Pond frozed over lost over 20 catfish. Why? Lack of air or what.

-- tony hobert (hobert7@ekyol.com), February 07, 2001

Answers

Tony, The same thing happened to me one time. I was told that since the pond was not very deep that the catfish did not have enough oxygen, and they all died. Sure wish I had fished them all out before the big freeze. Better luck next time.

-- karen (kansasgoats@iwon.com), February 08, 2001.

Were catfish the only species in your pond? Didn't you lose any bluegill or bass? If you have multiple species, I would suspect a catfish-specific health problem more than winter kill.

By brother-in-law caught a couple of catfish. He didn't have time to clean them then, so he put them in freezer. Forgot about them for a couple of days. He said he put them in a bucket of water to unthaw and they came back to life.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 08, 2001.

Ken, One of my goldfish did that. Swam into to skimmer and froze. My husband and father-in-law were trying to figure how to get it out. (Hammer, torch, etc) When I said leave it alone. Swam out on it's own when it got warm enough. They couldn't believe it.

Tony, All the pond information I have, strongly suggest keeping an air hole open in your pond so the gases from rotting vegetation can get out. I don't know how large your pond is but I bet that may have been a factor. I keep a rolling spout of water near the surface that doesn't allow ice to form there. I've also read that you can use an airator to get more oxygen into the water. Come to think of it, I think it was in the last issure of Countryside.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), February 08, 2001.

Dee:

You reminded me. When I lived in Ohio my neighor had a small goldfish pond. Froze solid during the winter, but come thaw out the goldfish would still be there.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 09, 2001.