Thread: Pond Mgmt 101

It is that time of the year when some ponds and lakes experience a fish kill. I visited such a situation today. I witnessed hundreds of gizzard shad that were dead or dying. Right behind them were the largemouth bass some to approx 3 pounds which were about to die. The stunted crappie and loads of bluegills too. Its 10.50 PM and most of the ones I saw this afternoon are now dead. The carp were in excess of 20 pounds along with drum. The flatheads started surfacing around 9:00PM tonight. Some will be dead by daylight and there is nothing man can do but pray for lots of wind and even then it may not be enough. This lake has flatheads many of which exceed 20 pounds and they will be dead by Monday morning. Witnessing a fish kill is sickening. What a waste of a resource. God is the only one that can save the fish now. I will be back on sight at daylight. Game rangers are monitoring the loss. There was a strong breeze on the water but the dissolved oxygen was between 1.2 and 1.5 parts per million. The fish need a minimum of 5 parts oxygen to not stress, below that level they become stressed and die. You get the picture. Mother nature must allow the cycle to be played out.

What happened you ask to cause this travesty?
The lake received approx 3" of rain in the watershed above the lake causing the lake, which was very green, to fill to normal pool. This rain brought added nutrients into the lake. The added water allowed the phytoplankton (one celled plants) to bloom or grow into the newly added space. Nutrients + new space = explosive reproduction of phytoplankton which needs OXYGEN. Warm to very warm water does NOT retain or hold oxygen well. So we have explosive reproduction of plankton which needs dissolved oxygen and the plankton stripped the D O (dissolved oxygen) out of the water and died which took more D O out. Algae produces DO during the day and consumes it at night which causes swings in available D O during the night. The lake crashes normally between 5:00 AM and 7:00 AM and if it cannot reabsorb sufficient oxygen during the day then it will be irreversible that night. Tonight is the night the lake will die. I expect thousands of dead fish at daylight It is sickening to witness and you can do nothing to stop it.
IF anyone sees this happening in a pond or lake contact your closest game ranger immediately. Sometimes some of the fish can be saved by relocating them to another nearby pond or lake.

It will be sad day tomorrow

Thanks for this wealth of information. Trying to balance a 2 acre pond. This is a great resource.

Originally Posted by cricket george

It is that time of the year when some ponds and lakes experience a fish kill. I visited such a situation today. I witnessed hundreds of gizzard shad that were dead or dying. Right behind them were the largemouth bass some to approx 3 pounds which were about to die. The stunted crappie and loads of bluegills too. Its 10.50 PM and most of the ones I saw this afternoon are now dead. The carp were in excess of 20 pounds along with drum. The flatheads started surfacing around 9:00PM tonight. Some will be dead by daylight and there is nothing man can do but pray for lots of wind and even then it may not be enough. This lake has flatheads many of which exceed 20 pounds and they will be dead by Monday morning. Witnessing a fish kill is sickening. What a waste of a resource. God is the only one that can save the fish now. I will be back on sight at daylight. Game rangers are monitoring the loss. There was a strong breeze on the water but the dissolved oxygen was between 1.2 and 1.5 parts per million. The fish need a minimum of 5 parts oxygen to not stress, below that level they become stressed and die. You get the picture. Mother nature must allow the cycle to be played out.

What happened you ask to cause this travesty?
The lake received approx 3" of rain in the watershed above the lake causing the lake, which was very green, to fill to normal pool. This rain brought added nutrients into the lake. The added water allowed the phytoplankton (one celled plants) to bloom or grow into the newly added space. Nutrients + new space = explosive reproduction of phytoplankton which needs OXYGEN. Warm to very warm water does NOT retain or hold oxygen well. So we have explosive reproduction of plankton which needs dissolved oxygen and the plankton stripped the D O (dissolved oxygen) out of the water and died which took more D O out. Algae produces DO during the day and consumes it at night which causes swings in available D O during the night. The lake crashes normally between 5:00 AM and 7:00 AM and if it cannot reabsorb sufficient oxygen during the day then it will be irreversible that night. Tonight is the night the lake will die. I expect thousands of dead fish at daylight It is sickening to witness and you can do nothing to stop it.
IF anyone sees this happening in a pond or lake contact your closest game ranger immediately. Sometimes some of the fish can be saved by relocating them to another nearby pond or lake.

It will be sad day tomorrow

Very interesting, also very sad. Thanks for sharing this info with us.

I am back from the fish kill and it only appeared to be mild. I saw several thousand dead fish primarily shad, huge carp, drum, bluegills and several crappie around 12". The grass carp were all in excess of 20 pounds and the regular carp were from 10 to 20 pounds too. There were several LM bass in the 2-5 Pound range and 2-3 flatheads. Although the lake had a mild odor where ever we motored the kill did not appear to be a total loss. Somebody had some prayers answered because I expected the lake to be totally dead. The wind stayed high enough to possibly infuse enough oxygen to pull the remaining fish through.

Have you ever filleted a fish and found some " black pepper flakes" in the meat or some cysts with a yellow center in the meat? Well, these are parasites. They live in the throat of greta blue herons and are transmitted into the pond when the bird poops. The parasite is then picked up by snails that inhabit the pond and are transmitted to the fish. If you have found these parasites in your fish and the pond contains snails then you need to stock some redear sunfish. A snail to a redear is like a t bone steak. Stock some redears feed on and control the snails which will help control the fish parasites. I bet you did not know that? See you learned something today from reading this thread.:D Have a good day

CG. thanks for the info. I've learned lots from reading this thread. Very informative, and interesting.

Rigrunner236 - Glad I could help. There is more to come

Originally Posted by cricket george

Have you ever filleted a fish and found some " black pepper flakes" in the meat or some cysts with a yellow center in the meat? Well, these are parasites. They live in the throat of greta blue herons and are transmitted into the pond when the bird poops. The parasite is then picked up by snails that inhabit the pond and are transmitted to the fish. If you have found these parasites in your fish and the pond contains snails then you need to stock some redear sunfish. A snail to a redear is like a t bone steak. Stock some redears feed on and control the snails which will help control the fish parasites. I bet you did not know that? See you learned something today from reading this thread.:D Have a good day

C.G.,

Can those parasites be harmful to humans who consume the fish? Or will the hot oil take care of them?