The all gators were removed in '23. The excessive turtle herd was culled in '24 with enough left to do the routine garbage removal.

FishinRod has the answer, I believe: The weather caused the water in the pond to "turn over"? A low oxygen event is almost always more fatal to the large fish compared to the smaller fish. I never consider this!

We had a stretch of cold weather from about 12 Jan till 25 Jan this period included a heavy rain storm 4-6". First floater seen 27 Jan with little decomposition, next 6 dead Tilapia about 30 Jan, & the last 13 on the 4 of Feb. Each new group was more consistently decomposed than the previous & leads me to believe they all died about the same time; went to the bottom & later decomposition gases brought them to the surface. They varied in length from 12" to 22". No small tilapia have been seen nor CNBG.

A low oxygen event is almost always more fatal to the large fish compared to the smaller fish. I had a similar event happen years ago. A 10 day stretch of hot cloudy days & excessive amount of weeds in the pond. The low oxygen killed about 36 fish in the 3-4# range. Other ponds in the area had a similar problem.

This is my story & I am stickin to it.