Pond Boss Forums Thread Like Summary - What is killing the CopperNose Bluegills?

Several days ago we had a few dead fish and since then there are now 15-25 per day. A few are partially eaten or chunks missing. Nearly all have red places and some red punctures or splotches as can be seen in the photos. Any idea what is happening to them? We do not see any birds other than a Great Blue Heron that is on the edge of the 1/2 ac pond sometimes. Do not see kingfishers or other birds other than the occasional goose and ducks. There have always been a few turtles and occasionally a snake swimming around. The pond is 2.5 years old and has been stocked with the bluegill and bass since month 3. Any help will be greatly appreciated.[img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/tz0aef5qywt0hv7/20220508_123509.jpg?dl=0[/img]

I was just speaking with esshup/Scott on a unrelated topic, and he thought this would be more like a bacterial issue coupled with stress on the fish from perhaps water quality, as opposed to bird punctures.

The half fish would be due to being eaten by snapping turtles after death, IMO.

My hunch is in agreement with Sunil's suggestion. I recall another member from Alabama having a similar issue. Some of his BG were >12 inches. The remedy suggested was terramycin treated feed.

Something may be amiss with water quality that is weakening their ability to fight infection. Or perhaps the environment has too much bacteria to successfully fight it. Though probably more to do with water condition weakening the older fish.

I haven't posted in forever. I am not sure if I am the one in Alabama you are referring to or not, but I had a large winter fish kill. All male bluegill. Auburn University did a study on mine and said it was an opportunistic bacterial infection. I was told to treat the fish with an antibiotic. Seems like I used penicillin. It was fairly cold so fish didn't feed well. I mixed the medicine with a bottle of Caro syrup. Poured it over a 50lb bag of feed and mixed in a wheel barrow. I didn't lose them all, but I did lose the largest class of male bluegill. It was sickening since a trophy BG pond was my goal. Since then everything is doing good. My original stocked LMB are pellet trained. I have 15 or so of them that take the large pellets. They are are 8-9 lbs now. Pretty awesome to watch them.