Well it would be nice to know what part of the country your in. If the
pond has had a lot of influx of rain in a short time its possible to
do them in, as is low oxygen levels and having a algae growth or green
water or bio overload and then get a couple of days of overcast
weather where the algae dies and depletes even more Oxygen in the
water. Normally the bigger fish die first, and they continue dying
until the o2 level is suffiicient to support whaty fish are left. You
will find most oxygen starvation problems occuring from about 10 pm up
to about 6 am........that time frame is when there is actually even
less o2 available to them, not counting algae die off depletion of o2
levels. and a drop in PH which further makes use of available o2
harder for them.

What kind of aeration device do you have? If you have too much of a
bio load and have lots of organaic matter it also depletes oxygen and
perhaps a good doseing of the pond with potassium permanganate would
do it some good as well as getting rid of the nutrients algae relies
on to bloom with. Were your fish mainly found towards the shallow
waters or even some may have gotten up on shore? If so thats a dead
sure sign of oxygen levels being low.....its not uncommon for some
fish to actually jump on shore in their quest to get more o2.

There really is no difference except pigmentation wirth reg channel
cats and albinos..same food and o2 requirements and they grow just as
fast and just as big. How warm is your water. Warm water in a
small shallow pond as such does not retain as much oxygen, and once
past a certain point you should not feed catfish..... as most feed
will go uneaten and sink and rot and use up yet more oxygen. Your pond
certainly is not 6' deep around the edges is it?

I suppose these fish look ok on the outside, with no obvious signs of
sores and wounds etc.. Odds are their gills wil be a dull pink or
white color as well and the color of the fish overall is gong to be a
lot paler than normal.....There comes a time when all ponds really
benefit froma good housekeeping dose of potassium permangante to
oxidize all that junk on the ponds bottom up so it does not cause
problems down the road such as when weather turns warm or conditions
for pathogens are right.



On 22 Jun 2006 12:38:09 -0700, wrote:

This is my second experiment with catfish in my pond.

Two years ago I put in 25 and a pound of minnows and within a few weeks
they started appearing at the surface cruising around and shortly
later, floating dead. By the end of summer, they were all gone.

This year I only put in 12 and the minnows but it looks like deja vu
all over again. I didn't keep count but I just fished out another one
today and this is close to if not the last one.

I installed an aerator a few days ago but two have died since.

There are several mitigating circumstances.

1. Because of my experience, the hatchery lady threw in 6 albinos for
my trouble. I have not found any dead albinos... just the regular
channel cats.

2. The minnows are so happy they are breading and there are zillions
of little ones all over the pond but many head in towards the bubbler.
I suspect this is just standard behavior of swimming up stream but I
suppose it could indicate low oxygen elsewhere but none of the adults,
cats or goldfish are there.

Any thoughts?

My pond is 15 years old, natural bottom, 40 ft diameter, 6 ft max
depth.

js


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