Pond Boss Forums AQUATIC VEGETATION Controlling unwanted plants Copper sulfate for fw control and catfish problem.

Ok I may have done it all wrong, I used copper sulfate for fa control and now I have 3 giant Ccs not looking so hot. My pond is .75 acres with a average depth of about four feet. I have sprayed liquid cs in small doses in the past, a gal at a time for surface fa and had no probs. his time I decided to he crystals and disputse them around the edges for the fa growi g subsurface. I broadcasted 15 lbs of crystals on Saturday afternoon. For the last 2 days I see 3 8-10 lb Ccs swimming close to the top and acting lethargic. I also found four dead mud cats that I didn't know we're In there. I have 200 small Ccs I just put in there a couple weeks ago and no sign of them, just these three big ones. Do they stand a chance, will they pull thru. How long will the cs stay in the water, I'm full of questions. Any input would be appreciated. What does the cs do to cats? Thanks in advance

It appears that you applied a whole-pond concentration of roughly 2 ppm in a single dose.
Bill Cody can better comment on cc's tolerance-threshold to copper sulfate. However, dosing the entire pond at 2 ppm in a single treatment sounds risky to me - depending on your pond's water-characteristics.
Refer to the Environmental Hazards on pg 2 of this SPECIMEN LABEL .

I didnt realize that copper sulfate and cutrine plus were two different chemicals. I do now. Sorry about the spelling in the first post i was out by the pond using my phone, fat thumbs - tiny keyboard.

Catfish are fairly sensitive to copper sulfate compared to other fish. More sensitive than catfish are suckers-minnows, Carp and then trout in that order. Less sensitive in increasing order are walleye, goldfish, yellow perch, sunfishes, and lastly, believe it or not, most tolerate are LMbass.

My 3 cats at the surface are still about the same and no more floaters. I hope they pull through.

Depending on fish location during Copper application and the method of application will determine initial fish's exposure to the CuSO4.

I sprinkled crystals around the edges

Supposedly CC will eat filamentous algae although I question how much and if they eat the algae or the bugs living in it. It is in the realm of possibility that the few CC that are "sick" ate some FA with copper sulfate in/on it????

Or they were rooting around in the pond bottom near the FA and sucked up some partially dissolved crystals.

as of today its been over a week and I had one cc about 10lbs die and less than 5 small ones 6" or so. I hope Im out of the woods now.