Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Pond can't keep fish alive, next steps...

Hello all!

I posted a while back about an acre pond I have that had a bad watermeal issue for years and years... finally got rid of it last year thanks to the wonderful help of everyone on this forum. Had an entire year with no watermeal... it was awesome..

Back in March is started stocking the pond and creating the foodchain and it didn't have a lot of success.

I started with the sunfish, minnows and a few catfish and it appears nothing really lived. I went back to fish farm and explained my woes and was told to try just shiners and fatheads, see what happens.. tried that and in 2 months, no minnows, no sign of fish...

I got to thinking as winter approached and the pond lost water due to the lack of rain, smooth as a baby on the bottom..

Is it possible the watermeal being in the pond for so long created a situation with no plant life on the bottom, thus creating an oxygen problem or?? I'm not really versed on this area..

What I don't want to do is spend another $500 on fish for no result (which was last years bill).. not sure if I should introduce plant life or what? I have clear water now.. just need fish that stay.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated.. I know it's probably been asked a million times but I really appreciate you all!

First thing I would do is send a water sample off to Texas A&M.

Is this a new or old pond?

Has it been renovated recently?

Any problems with fish surviving before the watermeal problems was under control?

I have a hunch that those fish are in there....
Have you checked the max depth of the pond?

Pond was there 21 years ago when property was purchased. It hasn't had fish for the past 5 years at least, wasn't fished prior to then. It's always had watermeal for 7-8 months outta the year, so i figured that was the fish problem.

Max depth is about 10-12 ft in the middle. The only reason I don't think it has fish is there are no signs of minnows what so ever and no response to fish food.

I ran a water test on it prior to killing the watermeal with whitecap and everything turned out as follows:

Ph: between 7.5 and 8
Ammonia: between .25 and .50 (more towards .50)
Nitrate: 0
Phosphates: 1.0

Got any pics of the pond? Anyway to set up traps or even better drag a seine through a good section of it.. The fish are there you're just not seeing them..

Not a lot of photos, here are two, one with watermeal, one without (we duck hunt the tank too... it;s a fun duck spot!)





There maybe fish in it.. i just don't have high hopes as ive never seen any minnows... I should at least see minnows and have some response to fish food i figured..

I can try some of your suggestions when it warms up.. i have a little jon boat.

Buy a minnow trap or 2. Place them in various places in the pond, from shallow water to deeper water. Use the fish food as bait in the traps. Leave them in one place for at least 4 hrs before moving/checking them.

Only panic if you don't find anything in the traps.

I second sending the water to TAMU.

How regular was your feeding program.. Did you use a feeder or by hand? Needs to be very consistent same place same time every single day..

How could you even see the fish with that kind of turbidity?

Jaymz

I know it's hard to commit to spending money, but I'd strongly consider contacting Chris Steelman, Matt Rayl, or Bob Lusk to check on your pond. Turbidity concerns me too - you may have more going on there than the watermeal issue. Could be caused by fish [carp or bullhead] or by an ionic imbalance. Both can be solved. Consider calling them and asking them to stop by.

No alkalinity measurement?

The turbidity isn't always that high, it's a dammed up creek so after a rain it's pretty thick. It's normally fairly clear.

I have a lot of suggestions here so I'll get to work on them and report back. Thank you all.

Jaymz good advice here - I second the suggestion of setting some minnow traps and baiting them to assess your fishery population. Set some deeper, some more shallow - for a week or so and track your results. Baiting with bread or pet food will work. Unless you have some major water chemistry issues you will likely be surprised at what you discover.

Any ideas which test I should purchase from tamu? I guess the options are as follows with 5 being the most expensive and it looks like 2 is the most common:

1. Routine Analysis (R): (Conductivity, pH, Na, Ca, Mg, K, CO3, HCO3, SO4, Cl, P, B, Nitrate-N. Hardness, and SAR)

2. R + Metals: In addition to Routine Analysis includes: (Zn, Fe, Cu, and Mn)

3. R + Titrate of Drip Irrigation

4. R + Metals + Titrate for Drip Irrigation

5. R + Metals + Heavy metals and Fluoride (In addition to test number 2, includes As, Ba, Cr, Cd, F, Ni, Pb)

Watermeal and duckweed are indicative of hypereutrophic organically enriched conditions which often occur in a very old aging ponds and likely with 'loads' of organics in the sediments. My first guess as to the main problem is periodic low DO sags due to high biochemical oxygen demand. Low DOs are killing your fish. If it were mine and I wanted a good pond I would drain it and rebuild it, if not soon, then in the near future. Then you can make any improvements and modifications. If you don't rebuild expect these conditions to continue to go 'down hill' due to the natural pond aging process called succession due to eutrophication. Inflowing streams have big impacts pro and con on ponds. Quality of water in the stream has a big affect on the aging process of the pond. IMO most stream inflow esp from agricultural inputs are 'bad' for keeping ponds 'youthful'.

Drain it, and dredge it out and then nail it with Potassium Permanganate!

Unfortunately, this sounds about right... I'm also downstream from a dairy with loads of cattle.

Will airation help if DO is the issue?

its expensive and likely not worth it for the size of the tank... it's not close to any power source.

ill start with the tests, minnow traps, etc.

id love to drain, dredge and build it out to a larger tank actually.. still expensive but better return I would guess.

is that a duck blind in the back of the one pick??

and what sort of ducks do you get??

tank holds all kinds.. mallards, sprigs, grayducks, lots of shovelers and ringers.

couple of weeks ago shot my first wood ducks off it.. 4 of em..

first time anyone has seen woodies out there.. so it was kind of special.

Consider building a catch pond/catch wetland. It will slow down the water, allowing it to clear, and vegetation will help remove a lot of the excess nutrients prior to entering your pond.

If you're downstream from a dairy I would have the water tested for bacteria and other nasties. I wouldn't drink it or wade in it.

Back to my comments above, your pond being down stream from a dairy is one of the big reasons not to have a stream entering the pond. Lots of stuff can enter or be put in the stream that you have no control of.

If you dredge, also have the stream re-directed around it if possible.

Try to snag runoff from other sources or rely on water flowing through a good batch of soil as a filter.

There is a beautiful pond near me with a small stream nearby that a person would think as an ideal water source to keep it topped off, but instead they re-directed the stream around it. Fortunately there is plenty of ground water, being in the same basin, to keep it topped off. This pond is the envy of the area, except right near the road.

10 years old now, and pristine as the day it was dug. I have seen the stream flooded many times with no ill-effect on the pond.