Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations The catfish are dead????

A couple of days ago there were 6 cats floating belly up. The pond is 3 years old, and the cc have been in there for 2 years, and have grown from 4" to about 8". Every thing else seems fine. The day they died, the rest of the cc schooled at the surface. The next day things were back to normal, any thoughts?????
Thanks Mac

Lilmac, not an expert by any means, but I have to wonder about only 4 to 8 inch growth in 2 yrs. They should be well over a pound by now. Do you feed them, or is there plenty of forage? Is the pond fertile? Schooling at the surface could be a sign of low oxygen. If the cats were there I am wondering why other fish werent on top. Tell us about your pond and management.

How big is your pond? How many were stocked? Do you feed? Do you harvest any? Your fish should be 16" and 3 pounds after two years. I would guess they starved to death or were so overcrowded that ammonia killed them.

I do feed the fish. When I built the pond, I gouged out, and damed a seasonal creek. It is 1/2 - 3/4 acre, and 13' deep. I threw in some cedar trees, and fathead minnows. After the minnows spawned I introduced bluegill, when they spawned I added the catfish. The bg came to eat right away, but I did not notice the cc for about a year. I thought that they went over the spillway, I tried hook and line, minnow trap, even cast net, nothing but fh & bg then one day there they were??
My first thought was O2 but the cc would be the last to die. As an afterthought I added some largmouth bass last year. They dont come to eat, but I have not seen any floating either. So ?????
Mac

sorry PondsForFun, I was wrighting as you were responding.
I do not harvest
5-6 lbs. fathead
30 bluegill
25 catfish
25 bass

It's not surprising when LMB don't take feed. Unless feed trained prior to stocking, it's a rare Bass that prefers pellets to a forage fish eating pellets.

We know the size of your pond now. How many CC did you stock?

The stock rate of the cc was 25

How the heck did I miss that by 24 minutes?

4" to 8" growth seems awful slow for those numbers over 2 years. Someone with a fresh mind (in the morning, maybe) see if you can think what might be responsible. My brain's running on fumes.

Mac,

Couple of questions and then a thought. Your post mentions a seasonal creek that feeds the pond. Is this creek a result of runoff or is it an outlet from another water body? Did you notice any fish in the creek? Is the water in your pond cloudy/coffee brown? Where did you get the fish that were stocked?

Here is my thought, one which may be way off base, but I'll throw it out all the same. I have a similar situation here with intermittent streams feeding my two ponds. I have never stocked bullheads but they somehow showed up in my big pond which is now 10 years old. The bullheads we catch average 8-10" but I'm not sure how long they have been in the pond. This leads me to my last question, are you sure your CC are in fact CC? Adding a couple of posts for your review.

http://www.pondboss.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001063

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000127;p=2

lilmac :

You have ask one of the hardest questions to answer "what killed the fish" . Stress is often a factor. From Aquanic

"Conditions favorable for disease outbreaks require a host, such as the fish, a disease organism such as a parasite and a stress such as low dissolved oxygen. Common stress factors are rough handling, water temperature changes, low oxygen, water quality changes, poor nutrition and fish crowding. "


Are there any CC left ? Are you sure of their age (could these be offspring of the original stockers) ? Here is a link to SRAC's fact sheet listing of diseases. Good luck and let us know what happens.


http://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm?catid=26

And another thread wrt the subject.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000295;p=1#000000

Thank you guys, you have given me much to ponder The creek is dry exept for rian runoff, and ther
are no other ponds above it, and the water is green. The cc came from Dunns hatchery in AR. I have watched them every day for the past year and they are not offspring. The weather was verry warm, but I don't think that the water temp. would have changed enough to kill them.
So desease or organisam maby, but why just stop a 6 cc, and no othe fish. I would think that the cats would be the tuffest ones in there. There are 20 cc left, and they seem fine

lilmac, what you have described sounds like a very temporary water quality problem. Sounds like what happens immediately after a heavy rain, with hail. Two things can happen in that event. One, temperature drops fast, stressing fish, especially catfish. Two, if the pond had been static, with the same water for a long period of time, rainfall "freshens" the water. Even though rain is good, it can have a dramatic impact on water which has been sitting on top of mineral-laden soils for a long period of time.
Whatever it is has likely ceased being a problem.