Hi everyone, I'm a new memeber here and I desperatley need some help. Here's a little info on the pond. It's a natural lake with springs that go into it and it's the size of an acre. It was always great for fishing at anytime of the day and night. It has all diifferent florida species of fish including Largemouth bass, Bluegill, Brim, Channel catish, Mosquito fish, grass shrimp, Lake chubsuckers and even Swamp darters. The pond or small lake's average depth is five feet and in two small areas it is around ten feet deep. It is also heavily surrounded with trees.
Now the problem, I have a serious fish kill. It seems like all the bluegill, brim and the smaller bass have all been killed. The reason I think they all have been killed is because all the Mosquito fish are swimming all over the lake. They have never done that before and they always stay right up on the shore line. Now I haven't seen any catfish or bass over a foot long dead yet.
We had Hurricae Francis hit West Palm Beach Florida three weeks ago that rose the water up three feet which made the lake alot healthier looking. We had a couple of trees fall in the lake but nothing to bad. I have even fished out there a few times after the hurricane and everything seemed just fine until I went out to the lake yesterday. That's when I smelled fish. I new something was wrong and when I reached the lake I was shocked. Most of the banks were covered with dead fish. The fish all turned white in color and that was the only thing I noticed that was wrong with them. I took the canoe out and servade the damage. What I did notice was some sort of dark blueish algea started growing in the middle of the lake and the lake turned a brown color. Normaly the lake was a clear in the sunlight and dark when the sun wasn't out.
Does someone know what could of happened to all these fish? Should I go out to the lake and scoop the dead fish out? What should I do? I'm very upset and saddened because I really love fish and I hate to see a natural habitat die. Thank you.

Steve F

Thank you for the great input from people who think they know about ponds and lakes. I will definetly waste my money on your mags since you guys are great with helping people..

Your welcome and thank you for being so patient.

Mr. Steve,
Speaking only for myself, I want to apologize.
Your problems are so overwhelming that I have absolutely no qualifications to address them.
My thoughts and concerns go out to all the storn victims.

When I read your story I wanted someone who knew a little more than me to answer it. Then I forgot about it.
You say you have a lot of trees which drop leaves that use oxygen to decompose. This leaves the bottom layers of water low in oxygen. A lot of rain can stir it up enough to cause a fish kill.
Also, algae creates oxygen with sunlight and uses it during low light hours. All the clouds with the hurricanes could have dropped your oxygen levels.
The mosquito fish were probably swimming all over the place looking for o2.
One more thing. If it was due to oxygen, it killed the largest fish first.

I read your post again. Did the rise in water drown out a lot of terrestrial plants or wash in a whole bunch of leaves? Decomposition, brown water, fish kill.
That would explain why it took a several days.
If you had really brown water, I would vote that.
On a side note, decomposing plants fueled the algae.

As Brain eluded to I believe you had a turnover with anoxic water coming up to the surface. All the leaves you have on the bottom have probably created an ideal environment for oxygen depeletion on and near the bottom.

Have you ever tried preventing stratification with diffusers? Sounds like you haven't and if you did you probably wouldn't have the fish kill you have now. Maybe an investment for the future.

Sorry about your misfortune.

Steve,

We are located in Florida and have over 4,000 lakes under contract for lake management. I can tell you that yours is not the only pond that had the unfortunate fish kill.

As the earlier post indicated, it is most likely related to a turnover of the lake that brought the anoxic water to the surface.

The combination of the wind and cold rains, (It felt cold when I stepped outside during the storms) allowed the lake to for lack of better terms, filp flop.

We have systems and services available that can eliminate this from happening again. I would look forward to speaking with you regarding this.

See Steve, we do care. You must have hit us at a bad time--it's been pretty slow.
cmartin, he said that he fished after the storm and all was okay. Doesn't turnover kill them faster? I haven't experienced this kind of fish kill before so I'm trying to learn.