Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Lots of dead 2-3 sunfish

Seeing lots of dead sunfish all within the same size class on a daily basis. I'm noticing about 3-10 new dead fish daily around the outside of the pond. I have all size classes of sunfish from fry, 1", 2, 3 and up to maybe 8/9" but only seeing that ~3" class floating around the edge.

Water has been down a little and its been warm but get plenty of wind across the pond for aeration.

I did see one sunfish in the shallow barely swimming and upon closer inspection it was missing an eye so I tossed it out. By the time I see these dead fish the eyes are usually missing but sometimes not.


1/2 acre, no predators, just baitfish so far.

Still alive but missing an eye, and the dead ones are usually missing their eyes???

That's odd to say the least.

Yeah all the ones that have been dead a little bit (lost their color) are missing eyes. Enough color that I can hardly tell that they are sunfish, at least I think they are. I'll get a picture.

Could be a fungus?

I think most of the time a fungus on BG is opportunistic. Meaning it occurs when the fish have already been subjected to a stressor.

Despite the wind, your oxygen levels may be low. Very warm water does not hold much dissolved oxygen.

I was thinking fungus or virus. I thought it was strange to have all the same size of dead ones. I've attached a pic.

Last I checked the water is it was under 90 at the very top, much cooler a few feet down.

Pond often has ripples across from the wind and lack of closeby trees and I dont think it has too much biomass from what I can see.

disease attacks the weak, generally. It is possible you had a massive year class last year and they are down on food items in the right size. I'm not saying they are starving but possibly have a weakened immune system-possibly.

First year owning the pond so perhaps this is even typical, I dont know. It was entirely unmanaged likely for decades.

No shortage of sunfish or shiners so I'm not worried about losing a few dozen.

Any chance a Great Blue heron is taking them out and their eye? Normally the GBH will punch holes in them and leave them in our pond.

They all so could have died a long time ago and have just enough bacteria now to float up to the surface.

Cheers Don.

I did see that bugger trying to catch fish, along with some ringneck looking bird dive bombing. I didn't see any damage to the fish that would indicate that they were hit by the GBH though.

My pond pawtrol usually keeps the birds away.

When I see dead minnows with eyes missing, to me that means that the fish that are alive are hungry - pecking at the corpse, the softest part are the eyes.