Help !! Hundreds of dead fish!!??

Question

There is this pretty big pond near my house where I sometimes go fishing but not often. Today I went there and I could smell something terrible from about 100 feet away once I got near the pond I realised that there were 100's maybe even close to 1,000 dead fish lining the edges, bass, sunfish, pumpkinseed, catfish etc. Just a few days ago it wasn't like that! What on earth could have happend? Please help. Alsoe is a pond near that one which is connected barely by a tiny stream which sometimes never has water. Plus on the dead pond there are always fish jumping and frogs croaking but today it was totally dead what could have happend ?

Answer 1

Sounds like a toxic dump. Call your local health department or wildlife agency to come check the area. If a company had dumped toxic waste in the area they need to pay for it.

Answer 2

heavy duty contamination ,by either chemicals or sewage
call the ecology department to check it out and clean the fish because animals eating the dead fish could also die

And you will find other dead things as well maybe frogs,birds ,cats or dogs ,or anything that could go there to drink.

This happens regularly in Mexico
and it is always the residents who are responsible somewhere along the line
see if you can trace the cause and prosecute

Chemicals could have got in ,such as people spraying ,herbicides or pesticides ,or a sewer outlet

And even somebody dumping a lot of fruit or something else that started to frement ,can kill all the fish

There are even people who think that putting bleach in dark water will clean a pond
this it does but it cleans all the life out
and a pond with out life such as fish will become stagnant starts to rot and smell all the time

Somebody is always responsible
take a camara and take plenty of pictures of the dead fish .

to clean it run a big quantity of fresh water in ,and keep it running for a week
Several very big rains could also do it and let the contaminated water flow out

Answer 3

You didnt mention if it was a farm pond or not, but here in Illinois where there are farms everywhere, sometimes the farmers spray pesticides on their crops ( corn & soy beans ) and sometimes when they do there is a chemical run off into the pond after it rains ,often killing all the fish.
Another possibility is maybe someone dumped in chemicals to kill off the weeds & algae. Some algaecides are safe for fish and some arent.
I would recommend you have the owner of the property call your states department of conservation and see if you can get a game warden to come out and investigate.

Answer 4

There are many reasons a fish kill can occur. Although, given your description and the time of year, the fish most likely suffocated due to a rapid depletion of dissolved oxygen (DO). This can commonly occur two different ways in the warmer months. 1) A sudden die-off of algae, and 2) Turnovers.

1) One common scenario begins with the eutrophication of a pond by runoff that contains fertilizers. These extra nutrients cause algae populations to flourish ("algae blooms"), until the extra nutrients are depleted and massive amounts of the algae die. The dead algae decays and DO levels drop, the pond no longer supporting the oxygen needs of the fish population.

Algae are photosynthetic organisms, meaning that they use light to make their energy and produce oxygen as a byproduct. Several cloudy days in a row, however, can cause the algae to consume more oxygen than they make, depleting DO from the pond.

2) Turnovers, or circulation periods, refer to periods of water stratification followed by periods of water mixing. During warmer months layers of warm water form near the pond surface and cooler layers of water remain near the pond bottom. The cooler water has less DO because the photosynthetic organisms live near the surface. If there is a sudden, heavy rainfall during this stratification period, it can cause a mixing of the water. The cold rainwater sinks to the bottom of the pond, displacing the DO-deficient water. The DO-deficient water mixes with the top layers, again resulting in a sudden decrease in the amount of oxygen available to the fishes.

It is also worth noting that the amount of DO that a body of water can hold is directly related to the temperature of the water. An increase in water temperature results in a decrease in dissolved oxygen. This is another factor that influences water quality in warmer months.

Disease, parasites and pesticides can also cause severe loss to a fish population. Without actually examining the fish myself, I cannot say with absolute certainty one of these factors did not play a role in the fish kill. If the fish from this pond are consumed by humans, it is recommended that a water sample be tested to ensure there are no toxic substances in the water.

Answer 5

One other potential is with the advent of summer the algae and the bacteria suddenly have favorable conditions and "bloomed", a huge population explosion. They often give off toxins that kill fish, and they use up all the oxygen in the water in growing and multiplying so rapidly, so normal life then dies rapidly.

Happens often in the oceans. Sometimes many miles wide.

But yes, report it to the authorities ASAP, if they have not smelled it already.

Be interesting to see what it turns out to be...and you don't happen to be downstream from the copper sulphate user, do you??

Answer 6

Oucho has a point. Sometimes, the wildlife people realize that certain ponds don't have a healthy mix of fish, and they will kill them off for repopulating later.

Or, someone might have intentionally poisoned the pond.

I would report it to the Fish & Game Commission to find out.

Answer 7

If not one of the above, ie farmyard slurry. It could be natural it happens the pond build up pollutants from the aquatic life. And on hot days all the o2 get used up.

Answer 8

Some times if fertiliser flows into a water body it causes eutophication (algae blooms) which saps the oxygen from the water. Thus suffocating all the fish.
common in farming areas.

Answer 9

Check with your local fish and wildlife department. Sounds like maybe they poisoned it for a reason to start over with a new or singular species. Hope this helps....

Answer 10

dont go in the water it might get you next.