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???
