Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Catfish on the surface?

The past few days I've noticed more and more catfish cruising the surface with their mouths slightly out of the water. I've seen this before and it was a leading indicator of a fish kill.

Pond is about 1/3 acre, and right now about 18' deep. We have had lots of rain and the pond is to the top of the dam. It is stocked with catfish, bluegill and some largemouth bass.

Before the big rains we've had in East Texas the past few weeks the pond was about 1/2 to 2/3 covered with filamentous algae I had treated about a 1/3 of the pond with Cutrine plus and the treated algae was starting to die off. However with the big rains and warmer weather virtually all of the algae is gone. The water is very dirty and brown colored.

I have a homemade fountain/aerator (pool pump and PVC) that I started running last night. I'm thinking between the algae kill, catfish on the surface, and murky water I'm looking at low oxygen. Am I on the right track?

Question is what else can I do? Anything I can add to the water to improve the oxygen content? All suggestions are appreciated.

No doubt about it. Low O2. You may need to get some more emergency aeration if you can. Tell us more about the aeration setup.

If it's only 1/3 acre, perhaps you could manually remove enough dying vegetation to make a difference (?) - if there's any left in sight to remove.

If you plan on harvesting any fish this year, it would be a good time to take them out. That would reduce the O2 demand a tiny amount.

I have had customers on a Pay to Fish Pond call in the Volunteer Fire Dept. They would draft out of your pond and with the deck gun, spray the water back over your pond. That saved over 15,000 lbs of fish in a 2 acre pond.

This also allowed the fire dept to test pumps too. Maybe an option for you. I have also had a customer back their bass boat into the pond (while still attached to the trailer, start the motor trim it up as to produce a spray of water) That with the current helped to stop the fish kill until they were able to look at alternative means be it a surface aeration unit or a long term solution like a bottom aeration unit.

Lastly, a customer of mine called, about to loose all of his fish and wanted to purchase a bottom diffuser unit. I told him that this was not the best option for emergency aeration and described why. He purchased it any ways but to stop the imediate problem, he trotted down to his local tool rental store and rented two trash pumps for the week. While the Lake Bed aeration unit was going through the start up period, he religiously ran the trash pumps and sprayed the water about 6' above the pond's surface to keep oxygen levels ok.

I hope these ideas may help. Good luck.

Torchroadster,

18' is awfully deep for a 1/3 acre pond. Lots of things can happen at such great depths that could affect the entire water column. Has this happened on more than 1 occasion?

Good luck,

Trash pumps are not that expensive from home builder supply stores like Menards and Lowes. I bought one for the same price I'd pay to rent one for two or thre days. Mine has paid for itself many times over for draining ponds.

I also bought a kasco surface aerator last summer and it was a life safer this winter. But they are salty -- over $800.00. But if you want oxygen in a hurry there is no better way.

I had two dead catfish this morning. But no more during the day and they've stopped surfacing so maybe the aeration is helping some. Is this an indication the oxygen is coming back up?

I guess I'll check out the trash pumps tomorrow.

My pool pump is basically the same idea as the trash pump although probably not as powerful. Basically I stuck a 2" PVC pipe on the intake capped the end, drilled a bunch of holes in it and stuck it about 3' underwater. The outlet goes to another piece of 2" PVC, capped and drilled - this is aimed up in the air and directed back to the pond surface.