Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Pond Turning Over???

Pond has been mostly fine this year ...3 years old,3/4 acre, 2-4 feet steps to 57 feet then steps to 8 feet in about i/3 of the pond each time...Normal stockings of catfish,BG and redears,LMB and fathead minnows..Fish been eating fine all year..Last night they ate like piranahs..Same floating fish food..Almost to the bottom of the bag right now.Toda at noon I drove by it on 4 wheeler and fish were jumping/chasing/ avting like fish...Was even comenting how clear green the water looked yesterday and still looked that way today at noon..Weather has been mid 80's for weeks with occasional rain but none in a few days..Been very dead calm this evening and went to feed fish and almost ALL were sucking air on top..I know O2 level decrease at night but pond was again milky like is was a month or so ago...All ages of fish are suffering from newly hatched fry to 7-8 pound cats...I have 3 hoses going right now to help aereate some and the fish are right in it..I did introduce 19 3 month old ducks to the pond in the last 2 weeks but they are hardly even in the pond..Maybe 1/2 hour a day if that and some days they never go near it but play in the ditches so I don't think there is enough fecal material to cause this either..I would really appreciate any advice..I also tried to feed the fish and NOT ONE fishate out of thousands of all ages..many fish are staying close to the bank as well and lethargic and not scared of me..Help please with what I can do to try to save this situation..Thanks, David.Cell phone is 270-227-0460 Im in west Ky.

Do you have a trolling motor and and small boat you can launch into the pond? If so, launch the boat with the trolling motor. Then crank the trolling motor up to high and have in just enough in the water to keep it from over heating but so that it really chops the surface up. Run the motor for as long as the battery will stay alive...

Then invest in a quality aeration system and start it up properly.

I'd bet on a low oxygen problem. Wind will create waves, and they will add O2 to the pond. I agree with CJ, get something in there to beat the surface water to a froth - the only way right now to add O2 to the pond is by mixing it with air. If you had a Micropore diffuser you could run to the welding shop and rent an O2 tank and gauge.

Just came back in...All the fish are congregated where the water is smacking the pond..I have multiple hoses with really high water pressure..The BG are rigth up by the pond bank where the hoses are spraying odd off the end of the hose creating another area of O2 right by the bank..I dip netted some to see how active they were and they were extremely aggresive and flipping 100 mph..lol..I noticed the Cats are swimming back and forth more from one spray to another..LMB have now joined the cats..I found one dead BG close to the bank and on the bottom...I'm assuming if no O2 is present then they sink instead of float..If so I'm gonna have a mess in the morning probably...It's really hard to tell how many could be lost...One other thing that kinda hit me is that the ducks will not go into the pond...Do they sense the problem as well..They were not in it at all today..Even when I tried to force them into it by herding them they jus avoided it...Makes you wonder if they sense something of just a coincidence..One other point is that yesterday it was pretty windy..same temps and weather though..partly cloudy and 80's..this afternoon dead calm since noon...thats about all I can think of..

One other thing..If this is a turnover and the fish or some of them die off, can they be eaten if got out in the morning? In a turnover will the methane and hydrogen sulfide poisen them beyond the point where they are safe to eat..Thanks, David.

No worries on methane or HS-but the fish will decay really quickly in a warm, relatively anaerobic environment...I would't eat anything that I didn't capture or put on ice while it was still alive.

so it's now 230 am and I have about 75% of the ponds surface being hit with 1 inch waterlines spraying very hard water 25 feet in the air and slapping the water..Fish are showing more activity..No Cat loss..Main thing I am finding dead or dying is BG and redears..mainly in the 4-8 inch size..I got a tank going and dip netted out about 250-300 BG and redears and some 12-14 inch LMB..they were almost dead but i got 3 bubblers going I happen to have and got them revived and they are swimming good and acting normal..We have rain moving in Sunday and for the next 3 days..Hopefully that will replenish the pond..I'm planning on returning the talk fish to the pond after problem clears up in a day or so hopefully..Im hoping I dodged the bullet and won't wake up to a dead pond...

Got back up at 7am this morning(Sunday) to find that for the most part the catfish have survived, unless some are dead on the bottom... Had about 150 -200 2-6 inch BG and Red Ears dead along the edges...I LMB dead as well..These are just the ones I can see..Pond came up about 1/2 inch or so..Like I said 3- 1 inch waterlines with lots of pressure added quite a bit of water through the night...We have alot of rain just a few hours away but I'm leaving the water spraying for a few more day anyways...Will this more than likely straighten itself out if we get a few days of good rain like forecasted?? Or will this be an ongoing issue with stress because of this event?
I aprreciate everyones help and suggestions, David.

