My farm pond dried up.

G

gt40

Guest
I thought I needed to restock my farm pond after it completely dried up last fall then again this spring. Then in late spring we got a lot of rain and it filled up.

Today I went down to check to see if there was any water in it since we haven't gotten any rain this rummer. There was about 3 inches of water left. It was about 10 yds. across and 30 yds. long.

To my amazement there are thousands of 1 inch long bream floating dead in it with a few still alive swimming in the shallow water.

The eggs must have survived in the mud under the dried and cracked mud when the pond completely dried up.

I never new this was possible. Has anyone else heard of this?

gt40
 
Wish I could have sent you some of our rain this year. We had record rain falls.
Yes i have heard of this before. One year we had to divert a steam to build a box culvert.
The fish went into under ground pockets of water and survived till we opened it up again.
 
That's amazing! I did a quick search and didn't find much on the survival of fish eggs. When I was a young'un we experienced a particularly bad/windy storm that rained newborn frogs and tadpoles - billions upon trillions of them. The sun killed them every one and the smell was intolerable for days. We wore shoes for the rest of the summer. Pretty sure the frogs were the lesser of what could have happened. Truth is, if it had gone the other way, our house would have ended up in the water where all those frogs came from.
 
Yes
I have heard of this. I learned about it in Grade School.
As a note the African Lung fish has been documented to survive up to 3 years of drought by burying itself in the mud and waiting it out when the water hole dries up.

Ted
 
gt40 said:
I thought I needed to restock my farm pond after it completely dried up last fall then again this spring. Then in late spring we got a lot of rain and it filled up.

Today I went down to check to see if there was any water in it since we haven't gotten any rain this rummer. There was about 3 inches of water left. It was about 10 yds. across and 30 yds. long.

To my amazement there are thousands of 1 inch long bream floating dead in it with a few still alive swimming in the shallow water.

The eggs must have survived in the mud under the dried and cracked mud when the pond completely dried up.

I never new this was possible. Has anyone else heard of this?

gt40
Click to expand...

That's the prob with a runoff farm pond...no runoff no water. Do you have a site with groundwater that you can dig into? That's a sustainable farm pond.
 
GT, don't know how big your spread is, but...................

if you go here: http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/articles.htm

Click on "Toolbox" and click on "Archived articles" and in the left column, scroll down till you see "Milking water from the hills--the Prehn Method"

If you or someone you know has a tractor, and a little work, it shows you how you can maintain some little 'seeps' for when the rain is sparse, and getting into some groundwater isn't a bad idea, either, if you have the cash & patience...;)

And, there are some species of frogs that may remain in a sort of suspended animation for quite some time between desert rainfalls when their areas fill up, and the life & breeding cycle moves rapidly ahead as long as the water remains and eggs are laid, then everything dies off as the water recedes, and you would never know they were there, until the next flooding rain.....which may be five years away.

But that's not TOO long, the common tick can go 15 years without a meal.....:eek:
 
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glp said:
That's the prob with a runoff farm pond...no runoff no water. Do you have a site with groundwater that you can dig into? That's a sustainable farm pond.
Click to expand...

My other pond is maintained by an under ground spring. It almost dried up last fall, but had enough water to let some of the bream & bass survive.

gt40
 
GT this has happened quite a few times on some family property when I was growing up in West Texas.
I dont have facts for you but I do have what was passed down.
There was another large lake some 4-5 miles away and it was said that the egss were brought in by birds.
Personally I am not sure. I would think if the eggs were eaten it would not have made it through the digestive tract but they could have stuck in some other form, I suppose to the outside of the bird maybe.
All I know is that I saw the tank dry up quite a few times over the years and the next year there would be fish in it again.
 
That is steenkin' wild! I had no idea bream would repopulate! Lungfish yes, even the common stickleback will live in swamps that only hav water 3-4 mo of the year but sunfish???

I'd no idea

al
 
IN the aforementioned stock tank the fish in question were catfish, bass, and crappie that would reappear the next year after the tank went bone dry.
 
