So, a bit late but here’s an update. Only lost 5 or 6 fish last summer as stated, out if the 300. No aeration all winter, pond froze over for 4 months, no fish loss. Actually cut hole in ice and trout would come up through the hole and land on the ice going after food. Pond done great all spring, no visible fish lose and feeding aggressively. Started aeration about a month after ice came off pond and run it 24/7. Had a little more rain this year so not much evaporation yet. Now the temp has come up a lot, over a 2 week period I lost 30-40 14-16” trout , the bigger ones. After some investigation I realized my aeration pump was likely down by 50% that didn’t help but also my diffusers were at bottom of pond. Last year I was only aerating with gas water pump during hot weather, didn’t have aeration system at the time. That’s when I had the colder bottom temps, low to mid 60’s. Last week when I had fish kill and noticed aeration only working at 50% I fired up my water pump. Checking water temp being pumped from bottom of pond I had 75+ .
So, thoughts if any . Should I leave the diffusers Permanently raised off the bottom to give fish a relief area in hot weather . Speckled trout.
Pond is crazy alive, Plant growth Lilly pads, cat tails, tons of insects, literarily millions of mayflies, leech’s and what a appears to be speckled trout fry. Going to catch a couple when they get a bit bigger to see if I can identify. My property borders on a brackish river so I trap tons of mud minnows and feed to trout, I usually just knock them all out in bucket before I feed them to trout but not sure if some survived and bread if possible