Blue Moon,
sounds like I have the same problem, keep us up to date.

thanks

Fish need a certain level of dissolved O2 in the pond. More fish in a certain body of water = less DO to go around. Warmer water holds less DO than colder water. It sounds like you don't have an aeration system in the pond. I would look at installing one to keep the same amount of fish in the pond as you do now, or you should remove some fish to lower the DO demand on the water. Larger fish need more O2 than smaller fish, catfish can get by on less DO than other species.

Fish producers rely on surface agitators to keep DO levels high during times of higher water temps and higher Oxygen demands.

I will be at a clients pond today where there are 3 bottom diffusers going, and one fountain, plus water is taken from the pond and run over a waterfall. With water temps in the upper 70's, Rainbow Trout are still alive. I'll take pics if I remember.

There are O2 meters available, but you're talking at least 3-400 dollars.

Checked just a few minutes ago and can't see that anymore are dead...I have most of the pond aggitated with the water slapping hard..The fish arent as congregated as they were..Completely cloudy, temps in the 80's again with heavy rain and storm still forecasted later today...I guess now reflecting on all of this, and I know that it's because of lack of aeration, but why did this happen on that certain day(Yesterday)..We have had steady to climbing temps from 80's-mid 90's a few days no rain for the last week but we have had a good rainy season so far...I know everything has that one moment in time when that critical point is reached, I'm just wondering what was it about that certain time that triggered it...I have read about pond turnover and understand the concept, but was just wondering why yesterday, and at that moment..LIke I said before the day before was really windy and kept the water agitated, so if it had been calm the day before it may have happened then...It's funny I had friends over the evening before and we were all commenting on how nice and clear green the pond looked and how well the fish ate..And then again at noon or so the day it happened everything still looked good..So this event happened in just a couple of hours...I guess once the chain reaction starts it happens extremely fast...I hope all of this will help someone else to understand how fast it really happens and what needs to be done...I am going to invest in a fountain and I had long term plans of a huge waterfall over big rock dumping into the shallow end(Main water entrance point)...I know last year we had temps over 100 for many weeks and biggest drought on record here in west ky, but I had water spraying into the pond 24/7...It was apparent then that something needed to be spraying because of the high temps and drought, and low water levels..Didn't lose any fish though and never saw them stress, and they always ate...Was kinda shocking yesterday when I threw out the bucket of food for them and not even a minnow came to the surface to eat..I knew I had issues then..I think this even snuck up on me and was a little less obvious than the drought year, and that's why it caught me offguard...Thanks for everyones responses and feel free to add more to it so we can all help and learn...David.

I doubt that the fountain will really help. Use aeration instead.

I have often said that fountains are like race horses and beauty contest winners. They're nice to look at, expensive to buy and use and don't do a lick of work.

OK Dave I didnt realize that..I'll check into other methods..Came back from the pond just now..Clarity is down to about 15 inches now and I noticed small air bubbles forming on the green moss that builds up on the clay bottom around the edges is where u can see it good..Fish are more active now...I lost a few of my largest LMB around 5 pounds..I expect more to float but as of now could have been much worse I guess.

I agree with Bill, Scott and Dave, use a surface aerator. I have one in my smallest pond with the highest per acre loading and it is GREAT! I do have a DO meter and the difference with the surface aerator running is amazing. Aeration fixes a lot of problems.

Surface aeration is best for emergency aeration, but in the long run a bottom diffused aeration system is ideal for increased dissolved oxygen levels through out the water column.

Here's a picture that has both. You can see the bubbles from the bottom diffuser disks in the rear left of the picture. The junk on the top of the water closest to me is debris from a storm caught in some Sago Pondweed.

Pond has now corrected its self and clear down to nearly 2-2.5 feet..Phyto is regrowing and fish are very agressive and happy once again..No fish loss 3 days..I lost a few hundred BG and Redears..25 LMB and one catfish that I have seen..I now have 2-1.5 horse pumps submerged to 6ft with a standpipe to shoot the water up and mix with the top..Really working good now..Wish I would have done this before now...Thanks for all the help..David.