Out at our rod n’ gun club the stubfarts are ripping their hair out by the roots. For the last several decades they got it into their heads that we would have a trout pond. Maybe the little ones could do catch and release, or an old stubfart might do a few casts to make sure his reel is working properly before the big fishin’ trip.
The problem’s been that every gawddamned trout that goes into that pond - dies. Since old stubfarts know everything they’ve been struggling with aerating the water. The rocket scientists started with a windmill to drive the pump that’d aerate the pond water…but that failed for some reason for several years in a row.
They got so damned mad that after the final water samples yielded O2 starved water…they lost their minds! They broke into their finances, and ran power out to the pond. They broke down the windmill, carted it out to the back 40 and angrily threw it into the junk pile to rust. Then they bought the latest and greatest pumps. The pumps were installed, connected to power and turned on. A fountain of water sprang up in the corner of the pond and frothed away merrily. A week later the O2 levels were up in acceptable levels, and the men proudly clapped the dust and dirt from their hands, and called it good. A week later some smaller trout and fingerlings were dunked in to their new home.
The fish died even faster this time round. One of the fellas was playing with a fly rod out at the pond a couple weeks back and saw several floating belly up. I’m torn between sympathy for the guys…and eagerly awaiting the next act of despair and desperation from them.
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A bit of water sampling, soil sampling and lab work. Something is eating up the O2 and it just might be toxic to fish.
ReplyDeleteI use an air pump on my pond to keep up the O2 and keep a close eye on its Ph as that too is a fish issue.
YaKnow,, sometimes a fella just has to call a frikken pro. Maybe visit a club that has stuff working.
ReplyDeleteTemperature, pH, dissolved substances, alien killer space rays...etc. What kind of ground, and what plants nearby, and what thrives in local waters?
ReplyDeleteJust thinking out-loud here, that fish would look good on a flag. We could sell "Rainbow" flags for real men. Make a mint.
ReplyDeleteHeck, we could even put the healthy girl on the flag. Men in big cities don't even know what a real girl looks like.
Dumb-ass question: Is it possible that you have organic matter getting into the water. Maybe the guy mowing blowing the clippings into the pond? Biological Oxygen Demand is a bitch.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if I remember correctly, you said you had high temperatures. I wonder what your water temperatures looks like.
Anything’s possible Joe. I am not an aquatic expert but the guys in charge are and have their own fish ponds on their nearby farms. They claim that their own ponds run just fine and they are bent right out of shape over it.
DeleteI want nothing to do with it myself… ๐๐
Try catfish.
ReplyDeleteGuessing it's dissolved zinc. Is your field on a rehabbed mine site or using soil from an industrial plant by any chance? If the pH of the water is low, any metals in the soil are mobilised very easily and metals, esp zinc are kryptonite to aquatic life.
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