Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Bluegill Dying Help

I have a 5 1/2 acre pond that has been stocked for 2 years with bass and 2 1/2 yrs with Coppernose and Redears. It is pretty deep pond 18ft in the lower ends and fairly steep banks 5-6 most place with a few shallow areas. I have been fertilizing heavy all spring with very little effect at a rate of 25lbs of sportmax every 10-14 days. So I
2 bags left and placed both in on Friday. I went by today and saw quite a bit more filamintous algea than normal and apparently a denser bloom of phytoplanton. I saw about 50-70 bluegill dead floating on top. The water temp is about 74 so I din't think I would have that much lack of oxygen also the filamentous is only like 5-8 % coverage. Anyone have a good idea as to what would kill all those Bluegill. Also I switched food from a cheap catfish food to Purina Gamefish chow, but I haven't had any problems with it before. I am planning on spraying Cutine on all the FA in the morning and turning on a fresh water supply, do anyone of you guys have a idea as if these are the right things to do? Also should I quit feeding for a few days.
Thanks
Chad

Welcome to the forum, Grady. Sorry it is under such adverse circumstances.

1. What color was the phytoplankton bloom?

2. What's the weather been like lately? Warmer, cloudier or rainier?

3. How much fresh water are you talking about putting on?

4. How big were the bluegill that died?

5. Why are you planning on spraying cutrine in the morning? I'd be really cautious about trying to kill off all of your remaining vegetation. 70 bluegill in a 5.5 acre pond isn't very much. There's a chance you could change that to 7,000.

1. A green dark green color.
2.Warm 62 nights 78-80 days partly sunny. Light quick showers the past 2 days, earlier in the week sunny and nice every day.
3. 4 in pipe that I can transfer water from a lower pond 200 gal/min. This water is coming about 5 feet below the surface of the lower pond, it probably come to think of it is not a very rich oxygen source.
4. 5-8 inches
5. I thought the filamentous algea was robbing oxygen and I would be better off trying to kill it. I have Tilapia but not enough to have it right know.

Would you quit feeding for the time being?

Yes, I'd quit feeding, but mostly as a precautionary measure.

If you kill filamentous algae, it will take oxygen out of the water continuously. Right now it is probably only consuming oxygen during the night.

To add to Bruce's suggestion, spraying the Cutrine will also kill some of the phytoplankton bloom so I wouldn't kill anything right now until things stabilize.

Since you recently fertilized and got a good green bloom, the oxygen production would have increased, but so too would the oxygen consumption- particularly at night when the plants are respiring. Cloudy periods over the past few days certainly wouldn't have helped the situation. It sounds like your oxygen demand might have been greater than the production. Bigger fish are usually the first to go. If possible, try to remove the dead fish. Hopefully you just got stuck with a small kill and things will begin balancing out again.

You might consider looking into aeration if you haven't already. Having 8" bluegills in 2 1/2 years is pretty good production and growth. Gotta be careful. You could consider yourself lucky because it could have been a lot worse. Thirteen dead fish per acre isn't too bad, but the gauntlet had been thrown down. You're learning the limits of your pond.

I have lm that will be 2 in June or where fingerlings 2 years ago. I had several that where right at the 3lb mark in Late April when SEPM shock it. Me and Jeff Slimpke decided to only stock 100 F1 LM and see how much forage we could feed them!!!! Lately we have Crawfish,Tilapia and waiting on a load of Gizzard shad.
I didn't see one bass dead this afternoon but saw several crusing around like sharks and they looked healthy.
Grady

Grady had a similir fish kill this weekend as well. His pond color went from green to brown though so more definenetly a phyto crash from several days of cloudy rainy weahter. He lost all species of fish but we figured only about a 10%-15% loss. He has aeration that may have minimized his loss. Strange with low DO though that you only had big bluegill you should have had other fish species also. I suggest getting a secchi disc if you do not have one, it would help tell the story.

I have a buddy who had a minor fish kill as well this past weekend. Primarily BG and a few crappy. He too changed food to GFC this past weekend. Certainly is curious.