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Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 8
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confused Hello everyone,
so hopefully some of you can help me out and give me some solid advice. I am brand new in every way... to this forum and to pond ownership. So I have a few questions and need some help to clarify or expand my extremely limited knowledge. I have a pond now (constructed approximately 10 years ago) on our new property that was put in by the previous owner who hired professionals to build it. It is about 1/2 to 3/4 of an acre and approximately 6-8 ft deep in probably 50% of it or more. Doesn't seem to leak or evaporate too quickly, so that's the good. Now for the bad, at least I think its bad. The pond water is murky/silty and a brownish color all the time now, it's much worse now than when we bought the house a couple of years ago. The original owner claims to never have had to do anything to the pond to keep it clear the majority of the time. I assume from my limited research this is colloidal clay in the water column not settling to the bottom. I also assume that this situation is being made worse by the high number of (75-100) catfish in the pond as the result of the previous owner stocking the pond with them. I am not sure what kind of catfish, but I am thinking they are bullhead due to their color. I read that catfish, and in particular, bullheads root around in the substrate constantly looking for food, making the turbidity in the water worse. There are also large amounts of bluegill and some other smaller (too small to make a good guess) fish in the pond. There is no vegetation in the pond, the pond is completely surrounded by grass and rock embankment which stretches around three sides of the shoreline which sizes from pebble to about 12" across, and several Large (2 Sycamores and 4 Walnuts that are 24-36 inches in diameter or larger and 75'+) trees either at the edge of the pond or within 10 feet of the waterline. No livestock have access to the pond except for the local deer that sometimes graze at the edge. I have been researching Alum and Gypsum to figure out what to do about the current clarity of the water. The more I research, the more questions I seem to have. So now that I have given you a good description, on to the questions.

1. What happens to the clay after it binds and falls out of the water column using one of the recommended methods for clarifying? Does it just stay there? Once bound does it harden or remain bound even with agitation over time or will the catfish eventually just stir it up again, making the whole endeavor of clarifying worthless?

2. If it doesn't bind and turn into something harder or more dense, will I have to drain the pond and dredge the clay out with a backhoe or bulldozer to fix it?

3. Is there a way to fix the problem without removing the catfish or killing them all off? I could be wrong about them being bullheads, how do I tell for sure? I thought I read somewhere that LMB and Channel cats will eat bullheads, would this include larger ones (the majority of the cats in the pond all range in size from about 10-12 inches)? Will any species of catfish in the pond be just as problematic? We have otters that come and occasionally eat the fish and I wouldnt want to chance accidentally poisoning them in the process.

4. Is there a way to filter the suspended clay particles out of the water instead of binding them, or would the cost to do so be exorbitant enough to make it not worthwhile?

5. Can I replace the grass around the pond with something shorter in height that will benefit the pond or the soil surrounding it. Mowing around the pond is problematic since three sides of the berm are too steep to mow without tipping over the mower or sliding into the pond, so that leaves weedeating which of course slings grass and weeds into the water which will just create a new problem (thats the current method being used, and we try to be careful not to get too much in the pond, but, you know what happens). Any recommendations for replacement plants instead of grass to cut down on that maintenance would be a godsend.

6. Should I plant some kind of vegetation in the pond to help with filtration and shade the water to cut down on temps and water loss due to evap? If so, are there any really good, non pervasives that you guys would recommend? I live in the Ozarks of Missouri if that helps with making a rec?

7. Should I aerate the pond, what would be the best method of doing it for a pond this size?

Any other advice or recommendations not already touched upon would also be greatly appreciated. I am a big believer in "knowledge is power", so TIA for any help.

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Firstly welcome
I would have the water tested to see what you have as far as water quality. Bullhead have a square tail the others have a V shaped tail. What kind of visibility do you have? Some folks use a fish trap to remove bullheads. As far as otters go they are your enemy if you want fish and plan on having any size to them . A family of them can and will empty a pond of fish.. just saying....I will defer to smarter folks to answer more of your questions

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Pat, thank you. I am going to do a jar test and see how long the stuff takes to settle. I was told if it basically never settles it is colloidal, if it does settle then it may be something else and the fish and wind are churning it up and making the problem worse. I plan on testing, I live right next to Stockton lake in a very rural area right down the road from the state park HQ. There is probably an Ag office not too far from here either. I can also test the water myself if I know what kind of test kit to buy and what to look for. I used to be a licensed Texas state irrigator so am familiar with water and soil testing practices. Who or what would you suggest to accomplish the testing?

