Question, all us northern pond owners just came thru a very cold winter and extreme conditions for our fish. In my case, my 17 acre lake in southern Ontario, Canada had nearly 2 feet of ice and ice covered from December to the end of March with various amounts of snow cover throughout. (No aeration and no removal of snow from the ice other than a hockey rink) Last week all the ice melted and I only observed 2 dead fish (yellow perch) around the entire shoreline. There were no trace of dead LMB, SMB or bluegill. Is this common for the winter we had, the ice totally covered the entire lake for 3-4 months? My lake has roughly 20-25% weed cover only and has fairly clear water. Could some of the YOY and smaller fish have died and dropped to the lake bottom or do you think the D.O. was adequate for most of the fish to survive? I have approx. 4 acrea of area that is 12'deep while the remaining surface area is 4-6'. Thanks for your input and facts about your particular tank and winter kill. Keep up the great discussion.
Rowly
Rowly,
Only time will tell for sure, but looks like you probably didn't have a major fish kill. Sounds like your 4 acres of water 12 feet deep and the size of your pond is a definte plus. However, just because fish do not float up does not mean there are not some laying on the bottom. I know a owner that lost all of his fish and very few floated up. Not sure why but some fish float up when they die and some do not. Maybe it has to do with the rate of decompostion and internal gases building up -- maybe someone on here knows.
You still have a danger of stressed fish succumbing to bacterial problems once the water warms up.
Hard to say for sure, but I would guesstimate you lucked out, and did not have a major fish kill. One fly in ointment though. I was always under the impression that perch are hardier than bass and bluegills and require less oxygen?
I'm in Southern Wisconsin... our winter was really cold with very little snow cover... I have a small pond about 100' x 40' and about 5' deep.... I had a max of 16" of ice.. and when it melted I was scooping at least a full 5 gallon bucket of dead fish off a day for a good week!!!... from 1-2" bluegills to 15-18 inch LGM bass... I have had the water tested.. and the ph is high... but when I tested the water across the road in the 320 acre lake.. the water had the same ph... so I've all but come to the conclusion of oxygen depletion...
Five ft deep pond in WI winters will almost always have a winter kill. Not enough water volume to maintain a large "bank account" of dissolved oxygen overlying the sediments. If you ever go through a WI winter and no winter kill in a 5' deep pond consider yourself lucky.
Seventeen inches of ice, here in central Il, and no dead fish it pay to aerate.
wht89lx,
Are you working with a pond management company? Anyone worth their salt should have talked to you about aeration. A pond that small can be done fairly cheaply and easily. I would be happy to talk to you on site about that and other problems that the shallow water brings. I will be in Dousman on the 19th, and am in the area quite often. My company is Aquatic Biologists Inc. There is scads of info on air in this site aswell.
Robert B
fishmgr@hotmail.com
in north east ohio we had worst winter in years, lots snow , 20 degs every day.why do i live here lol. i never cleaned snow off, but i keep hole in ice open all year. the pond is fairly new,about 10' deep , lot young fish. i didn't see any problems after ice out.i just ordered aeration system , my fish will be happy. my neigbor had about 30 or 40 large fish die , bummer . also i have read alot about hybrid strippers here and want to stock same , how many can i put in arce pond , 50 be ok. ken
20 degrees every day! You lucky dog. I live go to college in Duluth,MN. We got a foot of snow + freezing rain between last thurs and sun night. 20 winters degrees don't even happen here. But again, why do I live here? We could all move to florida and raise HUGE FL strain bass in our own ponds and fish all year... I guess I'll stay for the white tails and the Grouse.
I am in Green Bay WI and my pond if 15ft deep on the deep end and I never shut my aerator off. A shallow pond here without the aerator is just asking for dead fish. We just had a major snow storm yesterday. Let me know if you have any wisconsin pond questions or if you need a referal for an aerator.
Brian,
Just curious. Do you position your aerator differently in winter than in summer? I assume it is a bottom diffuser.
Cecil and others: Great facts about your tanks. Cecil I agree about the perch being more hardy and requiring less DO? That's kinda why I asked the question about other dead fish that I didn't see. But having said that, I surveyed the lake by boat as the water is very clear and I can see the bottom over much of the lake and no larger fish seen dead on the bottom or no seagulls actively canvasing the lake. I also agree the 4 acres of deep water saved me. The lake is some 750' wide and 1000' long and I do get strong winds that create white cap waves, so hopefully this natural effect helps to keep the DO high??? but can it remain above 2-3 PPM over 3-4 months of total ice cover and snow on it with 20-25% weeds on the bottom. Maybe the combination of higher DO and low weed % and some good luck helped. Only time will tell when I can observe the numbers of fish in the tank later in the month as the water warms up and they become more active. Right now, I see little fish in the shallow water but they may still be holed up in the deeper water? Any thoughts on how I can better access my possible winter kill more accurately? Thanks for your help and discussion.
