Pond Boss Forums INTRO New Forum Member Introduction Yellow Perch Fungus Issue?

Hello everybody, my name is Austin Bennett and I am new to Pond Boss! I am a fisheries biologist for Herman Brothers Lake Management in central Illinois. Nate Herman just opened my eyes to the pond boss forum world (and got me hooked on the magazine subscription!!) and am absolutely in awe of how cool this whole thing is! So I figured I'd start my first few days off with a question for you all to see if anyone has had similar experiences...

Last fall, we stocked yellow perch in a small 1/3 acre pond that was built deep simply for yellow perch, smallmouth bass, and red ear with the occasional walleye for bonus fish. We stocked YP from three different locations (northern Minnesota, Ohio, and Illinois) and so far this summer the pond has been doing great besides the small issue of losing a few fish every week. There have been around 3-5 dead every week on average for a little over a month now. With some of those dead perch we are noticing some yellow fungus appearing on the gills of them. The SMB are doing AMAZING, and the RESF alike. Obviously here in central Illinois, the water is heating up quite a bit. This is most definitely putting a little extra stress on the YP along with it just being a new body of water overall. We have some assumptions of what may be happening, but I would like to throw that out there just to see if anyone has had similar experiences?? I look forward to hearing from you all who might be able to help paint the picture for this lake a little more clearly.

I'm just going to follow along. I haven't seen my pond in a while, and it'll be a week or so before I can go up and check it out. This is close to, if not the hottest stretch of weather I've had since my YP were stocked. I haven't lost any fish yet, but who knows what's going on right now. It's supposed to be near 100 the next three days.

Some questions:
1. How deep is the pond?
2. We assume it has bottom aeration? How long does it run per day?
3. What are the surface and bottom temps within 6" of the bottom?
4. What lengths are the YP that are dying?

1. The pond is 18 feet deep with farily steep banks. There is a good amount of latoral zone for spawning and such on one side.
2. The pond does not have a lake bottom aeration YET. We are installing one in the spring,
3. I can check those temps and put that on here tomorrow.
4. The majority of the YP that are dying are the large size (8" avg) There have been some smaller (6") YP dying, but not commonly.

I am fairly confident that simply adding an aeration system will help the stress level of the YP, but not sure if it will "fix" the problem fully.

Jeezz where are our manners! Welcome to The forum. Good folks here but sometimes they forget to welcome the new gang to the party.
Yellow perch are a northern thang so I can't help ya other than welcome ya.

Austin, welcome to the forum.

My condolences having to work with Nate and the guys. LOL

If you can, get O2 readings along with the temps. That may help point out some things. Also, what is the water clarity?

Welcome.. new guy here, but still polite to say welcome Will be interesting to learn how this one pans out.

Russ

Man o man, you guys are making me feel horrible. Austin, sorry about my rude behavior. I don't know what came over me. Welcome to the forum! Any guy from central Illinois has got to be sharp. By the way, I'm just across the river in Missouri.
I'm still looking forward to following along on this thread.
Hopefully my YP are doing all right in this heat.. As I haven't got my aeration in yet. Looking at solar, but the $7,000 price tag is holding me back.
Jeff

I will get some readings today. The water clarity is actually really great especially for a new pond. I'll check that and get an accurate reading but I'd say close to 3-4 ft.

Also, the client has treated part of the pond with copper sulfate powder earlier this year.. I have had him stop treating ever since the issue. So I could also see where low oxygen could play a part in this mystery.

Jeff, run grid based. Even if you just pay someone $2,000 to physically lay the poly pipe thru the woods and manually trench it in 6"-10" deep you will be better off and money ahead than a solar system.

Thanks Scott. I'll look into finding someone to dig the trench, lay the pipe, and bury it. We've talked about it before, what dia pipe do I need for 900' ?
Thx
And 6-10" deep is enough? I was thinking a couple of feet..

PM sent.

You can use the cheapest available poly 3/4" at Home Depot you can get in 100' sections. If it heads down-slope towards the pond away from the pump so condensation can drain, you don't have to go more than a few inches deep. Using a ditch witch will help get it deeper, which is preferable to lessen the temperature swings.

Make sure and use stainless clamps, and in my case I am putting in an occasional omega shape in the line for expansion and contraction so temperature changes don't pull the fittings loose. In addition, being able to glue/weld the seams would be even better.

I hope to do this myself this fall, finance committee permitting (denied this spring thanks to car problems). Also it has been extraordinarily wet this year, and working the ground is really messy so a few projects had to be put off.

Thanks. I've got to go through a pretty deep ravine about half way to the pond. The good news is, I cleared a road from barn to pond for a short cut. I'll just have to follow that road when sinking the pipe. Sorry for the thread hyjack...