Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Help, sick channel cats

1/2 acre pond in east Texas. Stocked a few years ago and everything fine until now....

3 weeks ago noticed a large fish kill, still finding real lethargic swimmers today. The skin is peeling off from the dorsal fin back, some the whole tail is covered. They also have a brown goo covering the areas.

Pond has a well that flows in a few hours a day through a fountain head for aeration. We feed twice a day floating food from tractor supply. No catfish are coming up anymore to eat. Minnows in the pond seem fine.

Can’t seem to get pictures to upload from my iPhone, any suggestions? Says file type is blocked

Catfish, especially when fed, are notorious for overcrowding & eventually ruining the water quality of small ponds. Even aeration and some extra water might not be able to overcome this problem indefinitely. Have you been harvesting them? How many are there?

As an immediate response, I would stop feeding and I would seine the pond at the soonest possible opportunity. I would remove the most affected. I would return no more than 1/2 the seine haul by weight or 150 lbs which ever is greater. I might do two hauls. If your standing weight is less than 150 lbs, they will recover on their own but you must curtail feeding until things turn around.

If you would give a history of your pond, your goals, stocking rate(s), catfish reproduction, feeding rates, harvest practices, etc. , then I could better help with ideas to help possibly prevent this from happening again. Generally, catfish are resistant to disease and wounds heal rapidly ... but when densities are high, they are more susceptible to disease because they are weakened by other limiting factors. In other words, their immune system doesn't work properly when they are stressed. Hope you are able to resolve this soon, please keep posting if additional help is wanted.