Rowly
PS. I will be erecting an windmill aerator on one of my islands (moved it out when there was ice) for the lake once I get some time but I wonder how one windmill can help winter kill in a tank my size when totally frozen over......any thoughts
Cecil most of my bluegill and LMB are juvenile fish from my spawning (recent stocking) last year, are these aged fish more hardy than say the adults I added to the lake? The few perch that died where adult fish that have been in the lake naturally for years. Does this fact have any bearing on what aged fish in a particular species dies first if DO reaches the range of concern? Sorry for getting more specific....but we all are learning well as we grow with knowledge and experience from others. Thanks
Rowly
Rowly,
Your larger fish will sucumb to low D.O. levels first so having primarily smaller fish are a plus.
As far as the perch they may have been on the way out anyway, and the something pushed them over the edge. Fish don't live forever.
Rowly, is your pond opened up already? I am fearing the worst for mine, although I have an aerator running it only does so much. I have had 1 1/2 to 2 1/2+ feet thick of unclear ice and at times 1-2 feet of snow since late November. I unfortunately have seen a few dead fish come up through the open area in the pond... a couple of walleye, a couple trout and one large catfish. I also know that part of my problem is that although my ice may not have gotten so thick that it went right near the bottom, I did lose about 1/2-1 foot of water over the winter months and the ice 'sank' if you know what I mean. I had a fountain pump in 4+ feet of water that sat about 1 foot high, crushed down to an almost indistinguishable 6 inches high. Bye bye pump. So my fear is purely out of the thickness of the ice. Not as afraid of DO levels since I have very little vegetation and the aeration, but just the ice itself. Terrible year for my pond I fear.
Chris, welcome back...long time no here!!!! Yes the ice has been melted completely for a couple of weeks, the 20*C weather helped on a few days. By the way great article on aeration and down the road I will pick your brain on that. I guess the younger fish helped my cause with the few larger ones I stocked as breeders. I think this time luck was on my side but I need in the future to have some winter aeration to keep some water open to increase my chances. I will be stocking some 12 adult LMB per ac or 200 in total to the tanks over the next few week before the spawn. Question, in your pond and past experiences- once the ice is melted do your fish still hole up until the water warms? The reason I ask is last summer/fall I could see thousands of YOY (bluegill/perch) schooling and swimming around the lake but so far this year no fish have been spotted, however, the water temperature is just above freezing and the fish may not yet be active? Thanks
Rowly
You won't see a lot of small fish activity including minnows until the water gets around 55-60 degF. They get fairly active at 50 deg but not to where you will see them a lot. I think you see them more in shallow water when the adult fish start feeding heavily and 'push'/drive the small fish out of the depths into the shallows.
Keep any 'eye' on the temps and see how close I come in my estimates.
Rowly- I'd agree with Bill on that, considering my current surface temps (Frozen solid), I won't expect to see much activity from fingerlings or minnows until May... since that seems to be the earliest I will see temps above 50 degrees.
I wonder if the quantity of spring-fed inflow you have is the primary reason for you having no ice for weeks and myself with similar weather, (Perhaps 5 degrees colder on average), having 6-12" + remaining...
P.S. Thanks for the kudos, and feel free to pick my brain anytime... can't say for sure that you'll strike gold but I will offer any information/assistance I can. Oh... I've been making my daily rounds to the site, but lots of other 'True' professionals are getting the jump on answers. : )
Hello to all,
I live near Cleveland, OH, and we too had a dreadful winter. Our pond is very small in comparison to what I have been reading on this board. I is about 80 x 60 and about 12- 15'in the center. I kept our aerator on all winter except when the air line got moisture in it and froze. We will be rearranging it this spring. Needless to say, the pond froze over - when the bubbler stopped working. I was so worried about our fish. This is the first winter we have fish in the pond.
The ice finally all melted on March 20th! The above statement means that there were no floating ice chunks or ice under layers of ice. We lost about 12 - 14 bluegills. I was down by the pond on April 2nd. - a beautiful 70 degree blue sky day ( you appreciate days like that - when you live in Northern OH ), the fish were out - all of them!! I saw the 2 big lmb by the dock - the golden koi by the east end of the pond, and about 90 blue gills. I also spotted a couple of smb at the other end of the pond. I am so happy that most of the fish made it through this long, cold, snowy winter. I even found various sizes of spawn from the bluegills around the edges of the pond. There were large bullfrog tadpoles out too. Tonight I heard the first of the spring peepers. Would someone please let us know when we should start feeding our fish? I know that most say the water temp must be about 50 degrees, but where do you throw in the thermometer at? At the shallows, or perhaps about 3' in the deeper water? My son and I were going to throw in some golden shiners this Sunday, if the weather stays nice. Is it too soon to do this?
Thanks for your advise and I wish everyone a happy spring and an early summer. Kay
This is an addendum to my message I just sent. My son came up to see what I was doing on the computer, and as usual, I was on the Pond Boss Board. Anyway, I guess I made a major blunder regarding the size of our pond. He said it is about 120 x 90. It is a keyhole shaped pond. I just thought I would add this on to my message. We do not plan on putting anymore fish in the pond. Hopefully, nature will rule - and all will be well.
Bill and Pottsy;
Thank you for your thoughts and I will keep you informed as the water temp. increases. The perch and some bluegill are taking bait from a bobber with worms near the lake bottom.
Rowly