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dead fathead minnows
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Posted by lynneny z6 (My Page) on Mon, Apr 21, 08 at 19:11
| We have a pond that is about 3,000 gallons that my husband started building last summer. He's had problems with the waterfall leaking, and thought he fixed it last week.
I got a pound of free fathead minnows from the county health department about 2 weeks ago. Everything was fine with them, saw them swimming around, until my husband turned on the pump and skimmer in the pond last Thursday. At first there were only a couple of dead fish every other day or so, but today, when he turned off the pumps again to find out where the leak was coming from once more, there were 18 dead fish!!! And they all had their stomach missing!!!
We took some out of the pond to be able to post pictures -
Someone... PLEASE tell me what is doing this???
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: dead fathead minnows
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| Holy Cow!!! I'm so sorry you are experiencing this. I would be horrified to find my fish looking like this. I can't answer your question but will be interested in hearing what others think. Anne |
RE: dead fathead minnows
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| From your description about the pump being turned on and off again it seems like the minnows are being sucked into the intake of the pump. Is the pump wrapped in a pre-filter material? When you only found one or two dead fish until the pump was turned off then found more makes me think it has something to do with the pump. That could explain the missing stomachs. They remain stuck to the intake valve until the pump is turned off. Once the pump is off they surface. I may be wrong in my thinking, but I am sure some of the experts will chime in. Jenny |
RE: dead fathead minnows
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| A problem with the pond water would kill the fish, but it would not rip out their stomachs. I think a predator would eat more then the stomach, at least on some of the fish. Since it only happens when the pump is turned on, I agree with Jenny about the pump intake. Its still strange that only the stomach is damaged. I would look insde of the pump for the missing stomachs. If the intake is pulling stomachs out of fish, it is probably pulling in other things. The lack of a prefilter will clog and damage your pump. The minnows look like victims of the creature from the Alien movies. The ones that incubate inside of a body and rip through the stomach when they mature. |
RE: dead fathead minnows
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| Thanks for the suggestions Jenny and John - my husband says there definitely IS a filter on the pump, and he did check the pump and there was nothing in there!!! We agree that it looks like something from a Sci-Fi movie - and that was my take on it as well - as if something exploded from the inside of the stomach! We are going to stop at the ponding store tomorrow with these pictures to see what they have to say. Stay tuned... |
What did you find out?
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| lynneny: What did you find out at the pond store? Aliens could be worse than blue herons! lol Jenny |
RE: dead fathead minnows
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| The stomach area is the softest part of the fish. If its been dead for awhile and there's pressure, such suction of water, on the area, that part of the body tends to degrade first. |
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