Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Fish are struggling?

Well I put off getting an aerator installed and it looks like its catching up to me. My trout are dying off and now it looks like my young bass are struggling for oxygen as well. There seems to be a lot of surface breathing.

I'm getting an aeration system setup as soon as it gets shipped, but was wondering if there was any sort of short term quick fix I could try to get the oxygen levels up until the aerator gets installed. I have well water so I knew my oxygen was low and should have never let it get this far. But with this heat wave we just got it really ballooned on me and turned bad pretty quick. Thanks for any advice

I've heard of backing boat into water and running motor. Also heard of baking brush hog into water. Never tried either.

bigharge,

How big is your pond? If it's like an acre or so I have even hooked up a trolling motor and put it on high to circulate the water some. Right now it would seem you need anything. As said above if you have a small 10 hp motor or something put it in there and stir that water up. It may help enough till your system gets there? If that's what you problem is???

Good Luck
RC

Yeah, pond is only 1/3 of an acre. All the trout have quit feeding and stay in about a foot of water. The smal. 5-6" LMB are starting to show up in the shallows now and across the tank on the surface. Only lost 1 LMB so far but losing a trout or 2 a day now. Luckily haven't seen any cnbg, cats, or hsb struggling yet but sure it's only a matter of time. I'm hoping the oxygen is the only real issue. Once I get it installed ill let it run awhile and then send a sample off to check for other problems.

We just bought the place this year so I'm still learning as I go. I'm not a small guy, was considering jumping in and swimming some laps, figured that would get the water moving, lol

Appreciate any other insight

What's your water temps? I see you're in Texas and you're talking trout, so maybe they're just dying off from the warmer temps which is normal.

No I kind of thought that at first but the other fish are showing signs now. I just pulled another trout and LMB. My 5 yr old is at least getting some net practice. Not sure on exact water temp though, I'll check soon

Can you add water from your well to at least get the pond water circulating? Even a garden hose with a high pressure nozzle aimed across the surface would help if you are having a dissolved oxygen sag.

Was it cloudy, calm (no wind), and overcast when this started?

Yeah I've got pumps running on both sides, ill try spraying though. No, but we had a heat wave where we got up to 85-90 this week and actually a few calm wind days for out here. I just kind of assumed oxygen by the way they are acting the ones struggling stay in shallow top water and you can see them gasping. Winds blowing hard tonight and hopefully most of the good fish will hang in there. Thankfully all the main fish are smaller. Thanks again

The wind will help at lot with getting the surface water to circulate. Let us know how it turns out.

Hypoxia isn't the only thing that will cause fish to pipe on the surface. Unionized ammonia and nitrites will also do it. Been there done that with a small pond that had too many fish in it, and it paralleled higher water temps due to the fact that unionized ammonia levels go up with higher temps. They were yellow perch and bluegills in a holding pond.

Trout are much more sensitive to unionized ammonia and nitrites than other species.

Ammonia and nitrites can be easily tested for with an aquarium test kit. You can determine unionized ammonia by matching total ammonia to ph and temperature. With trout any unionized ammonia levels above 0.020 ppm are detrimental.

Ok, I should be able to grab a kit at the pet store, thanks for the advice. Ill check back once I get the results

And this pond is a little overstocked so a few less fish aren't gonna hurt it, just need to start taking the right steps to make it healthy

But if it's ammonia you risk doing permanent gill damage to the survivors or worse yet losing them all.

Amazon has a good bargain on API test kits.

Your best bet if you think it's ammonia is to run in fresh water ASAP and flush out the old water. That can buy your time to reduce the fish population.

BTW nitrates can also be detrimental to trout but other species tolerate them well.

Yeah, the LMB seem to be the only other fish struggling. Hoping its just oxygen and an aerator will clear it up

Ok, looks the trout are all gone, fished the last 4-5 out this afternoon. Lost 4 more LMB as well. I went and got an API test kit and here are the results I got. Not sure how accurate.

GH - 180
KH - 80+
pH - 7.5+
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 20

Have no idea what that means. Lol. I knew my water was hard, that's about it. Still waiting to get the aerator. Prob going to be next week before it gets here. Still seeing some LMB and even a few cnbg in the real shallow spots, they don't seem like they are gasping, but hanging shallow.

Where's ammonia? NH4 and NH3?

All I see there is general hardness (GH), and carbonate hardness(KH), PH, nitrites (N02) and nitrates (N03).

Ammonia is what you may be having a problem with. If not and it's not oxygen you're dealing with some form of contamination as in pesticides or herbicides.

Ok, I don't think this cheap little kit measures ammonia. Ill look for one.

Are you able to add any freshwater?

If you don't see what you think is adequate at online places like Amazon.com, go to your local pet store, including places like PetSmart, Petco, etc. The young people who work at these places are generally fantastic, and quite often very committed and experienced in caring for a wide variety of critters, including fish.

They should be able to lead you to a good water testing kit for less than $30. Such kits last me two to three seasons, and are invaluable. They are extremely easy to use, and unless you are color blind (like my FIL and youngest son), they will tell you a lot about your water with very little effort.

I just wish somebody made a Dissolved Oxygen (DO) measurement system in these price ranges.

Thanks, will do that tomorrow. I've been adding fresh water daily, have to keep the pond level, but it's only the same hard well water.

When you are adding the well water do you have the discharge raised above the water line so it splashes and helps add oxygen to it? If you have it entering the pond under the surface you are only adding water with no oxygen.

I even have gone so far as to have the well water discharge into a container of some sort so it bubbles around and then over flows or have a drain pipe and let that splash into the pond. This way it gets exposed to the air twice before entering the pond. I have this sytem on my little crayfish pond. I learned the hard way in the begining, added the well water directly via hose under the water line. All died with in no time of no oxygen.

Hi Bigharge ~ Churn up the surface water as much as possible. When you get the aeration system, you have to start it up gradually, so it won't be an immediate fix (if it is a bottom diffused system). If you still feel like there are fish to save, perhaps locate the diffuser in shallow water to get DO levels up quicker. Then, gradually move it to deeper water.

Yeah, the water pipe sits above the water line, some of this fish enjoy sitting there for that reason. Yes it is a vertex diffuser, tod at cleanpondshas been working with me and I think we have a good plan to help the oxygen.

Had another LMB floating this morning along with a HSB, not fun.

We have a paddle boat, I've been taking it out every chance hoping to churn the water a little, lol. Trying all steps at this point.

Good luck!! Once you get past this event you shouldn't have to worry in the future!

I sure hope so, had a CC, Hsb, a couple LMB, and even a few red ears floating.

Aerator won't be here till mid week, I've got two hoses going and a sprinkler spraying water over it. Any other ideas for some relief till I get it? Can ice help?

They also seem to have a white slime on them?