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Hey all. My grandparents built a pond a mile back from their house about 11-12 years ago and its has always been a great pond to fish in. This weekend while me and my dad were at our cabin, I noticed that there was a catfish floating dead in the pond. Right now there is still a pretty good sheet of ice on it but there is about a foot or two melted along side the banks so you can see some of the water. I decided to take a walk around the pond and I saw that there was several other fish dead. Saturday I walked around the pond and counted 24 bigger fish dead (bluegills about palm size, some decent size bass, and one large catfish) and damn near 100 little baby fish about an inch or so by our beach we have. Me and my dad are wondering why they all died? Then Sunday I walked around again and counted 2 more big catfish, several other decent bass and bluegills and then under our bridge we have was one of the 7 grass carp we have. The thing was pretty big. Like I said before, there is still quiet a bit of ice on the pond so we dont know yet if there are alot more under the ice. Im sure there is but im almost afraid to even look. This is only a 12 year old pond. The pond is about 22-24 feet deep. We were thinking that our fish population got too overboard and the fish ran out of oxygen over the winter. What do you all think?
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I've seen this happen to one of our local lakes a couple of times here in michigan. Both times it happened there was a prolonged period of heavy snow, thick ice, and low light connditions which depleted the oxygen levels. maybe the same thing happened there. When ice did come off it was'nt pretty, but it was'nt a total die off.
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Okay thanks. Thats what my dad, grandpa, and I were thinking. We had some pretty brutal weather this year. Alot of snow and some pretty cold weather.
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Agreed, sounds like lack of oxygen. If the pond has a lot of algae cells roaming around during the summer and when the ice comes on they can die and fall to the bottom. So when the pond ices over there isn't much oxygen coming into the lake and the algae start to decompose, that decomposition will use up all the oxygen in the pond extremely fast, the dead fish will also decompose and use up oxygen. Large populations of fish can also use up a lot of oxygen. So the mix of decomposition and respiration has probably caused your fish kill.
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Is there any way to prevent this? For the years to come we were talking and thinking about getting our fourwheeler and blade and scoop off the snow once a week or something. Will that help much?
Also, we are gonna restock it just in case but with less amounts of fish. Do you think we will have too much of a problem with the bigger fish in there now eating the new ones?
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[quote doolay]Agreed, sounds like lack of oxygen. If the pond has a lot of algae cells roaming around during the summer and when the ice comes on they can die and fall to the bottom. So when the pond ices over there isn't much oxygen coming into the lake and the algae start to decompose, that decomposition will use up all the oxygen in the pond extremely fast, the dead fish will also decompose and use up oxygen. Large populations of fish can also use up a lot of oxygen. So the mix of decomposition and respiration has probably caused your fish kill.[/quote]
We put in 7 grass carp in when we first built the pond and they have kept the pond very clean. We haven't had a problem yet with them in there. So I dont think it could be because of that.
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Yeah there are things you can do. If you do get large amounts of snow, keeping it off the ice might be helpful. For the most part though I'm not sure. The best thing that you could have is a stream running in and out of the pond so you always have water moving through it. Not quite sure the set up of your pond, it would be kinda hard to divert a stream into and out of a small pond.
If you have large bass in the pond and you put juvenile fish in it then yes they will munch up every one they can catch before they hide. If you have fish still in the pond you could always see if they breed on their own. Good luck.
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If the problem is lack of oxygen and you have some way of getting power to the side of the pond you can put in a pond aerator. The aerator will put oxygen into the water and the bubbles when they come to the surface will keep a pretty good size spot from freezing. I have used these in several ponds i have built and the work great.
jim[fishin]
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How much are aerators?
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There are a lot of different ones out there. it just depends on how much you are willing to spend. the ones I have used are quite expensive. just do a search on pond aerators and you can find out every thing you want to know.
jim[fishin]
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We aren't to worried about prices. We just need a way to keep our fish from dying.
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Go to this web site vertexwaterfeatures.com they have all the info you need. I have used the deffuser type aerators and they work great. If i had to guess about the cost I would say about $2,000.00 .
jim[fishin]
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Unfortunately, with the winter we're having, we're probably going to see a lot of these winter kills. Luckily I haven't seen that many so far.
Your plants under your ice still need sunlight for photosynthesis. If not, they die and decomposing plants absorb oxygen that fish need.
In the future, and I apologize if this has been mentioned, see if you can get an ATV with a blade out there and get some of that snow off the ice so the sun can penetrate to the plants below.
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looks like the guys here gave you pretty much all the info you need.
a cople side notes,
when restocking, use hibred gills, "they dont repopulate so you dont have to wory about to many or stunted gills, you can restock them every few years so yo will have plenty of monster gills to harvest.
plant plenty of minnows,
never hurts to put in an automated fish feeder that will turn on for a couple seconds once a week.
there are machanical and electrical aireators. look though them to find what best suits your particular situation. some people use fountains so the pond never freezes in the winter, others bubblers.
another item you can look at is things some home owners use to keep thier docks from freezing solid in the winter so they can leave thier boats in year round.
another thing about winter kills in spring fed ponds, some figure it as always being lack of oxigen, there is another thought, and that is preasure. compactes snow and ice build up on top the ice can add tons of water presure to small lakes and ponds. cutting holes in the ice in the winter can releive these presures. "so having one or two trusted fishing buddies who you can trust to fish the pond in the winter with out taking a hundred guys out with them can be a big asset.
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