Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Muddy water My fish have no color

The fish I am catching out of my pond almost look like ghosts. Example: I caught a LMB and a BG tonight and both were albino looking. I am assuming this has to do with the clarity of my water? It has always been murky/muddy with very low visibility. It is a 1 acre pond--built 6 years ago--deepest part of the pond is about 15 feet. I have put water in a mason jar but got very little sediment on the bottom of the jar. Basically, the water just stayed cloudy. I do get a lot of runoff/overflow into my pond. I would like to catch fish that have some color and would love to see the more than 2 inches into my water as well. Thanks for your help.

Have you tried to clear it? Take a look at the alum thread.

Fish in turbid water (pond, lake or river) due to suspended clay are always pale colored. A dark colored fish in murky water stands out as more visible and thus more vulnerable to predation. Survivors in nature blend into their environment / surroundings. Continual and periodic inputs of turbid water are problematic for best ecology of ponds. Chemically clearing these types of ponds is fruitless because the next rain event causes more turbidity. Best solutions for these ponds is a well, and densly vegetated watershed and a well vegetated shoreline to minimize wave erosion.

Turbidity acts as natural dye such as Aquashade and inhibits dense underwater plant growth, so some clay turbidity is not all bad. Clear-up your pond and then you will be dealing with too much filamentous algae or rooted weeds.

Welcome to Pondboss, N&Cpond!

It sounds like you have quite a bit of suspended clay particles in the water. That will make the pond very turbid (low visibility). Try doing a search for "turbidity" or "suspended clay" in the archives.

Many of us have treated turbidity with gypsum and/or alum. There are many posts on those topics as well.

Like many others, I've found muddier water = lighter colored fish.

Thanks Bill and others. Bill-My pond has rip rap on three sides of it. The watershed has been well vegetated for the past 18 months or so. Are you saying that if it was your pond you would not try to clear it up chemically because more rain will cause the same problem? I just don't understand why I continue to get such turbid water when it seems to be filtered well and I get very little wave erosion due to the rip rap. Let me know what you think before I got the chemical route.

As an on the side...DuPont makes a wide variety of colors in easy to use spray cans

No, Tom, No!

Has the pond always been tubid? Do you know if common carp or Bullheads are in the water? First do the jar test and see if anything settles, if it does, chemicals won't help and you will need to find the problem to solve. sounds like it will be fish if it's not clay. Give me a PM, I just had a huge success with alum if it is clay.

N&C says:" I do get a lot of runoff/overflow into my pond.". If as you say the watershed is well vegetated and since our Mason jar test produced very little sediment on the bottom after a couple days then your pond is probably a good canditate for an alum treatment assuming there are no bullheads, carp or numerous catfish.