Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Found a floater today

I went to watch the fish feed this afternoon and i saw a catfish floating by the bank so i got the net and scooped it out. I dont know how long it has been dead but it didnt smell to bad hehe. I stocked the catfish earlier in the year and they were about 10 inches long. I dont know why it has died but it looked to be pretty healthy and fat. This is the first fish i have seen out of the pond and i was suprised at how much thay have grown it weighed 4 pounds i have been feeding them purina game fish chow. Here is a pic any ideas of what could have happened to it?

Are you overfeeding them? Believe it or not that can cause an occasional mortality. Fish that eat too much can develop fatty livers (become functional diabetics) and be less healthy than fish that are fed less.

I've noticed since I've backed off on the feeding of my trout they are healthier, fight harder, and can survive catch and release better. I used to feed them twice a day but now only once a day to satiation. Makes for better quality water too with less weeds.

Impressive growth!

I feed twice a day I have the feeder set at its lowest setting. I go through about 50 pounds every 3-4 weeks. Maybe i will start feeding them just once a day.

I'm no catfish expert but it depends on your total weight of fish in your pond and the size of your pond on how much you should feed. If you do go to feed once a day do it in the morning as that is when your oxygen is on the upswing. You may even find you get a better response once a day.

Fish eat more than they need just like us.


But keep in mind just because you lose a fish once in a long while for no apparent reason is no reason to panic. It happens to the best of us. I've seen trout that looked perfectly healthy go belly up especially after a heavy rainfall. Other farmers have told me the same thing. And it's not water column turnover either.

wicked:

10" to 20" and 4 lbs this year is pretty fast growth. If you're only feeding 2 lbs or so a day, you must not have a lot of CC stocked (or at least eating the feed every day).

That is indeed one fat (female) CC. I cleaned a couple 22 inchers this week that weighed 4 lbs 1 oz and 4 lbs 3 oz - your floater was a porker!

I only stocked 50 cc.

I think somebody helped you stock your pond; or else, that fat mama had very good timing and just laid there with her mouth open when the feeder went off. It would have had to eaten 6 or more #s of feed. Just dont seem right.

Burger you on it, I do not see how they are that big, try to catch some and see if most of the others are similiar size. I would anticipate 2 lbs but not 4 lbs if so you eihter already had a few and did not know it or someone is stocking your pond. One dead fish with others feeding nothing to worry about.

I went and and watched them feed this morning all the cc i saw feeding were the same size as the one that i found floating. There are about 10-15 that feed when the feeder goes off that i can count. Maybe i just got a good blood line of cc.LOL Want to buy some?

"That is indeed one fat (female) CC."


Theo.. How can you tell its female?

That's easy. Theo is a record keeping legend(so is Bruce, of course). He can tell by the length vs. mouth gape. It has a particular ratio, a male has another ratio. Right, master?

grasshopper

Correct, grasshopper.

Female CC: Mouth gape apx 10% body length.

Male CC: Mouth gape apx 15% body length.

Males have a lot bigger head than females of the same size, with what seems to be correspondingly smaller fillets. You can of course also tell by the presence of eggs, if cleaned, and by inspection of the urogenital slits, if so interested.

Wickedinhere,

My pond is located in Raceland, LA. Earlier this week I found my first floater as well. It was a large mouth bass though. I don't know how fast they normally grow, but it was 8 1/2" long and stocked in mid January of this year as a fingerling. Anyway, since we both had the same problem, I think it must have something to do with all the rain that we recently received. My pond is 1/4 acre. It was about 3-4 feet low until last weekend when it totally filled up. A couple days after that is when I noticed the dead bass. I guess that's not too bad of a trade off...1 bass for a few feet of water, but if more fish start dying, I'm going to get real nervous.

Are you saying that a large rain could kill the fish? If so, now I'm worried, our pond is extreamly low and if we get a big rain as we are known to do I would hate to see the fish die. Any thing I can do to prevent a fish kill in this situation?

