Hi,
My problem is that I have been finding a dead bream almost every other day since the start of July. The dead bream are usually 4 to 5 inches in length. I haven�t seen any visible signs of a problem on the dead ones. I did observe one swimming close to the surface, like he was spaced out one day, he was floating the next. When I was watching him, he wasn�t gulping for air, just swimming real slowly. No catfish or minnows have been found dead.

My pond is about a year old it is 1/4 acre in size and approximately 8 ft. deep since we have had no rain in a while. Our water source is run-off. It was initially stocked in November of 2004 with 300 Hybrid Bream (from a local South Georgia Fish Farm, 50 Channel Catfish and 5,000 minnows. I put a bottom � hp .air diffuser in the pond about March of 2005 and have run it 24/7. The water is an olive green with clarity of about 8 inches. We broadcast about 200 lbs of agriculture lime last winter into the pond. The fish are fed floating pellets once a day, my wife also insist on giving them their �ice-cream� which is bread from the day old bread store. The bream don�t seem to be eating like they were; they slowed down since July of this year. The bream seemed to have spawned heavily this summer. We were supposed to have added about 15 bass this spring, and I know I messed up, but for various reasons at the time we didn�t. We caught and put on the dinner table this summer about 5 catfish and 15 bream. When they were a bit smaller, we did some catch and release.

I tried to talk to someone from the State and get help but all I got was a run-around. Then I sent my water off to the hatchery were the fish were bought. When I called for the results, I was asked if I aerated and how. After I told him we were using a bottom diffuser, he said that it was the cause of my fish getting sick and not the water chemistry. He said I needed to come get his floating and expensive aerator PDQ or they would all be dead. He explained that I was stirring up the �septic tank� at the bottom and that was the problem. I all ever got out of him about my water chemistry was that my PH and alkalinity were low, but no numbers. Now I really don�t know what to do. I know a large predator needs to be added but other than that, I�m confused. I thought I had made an informed decision on the bottom aerator. Any help will be very much appreciated. I have really enjoyed the forum and have learned alot.

Thank you,
Lewis and Laurelee

Lewis Wilkerson