My fish feed daily every afternoon and they usually attack the feed and its gone in minutes. Yesterday I went to feed them and only a few fish would come and grab a pellet every minute or so. I noticed a green algae bloom that hadnt had all summer. I put some dye in that night, have been meaning to do that for a few days now, next morning went back to try and feed and same thing. This evening went back out and a few more fish fed but nothing like before. Algae doesnt look as bad now and I didnt notice any dead fish so not sure whats going on. I do have a heron and occational cormorant come through so I guess if a few died they could have eaten them but I think I would notice a big fish kill.
Would a slight algae bloom slow feeding for a few days>
High water temps might cause both the bloom and the poor feeding IMHE.
Its been cooler last couple days and algae is not as bad, thats what concerning me figured should be feeding again. How much damage do you thing the heron and cormorant are doing?
One heron, you might never notice the losses.
Only one cormorant? (I didn't know they only came in ones.) If intermittently present, I doubt one would take a lot of fish.
By contrast, otters can pretty much wipe you out. And an osprey, while neat as all get out to watch, is IMO notable for taking big fish whenever possible.
Heron is still hanging around, cormorant is now gone but was here about a week.
Good news is fish are feeding again. The water cleared up a bit and now feeding almost as aggressively as before, didnt notice any fish kills either.
Was a weird week but now back to normal. Not sure what happened, need to get an aerator to keep it more consistent
You're about 50 miles to the East of me. Higher water temps with this heat slows the fish feeding activity. Cormorants can eat 1#/fish per day per bird. Herons will stab fish larger than they can eat, so I try to discourage them from staying at my pond for any length of time.
We put in the aeration system at Pine Ridge Lakes Subdivision in Crown Point a few years ago.