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.
Still alive but missing an eye, and the dead ones are usually missing their eyes???
That's odd to say the least.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
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.
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.
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.
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.