As a follow up to this thread, I still haven't seen my normal number of Bluegill in the pond. With that said, the Catfish are absolutely decimating the feed (Not a problem for me, just an observation). I decided to go ahead and test the water a few times earlier this week and late last week and everything came back normal per the testing kit. PH, Ammonia, Nitrate and Phosphate were all in line. I tested different places in the pond over different days just to be sure.
I would assume it is unlikely that I had a fish kill as the larger catfish all seem to be alive and well. I would think that if there was an oxygen issue, the larger fish would die first as they require more oxygen than the smaller fish.
As previously mentioned, I dont have a high level of clarity in my pond so it is possible the BG are all a couple of feet down and I just cant see them. I try to observe the pond at least for 1 of my feedings per day (evening feeding) and they dont appear to be coming to the feed area in numbers. With that said, I dont have enough experience to know if they are potentially shying away because of the catfish and eating feed once it later sinks or drifts further away.
Water temperature is definitely about 70 degrees at this point.
I also am not seeing the "huge clouds" of FHM that I am told I should be seeing at this point either. I stocked roughly 50lbs of FHM in Fall of 2022 and it is my understanding that they should be spawning already and "covering" my pond. I have seen a few FHM here and there, but nothing of note.
The next full moon is this weekend. From my reading, BG like to spawn during a full moon so I plan to keep an eye out over the next week or 2.
Its likely there is nothing wrong at all and I am just not seeing the BG as they are deeper than the visibility of my pond. However, from seeing 100s of BG in the shallows of my pond to seeing a couple per week, it is a cause for concern for me.
As a side note, I will be stocking some Golden Shiners this week per Bill Codys recommendation. 5lbs of 5in Brooders. I also decided to take the gamble and see if PK (Ghost) Shrimp will survive in my pond. From my reading, a couple of people have had great success with them while others have them die off pretty quickly. I was willing to spend the few hundred dollars to give it a shot. I will be sure to report back. I don`t expect to receive the PK Shrimp for about 2 more weeks.
Originally I was going to wait to see how things developed with my non visible BG, however after testing the water and the results coming back as normal, I figure there is no real reason to wait and I will just keep an eye out for the BG.
