As the pond dries, at what point do the fish die?

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As the pond dries, at what point do the fish die? #23289 07/27/06 08:17 AM
Joined: Oct 2004 Posts: 23 Texas S scotjute Lunker
scotjute Lunker S Joined: Oct 2004 Posts: 23 Texas	Have an existing ~ 1/4 acre pond on property in central Texas I bought 2 years ago. Due to drought, it is down to about 2' depth now. The water is kept muddy due to cattle drinking. At what point do the fish start to die? Haven't noticed any dead ones floating yet, but that could be due to birds, etc. eating them. Same problem is occurring in nearby creek hole, but on a narrower scale. There the concentration of water snakes visibly increases as the creek hole shrinks. The pond was stocked with bream, fathead minnows, and bass. Creek has same as well as mudcats and who knows what. I had thought I would see dead fish, but haven't so far.

Re: As the pond dries, at what point do the fish die? #23290 07/27/06 08:32 AM
Joined: Mar 2004 Posts: 3,075 East Texas M Meadowlark Lunker
Meadowlark Lunker M Joined: Mar 2004 Posts: 3,075 East Texas	Scotjute, I had a 1/4 acre pond dry up or actually dry to just a very small puddle of water a few years ago. I also never noticed dead fish. Presumably natures clean-up crew including turtles, birds, and raccoons did their magic. The only fish that survived to that puddle of water stage were native BG...everything else was gone. In just a very small puddle of water, there were visible native BG. They are survivors.

Re: As the pond dries, at what point do the fish die? #23291 08/01/06 08:07 AM
Joined: Oct 2004 Posts: 23 Texas S scotjute Lunker
scotjute Lunker S Joined: Oct 2004 Posts: 23 Texas	One of two water holes on the creek is drying up. Its shrunk to 70'long, 10'wide 8-10" deep. Expect it to be gone completely in next 7 days. Took my dip net with 6' handle and 1/4" mesh down to see what was there. Every cast caught a handful of fish. All sizes of blue gill from almost too big for bait on down. Caught several baby cats 1-2" long, and possibly some green sunfish. There were about 8-9 snakes that were constantly in motion in the shallow water. Killed the 2 biggest ones, 1 came right at me. Bream were jumping out of water to avoid capture by me or the snakes. No sign of the 6 black bass I put in there last year.

Re: As the pond dries, at what point do the fish die? #23292 08/25/06 02:37 PM
Joined: Oct 2004 Posts: 23 Texas S scotjute Lunker
scotjute Lunker S Joined: Oct 2004 Posts: 23 Texas	The south creek hole finally dried up. At the very end (last 2") there were little bullhead catfish and little minnows. Looks like all the 1-2" Bream were gone by that time. Most of Bream appeared to be green sunfish or green sunfish hybrid. Pond also dried up. Just the little minnows left by the last 2-3" of water.