Back during the construction of the pond at my house, I got a powder you can get by the bag, sorta like the size of a bag of portland, that when used in the soil for a pond, will more or less waterproof it. It happens my pond is dug in clay, so leakage is virtually zero. In the worst drought year I can remember, the water level dropped about 4" and it's a .95 acre pond. (legal limit now in pa without a concrete spillway and classed as a dam). When I installed the standpipe (one of the few things "I" actually did), a bag of this stuff was used to fill in around that pipe and mixed with soil. It then sticks to the pvc pipe that was used. Well, it's been almost 20 years now and it's still there. So I guess it works. I do not recall it being expensive. I know a friend who owns a landscaping business used it in the base of his pond but that is a LOT smaller than mine. His results were not good on the first try, that I remember well (won a bet!).

If your water is draining down through the ground and out, you may need to excavate the ground some and mix the stuff in. Even using a rental machine and doing it yourself would probably work. I'd want to talk to someone who knows about it and ask questions though. I did it just around a pipe, I do not know how it works when you do large areas, or what the problems might be with it. You might even find there is just one small area where the water drains. Just be careful you don't end up creating a new place.
 
4Mesh
Would the stuff you used be driller's mud? It increases in bulk when you add water.
When I worked for a pipeline company we used is to seal behind a hot cut to minimize flame to the torch area instead of completely around the pipe.
I know one of the guys had a leakage problem into his basement when it rained so he dug a hole at the point of the leak and poured in dry driller's mud and it did not leak after that.
We are not having much problem with basements leaking in Dodge City, Ks, we have had approx. 2 inches of rain since last Aug. I think today will be our 36th day in a row over 100 degrees, made it to 111 yesterday.
 
Google Bentonite, I believe this is what 4Mesh used and what kansasvet is talking about.
Jerry
 
davejones said:
Is it possible that the fish eggs were brought in on the legs/feet of herons, cranes, ducks, etc from other lakes?
Click to expand...

I suppose it is possible, but I doubt that thousands of eggs would be brought in. I wish I had my camera to show how many fish were floating and they all were the same size. About one inch long and they all looked to be sunfish.

gt40
 
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brian roberts said:
if you go here: http://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/articles.htm

Click on "Toolbox" and click on "Archived articles" and in the left column, scroll down till you see "Milking water from the hills--the Prehn Method"

If you or someone you know has a tractor, and a little work, it shows you how you can maintain some little 'seeps' for when the rain is sparse, and getting into some groundwater isn't a bad idea, either, if you have the cash & patience...;)

And, there are some species of frogs that may remain in a sort of suspended animation for quite some time between desert rainfalls when their areas fill up, and the life & breeding cycle moves rapidly ahead as long as the water remains and eggs are laid, then everything dies off as the water recedes, and you would never know they were there, until the next flooding rain.....which may be five years away.

But that's not TOO long, the common tick can go 15 years without a meal.....:eek:
Click to expand...

Thanks Brian we will look into this.

gt40
 
KansasVet,

I won't say for sure by that name, it's been decades now, but that sounds right. Does that stuff also gel up sorta like a glue? If so, that's it. The company that did the excavating are the ones that actually supplied the stuff. I just installed it.

I left a message for the friend who will almost certainly know. But I'd be surprised if anyone in excavating wouldn't be familiar with that stuff if they do any number of ponds.

Nice weather you're having there. You can have it. I saw 105 one day here, and 106 the next. But, have been 90 and below for several days now. Somehow, it still feels hot. I can't get the building cooled off at work cause there's so much steel in here, it just won't cool down. Been leaving the doors open overnight with the vent fans on, it's still not doing what I think it should. I'm sure it's helping, but, not fast enough to suit me.

/edit!

Wow, I got busy here mid-message and everybody posts while I'm away.


Thanks Jerry!
 
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Bentonite is the stuff used for waterproofing. You might also explore the idea of putting in a windmill operated pump and a shallow well to replenish the water when the wind blows. There are plans for building your own out of PVC pipe somewhere on the web. And the PVC scraps are good for building potato cannons!!!!
 
Fence in a few hogs and wait for rain.;) It'll hold water unless it's a huge leak...seriously. Bentonite works pretty well too. Together, you'd have a pond with a bottom like a swimming pool...maybe a little more slippery:D

Mike
 
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