Fish Kill In Pond, Ldwf Investigates Henderson Lake Fish Kill Low Oxygen Levels Believed Cause

For example a three acre pond in virginia fell victim to a fish kill in 2015.

Algae in the fish pond. The fish in the pond will perish relatively quickly and sunlight and organic matter will degrade the remaining rotenone in approximately a week. This type of summer fish kill has little to do with forced mixing of the oxygenated water with anoxic water. All carcasses will be removed and disposed of.

Management of the pond started back in 2013 when the landowner desired to create good fishing for family and friends. To get a complete kill you must treat all puddles even those in the watershed no matter how small. The large oxygen swing fish kill always occurs in lakes with large amounts of submerged aquatic vegetation floating algae or planktonic algae pea soup water.

Removing or killing the fish population usually is much easier and less expensive if the pond can be drained dry or partially drained and the fish concentrated. Losing all of the fish in your pond known as a fish kill however is a major problem. Do not combine fish and water samples in the same container.

Before the kill there was a healthy population of fish in the pond but the fish kills true impact wont be known until parks and wildlife samples the pond in spring. However disease related fish kills can be prevented by taking simple steps such as fishing the pond properly to prevent overcrowding maintaining good water quality in your pond and watching for signs of problems such as poor fish growth thin fish and excessive numbers of small fish. The first step in repairing your pond is to remove the dead fish and determine what caused your fish to die.

For the best chance of determining the correct cause of a fish kill fish farmers generally need to submit 5 to 10 live dying but not dead fish that exhibit the signs of the disease along with several water samples from the pond rottmann et al. The pond had average depth of six feet and a maximum depth of 15 feet. In this situation ponds may have to be drained and dried and a new stocking program established.

The second summer fish kill type is called the large oxygen swing fish kill. When draining is not possible or too costly an acceptable alternative may be to kill all fish present with a compound labeled and approved for killing fish. This practice is known as renovation.

If a storm carrying cold rains causes the pond to turn over mix suddenly the de oxygenated water in the hypolimnion can reduce the oxygen level of the pond enough to cause a fish kill.