Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Dead Brown Trout

Hello everyone,

Today I found this dead brown trout floating in my pond. As you can see, it's extremely skinny. I have many other fat trout in the pond (pellet fed), so I'm wondering if this one just never found the pellet area and died eventually from not enough natural forage. There are bass that accidentally got in the pond from a neighbour that ate most of the natural forage. I'm wondering if this is a case of simply not finding enough food or if there could be a disease I should be concerned about? Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Wow, definitely something wrong with that trout!

Yes competing with the bass for food probably didn't help, but your pellet feeding program is almost certainly the best solution to that problem.

I doubt (non-expert opinion) that it is a disease since you only have the one. Probably a unique problem to that fish. Fish hook in gullet, blockage in gastrointestinal tract, went blind, etc.?

Good luck on keeping the rest of your trout fat and happy!



P.S. Are you going to try to cull the LMB?

I doubt it was a disease, and I doubt that it was a pellet feeding problem. I have a pond that is about 3/4 acre now and I only feed in one area. ALL the trout can find the feed no problem.

That trout grew to that length on pellets at the fish supplier, so it's not the pellets. It may be too late now, but it's possible that the trout ate something that blocked it's intestine, stopping it from receiving any nourishment from anything that it ate. I've seen trout eat cigarette butts, etc., etc. Bob Lusk had a picture of a LMB somewhere here that was plugged up from eating a discarded plastic bait and that LMB looked like the trout.

Thanks for your response. It's good to hear you don't think there is an overall issue. I'm thinking based on your reply and the other one that this fish might have had a blockage or something like that. In terms of the bass, I am actively culling them and have been for multiple years, but I cannot get absolutely all of them out and they are amazing at getting any small bits of natural food in the pond. The pellet feeding is a great way to grow my trout big regardless of the bass issue. I'll monitor the rest of the trout to see if there are any issues, but it does seem like this is a one off and not something to worry about. Thanks again.

The brown trout were only put in at a maximum size of 12 inches around, so it definitely had to grow to that size eating something. However the only thing I thought of other than a blockage is that it was eating natural food and that food got depleted by the bass and so it had nothing to eat. Although, you would think it would find the pellets like the other trout. The only reason I thought it might not have found the pellets is because I did start pellet feeding only when the bass became an issue which was a couple years after I put in the original brown trout. I'm probably thinking it was a blockage based on what people are saying because like you said it should have been able to find the pellets anyways. Thanks for your reply and advice.