Help! Bass in my stock tank are dying.

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A6gal

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My stock tank is the lowest it's ever been. I've been running water into it weekly to hold the current level. I walked down about 4 days ago and found (4) 8 pound bass floating belly up. I began running water daily and the water level is increasing but each day there are a few more bass floating. We've had several days over the past week in the upper 80's. Could it be the water getting too warm for them because of the low level? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I feed game fish food daily. There are also catfish in the tank but none of those have turned up dead.
 
The 2 things that come to mind are the water being too warm the other is lack of oxygen in the water. When you run water in, do you spray it or just let it run in. If you can aeriate some way that will help a little with the oxygen. If you feed the fish you may have a problem with the excess food rotting also.

dun
 
Catfish are alot touhger. You might find a bale of wheat straw and throw it in. Will help with the O2 problem. Get some way of aration and start feeding them. Might not help to catch, if you can, some of the small ones. Bass are also very prolific. keep the big ones and they will rebound when they can.


Scotty
 
i would stop feeding them until the water level gets higher. the problem is oygen being low. findsome way to aerate as opposed to just putting more water in. you might as well have a fish fry, it could only help. catfish will live in pure mud until something eats them
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I thought it might be aereation. The pipe running water into tank is about 4 feet above water and the water splashes into the tank. I would think that would add a little oxygen.

Dun, what does excess rotting food do?

Also, I've been fishing out the dead ones but there is one floating toward the middle I can't reach. Will the rotting fish cause a problem with the cows drinking from the tank. The wind will problably blow it to the side later this evening and I'll get it out then but I was just wondering.
 
Excess rotting food (or plants) will lower the oxygen in the water, a lot. thats why i suggested not feeding them for a while. The dead fish is no big deal to the cows, as long as they havent died due to any chemicals or anything. if you have a water hose the pond you could put a sprinkler on it and let it shoot into the pond. that would help a little.
 
Neighbor of ours had the same problem, his solution, he backed his tractor with his bush hog attached into the water, just till the bushhog was in the edge of the tank, cranked er up and stirred the water for a while.....walla....oxygen
 
I have probably been overfeeding (I tend to do that with all my animals) so I'll stop feeding until water level gets higher.

Thanks for all the advice!
 
Lots of us folks in Canada do not have wells or piped in water - we use the same water the fish in your pond use. We call them dugouts.

In order to keep the water really clean we generally aerate them using one of these:

http://www.koenderswindmills.com/

Go get one - put it on your pond and then you never have to worry about a thing - keeps the algae down and the water clean and healthy.

Lots of little pieces to put together, but I would never be without one now.

Bez!
 

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