Originally Posted by CJ

bramble towers wrote:
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I have recently moved into a house with a very large pond. The water is
brown & murky (muddy?) there are no plants growing in it & recently I
found a dead fish floating in it. The pond is approximately 150 feet
long by at most 70 feet wide & I believe is lined with puddled clay.
The house particulars stated that it was a spring fed pond ( but
knowing estate agents, that may not be the case!).

Thank goodness (well, you'll see what I mean) - someone with a big pond
- though different problems. Our pond is about half the size of yours,
no fish at all, lots of duckweed (imported by Mallard duck) and now some
blanket weed too.

The brown water is probably because your fish are English or Ghost Carp
- both which (as said further down the thread) are bottom feeders, so
they stir up the mud. In the hunt which got us this (16th century) house
we saw one VERY brown pond with lots of totally healthy Carp - that
house was of similar age to ours, about 20 years older. (Tree ring
dating for both)

The fish could be fed and rushed up to the bank opening their vast
mouths, but apparently got on fine without being fed too - clearly,
feeding the fish was not a priority for many occupants over the last
couple of centuries when these houses were lived in by indifferent
tenants. How old do you think the pond is?

Many ponds were excavated
specifically to feed the occupants "fish on Friday" religious
requirement. This dead fish could well be a "one-off".

I certainly wouldn't drain the pond, it doesn't leak, there's not too
much vegetation, and as you don't have a blanket weed problem, the straw
(barley straw by the way) isn't needed either. Adding plants will be
difficult as the fish will chomp their way through your wallet straight
away.

Our problem is leaves, branches and rotting vegetation. The former owner
allowed rather too much tree growth around the pond. On our first visit
the pond could not be seen without effort pushing through Hawthorn and
general growth - much felled now. We could do with some bottom feeding
fish like yours, but I'm reluctant to add them until the water is "well"
enough - like you finding dead fish floating out there doesn't appeal to
me.

We do seem to have different problems, but at least the scale is similar.

Good luck -

Chris