As far as the otters go, how long would it take for them to decimate the population of fish. They only come once or twice a year, usually only during the coldest months and sometimes we dont see them at all. We have been here going on three years and have only noticed them once. I think they mostly feed in the coves of the lake. Its a huge lake and has lots of coves. The back of our property butts up against ACOE land and the lake is about another 300 feet to the shoreline putting the lakeshore approximately 1/2 a mile from where the pond sits on the property. We dont eat fish, although I like to fish and release at the lake, so we have never fished the pond. Mostly its for relaxing and aesthetic purposes. I dont much care really what kind of fish are in the pond per se. Our kids are grown and gone and we just like the wildlife we get in the country to be honest. My wife and I both grew up spending time around lots of farms our families owned and now have a little piece of that of our own here.

I will see if I can catch one of the fish and take pictures of it, but if its as simple as tail shape, I may be able to just figure it out from the shoreline with your description. The previous owner used to feed them pellets, we still have a half bag of them he left for us. We dont feed them with them regularly, but have a couple of times in the past just to see what comes up when we throw it out there. The fish seem to love them and readily come to the surface to eat them, sometimes within just a few feet of the shore. So I will give it a try and see if I can tell. They are definitely dark gray/black on top and seem to have a whitish belly from what we have seen before. Thats what made me think of BH. Thanks for everything, will update as I know more.

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Pat, took a real close up look less than two feet away of several of them swimming at the surface. They have "V" shaped tails. So maybe not BH after all. That might be some kind of relief. Also the water doesnt seem as murky right now as it did a few days ago, took a jar of it out from around two to three feet from shore. Seems like watered down tee colored or a jar of urine in color almost. Visibility is about 1-2 feet right now, a few days ago it was less than a foot. Maybe it settled a little, maybe it is just a trick of the light as there is more shade on 50%+ of the water with the sun being so low at this time of day. Full sun in the afternoon makes it seem worse. There is about 1-2" of silt on the bottom of the pond all the way out to about knee height which is as far as I walked out after collecting the water. Even the slightest movement stirs up the bottom incredibly bad and makes visibility go down to about 1-2" from the surface. If it was colloidal clay, I would think it wouldnt have settled to the bottom of the pond for the most part, so maybe its just detritus getting stirred up by wind and fish. I will try and get some pictures and post them for everyone to see. Maybe that will help give a better idea of the current condition.

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More than likely channel cats or blue cats. Hard to say how long it would take for otters to eat out your fish, if they hang around awhile , not long but maybe if there is a big lake nearby then they might just be passing through.... keep us posted on your pond

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Will do and thanks. I am doing the jar test right now, and going to have the water chemistry tested soon. I will post the results of that when I get them. In the mean time I am going to look into aeration and filtration and see what can be done with that. Is there a primer on aeration I can look at that explains things like placement and diffusion etc online somewhere?

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Hi Dadeville - I am no expert but have done a lot of research and spent a lot of effort getting a very old and neglected pond back in shape on land I bought 6 years ago. You will get all kinds of opinions on aeration and there are definitely some knowledgeable folks. I think you can probably go with surface aeration since your pond is not that deep. Based on what you have stated, it seems to me that you probably have an overpopulation problem with both the BG and catfish. If the former owner fed but you have not fed then you have a lot of hungry catfish that probably are working the bottom hard looking for food. You don't have an especially large water volume so it won't take much agitation to affect the entire pond at all depths. They may also have had some success spawning in the past so you may have more than you think. My dad had a small pond with absolutely no spawning habitat and his channel cats multiplied like crazy because he was feeding. Once the feeding stops the catfish and BG will eat the young so the population is probably stable now but overcrowded. If the cats are all essentially the same size (10"- 12") as you indicated then you have stunted catfish and that is a result of overcrowding. You should try and pull out some BG also. If they are all about the same size and fairly small like the catfish it will confirm the stunting and overcrowding.

Good luck - pondmeistering is fun and can be addictive.................


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