Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Large Sunfish Selective (?) Fishkill

Theo, sorry to hear about your fish loss.
Could the problem possibly be that the melting snow & ice caused a large drop in PH. The charts that I have show bass & catfish much more tolerant of low ph. Just a thought.

AP,

We don't have the low PH's out there in the midwest you guys out east have. At least I don't think Theo does either. My PH is the mid 8 range. Alkalinity is so high there isn't even a diurnal change during the warming months.

I don't want to be a downer but the bigger predator fish may still be laying on the bottom. I was always told the bigger fish go first. I was also told large bluegills and bass are about the same in D.O. sensitivity. Could it be the larger fish take longer to build up enough decomposition gas to float up and they are heavier? And of course not all fish float up to the top.

I hope I'm wrong.

Cecil, I was referring to the problem of buildup of acidic rain and snow and when it melts causing an rapid influx of acidic water into the pond.
I don't know if you guys get much of that from the coal fired power plants, but it has caused problems up here in the past.
Probably not the problem but strange things happen.

AP,

I know what you're talking about as I used to live out east. But unless I'm wrong our PH's are high enough out here to counteract it and so is our higher alkalinities which are of course are a buffer.

Me too, Cecil. I would feel better right now if you weren't such a depository of fish info. No such luck.

You have plenty of fish, Theo, that you aren't going to see. I've been told the ratio is 5:1, but my personal experience says it's more like 3.5:1 or 4:1 at worst, of dead fish to observed dead fish.

If you're like me you'll look forward with extreme nervousness to catching your first live fish.

Good luck. It'll probably be OK.

All that salinity in your water makes a higher % of dead fish float.


Yep. And that lure I threw in a few times yesterday didn't count.

Interesting theory.

Did you spell check your last post?

I'm thinking of doing a little "mah-dur-eighten" later.

How do you know that you didn't lose predators? It is my unscientific observation that most morts sink.

I don't know that I didn't lose everything, DD. I do know that all I have seen are BG and RES.

Even if most of them sink, shouldn't some have floated up?

Boy, you guys are really cheering me up!

Just rest assured knowing that the bullheads survived.

Yeah I knew it might be a lousy thought but figured it wasn't a new idea to you.

My feeling and experience in any kind of DO crash is that bigger fish go first. I THINK some of them should have floated due to bigger air bags. Maybe you didn't lose them all.

For some reason, the fish kills I've seen (my place and others) seem to either be less than 20% of total adult fish, or over 80%. I'll bet yours if the former.

But again, you can sleep at night knowing that all of your bullheads made it.

This should help cheer you up.

There are lots of reports/studies on fish kills in unmanaged ponds/lakes. In these reports fish kills are a reoccurring event. In everyone (as best I recall) there were plenty of survivors.

I am with Bruce on this - you have plenty of fish left and I bet of all sizes. I even think it may not be a DO event in total but rather a combo with a quick temp change acclimation event from when you went from about 40s to the negatives to a low DO later.

sorry theo and welcome to a club i've yet to be a member. i'll remember george's words too.

I shall fall blissfully asleep tonight counting bullheads. :P

I try to be as optimistic as possible.

Dave,

Must you be such a a depository of fish info?

Just so no one thinks I'm a total arse, I did call Theocity to console him.

He is fairly certain that he has no bullheads in any of his ponds.

Heck Cecil, I was plagarizing something that I learned here.

First all my BG die, now all my Bullheads.

You don't want to plagarize me Dave. It will get you into a lot of trouble. Look how many posts I've had deleted in the "If it ain't about Ponds" category.

Theo,

You pond situation is really getting to me. It's not knowing for sure that is killing me. I think you need to hit it with some rotenone so we can know how many survivors you had as soon as possible!

Sorry just kidding. I'm thinking you don't have a complete kill. I hoping you don't.