Here's what happens. As water evaporates, it leaves behind what's dissolved in it. For example, if half the water evaporates, you will have twice the minerals, metals and nutrients as before. This happens gradually, and fish don't notice it. They adjust as the water slowly changes. But, when it rains, if the chemistry difference between remaining pond water and fresh rainwater is too great, is distresses the fish and they can die.
There are several things you can do. One is to aerate. Another is to scale back on the feeding, to decrease nutrients levels. (Remember, for every pound of feed, you get half a pound of fish and half a pound of fish waste.) That waste makes its way into the pond and your water has to deal with it. That's one reason aeration can help. Another thing is to have the water analyzed for pH, hardness, alkalinity, metals and minerals. Depending on the findings, there may be something you can do to adjust the water chemistry to prepare for big volumes of rainwater. Another thing you can do is remove a foot or two of the bottom water. That water is often the "heaviest" and has a greater load of nutrients and fish waste. By removing some of the "bad" water, you can set the stage for an influx of fresh water and minimizing stressors to your fish. But, during a drought, this is a tough gamble. Heavy feeding seems to be a problem during periods of low rainfall. It's about water quality. One fish dying is a solitary event, but several fish dying is a trend normally related to water quality declining.

Last week we got a good shower everyday, my pond is still filling up. I have about 5-6 feet to go and it will be full my pond is an acre and its about 25-35 feet deep in spots with some shallow spots 3-5 feet deep. I do aerate at night, when i stocked the 50 cc i also put in 500 bluegill and some minnows and this is the first fish i have seen dead since stocking.

Cecil / Bob:
Interesting posts on over-feeding / rain-fall (chemistry difference) etc. I just found 2 floating 16" rainbow trout and 3 sunken bodies of same this past Thursday in my 1/3 acre (4-12 ft. deep) pond. I stocked 200 10-11" rainbows in mid- April and they survived the 95 summer temps. I am pumping 25-30gpm of 50 degree water in. I am guessing there ar about 130 fish remaining.

Here is what happened. Feeder set to 10 seconds / once a day (about 2.8 lbs.)Outflow pipe draining about half of what is going in. My brother placed the extender on the output pipe a week earlier (5" pvc extender elbow) to raise the pond level another 6". When I arrived only 5 days later, the water appeared murky (rain likely) and the 5 dead fish were found. Dual diffuser aerator WAS set to go on at 65 and off at 67, so with cooler temps in past 3 weeks it was running at least 8-10 hours a day. DO has always measured in at 11 (didn't measure this time. Algae bloomed big this year, floating (covered 20% of pond) and filamentious algae covering all areas of shallows (40% of bottom). Seemd to die off about 2 weeks ago.

Question is: With the outflow essentially plugged up and rainfall and aeration, could water chemistry via rain / algae die off, be the culprit. Or was it the butler in the library with the snapper turtle? I know I haven't provided the essential DO data, but with your expertise what do you think it may have been???

hey michael, i know you want to hear from cecil and bob (me too), but your post spurred a memory. one time working a jobiste up by grass valley CA, we had some big rains, run-off and sedimentation ran into nearby creek that had several ponded areas along its course. the next day, dozens of rainbows were found dead along creek and particularly in ponded areas...dont know if its physical chemical changes in water due to rain run-off, or just simply the sedimentation choking out fish, but the culprit was definitely the "rain event"

"and 3 sunken bodies "

Hmmmm, any of the neighbors missing?

LOL sorry I couldn't resist.

I guess I'll have to check door to door. Maybe Hoffa's under there??? After all, they were looking for him in my own hometown of Milford, MI.

More seriously, I am the type of person who likes to really think things through, create a strategy and keep tweaking the formula to get it right. All was well UNTIL My brother re-isntalled the output pipe extender, thereby stopping outflow (in order to raise the pond level another 6" (which could take a month or more). My wild guess is that multiple heavy rains (I know you southern boys are jealous- we get alot of rain in the summer!) stopping up the output pipe, and some sedimentary erosion into the pond may have tipped the water chemistry and caused the kill.

Still waiting for the xperts to weigh in on this. FYI- pond temp recently droped down from 70 in early August to 65 degrees- perfect for trout. Any thoughts trout pond bosses>?

I think you may have had a low DO event, with only a few fish lost though I don't think it was anything serious. This time of year it is not unusual to see a few occasional floaters.