Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding They've left the beds and quit feeding

A few days back I posted a thread under the fertilization section regarding having to use my outboard to circulate the pond due to excessive surface temp (99 degrees).

Prior to this, my visibility had extended to over 4 feet, but I still had good color. Both BG & GSF were on beds and at feeding time, there were good numbers of panfish from fry up to 6-7 inches, along with FHM, Mosquitofish and a few BHC.

After circulating the pond, my visibility was immediately reduced to about a foot and the surface temp was reduced to 88.

I haven't had to use the outbord for two days, thanks to cloudy skies and some much needed rain. I've been tracking temp and PH daily and they've been staying in the 80s and 70s respectively. Visibility has now moved to 18 inches. However, every bed that I can see is now empty and when I throw feed hardly anything is coming to get it.

Was my circulating the pond the cause for these changes?

Mike, I've been waiting for someone a lot more knowledgeable to speak up, but they haven't yet.

I have no idea if what you did had this effect, but so long as you don't have a fish kill or fish sucking for air desperately at the surface, likely the harm (if any) is temporary. 99 degree water risks permanent damage, in my view.

But I admit to just being a pond owner, not a fisheries biologist, so maybe I've got it wrong! If so I hope they will correct me so both of us can learn.

They're looking for Oxygen, mine did the same thing but unfortunately never found enough

It could be that they're deprived of 02, but I haven't seen any of the tells to indicate that. Just the opposite actually. When I walk out to the pond, the shoreline is teaming with yoy and fry. Natural feeding seems to have picked up slightly as I see fish breaking water and swirling the surface. I have found one or two floaters, but from what I have read and understand, that's not uncommon. Especially with the water getting as warm as it did.

I'm hoping the GSF were just done as they've been bedding over a month, and I hope the BG will spawn again eventually if they hold true to their nature. It's really the pellet feeding that has me puzzled the most. I had a couple hundred fish not counting those too small to ID feeding before I had to take action. Now theres barely a dozen. If it is O2 depletion, I would think I'd have fish belly up everywhere or gulping air. I've not seen that.

Without a complete DO profile there is no way to determine exactly what effect moving deep-water to the surface might have been in this case. I would suggest that you use emergency aeration like that only to add DO to the top 2/3 feet of the water column. Very low DO is not good for fish eggs or fish. Neither are fast temp changes.

Thanks for keeping my feet on the ground ewest, I was aware of the need for O2 for egg maturization, but that had slipped my mind.

I think it was more of a temp change issue than O2, tho. Simply because I haven't seen any sign of fish smothering. The surface temp at 4:00 today is back up to 94, but the fish fed better than they have in days and a few GSF have returned to the shoreline nests. Dang they like to get shallow.

Being that my water is darker now, with less visibility, I'm not quite as concerned as when the visibility was pushing 48". With that much UV penetration I got worried that they may be getting crowded into an ever shrinking layer of good water, both temp and O2 wise.

Somewhere down the road, there's a DO meter in my future, but an aerator has priority....after the honey do's naturally. Right now, I'm flying blind as to just how deep my thermocline is. I'm hoping around 6 feet, but I have no way of being certain. Wish I still had my old combo-selector. It had a probe that could be lowered and you could measure PH, temp and light penetration as it would supposedly tell you which colors were most visible at that depth. It had a white cap on the probe that served as a visibility gauge too. A significant change in temp is where the thermocline should be. Now you have to buy something to do each one.

Anyway...If I do decide to use the outboard again, it'll stay trimmed shallow and just chop up the surface so I'm not pulling up dead water, just to be safe. If it were possible, I'd do it in the mornings, since that would be the best time to add O2, but I'm off to work long before sunrise.