little if any plankton to grow in it. Phytoplankton needs to get sunlight for it to live, reproduce and thrive. The muddier water is from suspended clay and silt,,, the less phytoplankton that will grow in that water due to lack of sunlight penetration. Zooplankton needs phytoplankton to eat. Without both as adequate food the whole fish food chain suffers. Amount of that decrease is based of amount of plankton productivity. Plankton does not thrive in highly silty water. One cannot expect very many fish to grow very well or even survive very many months in continually highly muddy water similar to that currently in your pond.

From your past forum posts your goal was to raise trophy bass. IMO you will not be able to raise even medium sized bass in water continually that cloudy with suspended silt-clay. You want your water cloudiness due to or caused by PLANKTON not suspended clay-mud. Fish don't eat much in highly muddy water because there is not much present to eat. Plus certain types of very high concentrations of suspended silt or clay long term, can coat the gills of fish and be hard on the functioning of the gills for absorbing dissolved oxygen, thus suppressing the overall health of fish. The best quality fisheries and highest pounds of fish per acre thrive is water with clarity of 18" to 30" and that turbidity or cloudiness should be due to PLANKTON not suspended mud-clay. I would not spend good money to restock until you achieve a clarity of at least 12"-14".