How long before fish suffocate under ice?

peter crabtree

peter crabtree

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I have read on another forum a fishery owner describing fish gasping for air through small holes in the ice,and others already belly up under it. Another well respected owner has broken the ice on all his lakes. If established ice then gets snow on top, does this make it worse as it cuts out the light to some extent. Does silt give off methane which becomes trapped under the ice?
 
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peter crabtree said:
I have read on another forum a fishery owner describing fish gasping for air through small holes in the ice,and others already belly up under it. Another well respected owner has broken the ice on all his lakes. If established ice then gets snow on top, does this make it worse as it cuts out the light to some extent. Does silt give off methane which becomes trapped under the ice?
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I can only speak from my experiences in Norway over a 15 years period, and we rarely ever lost fish during the winter when all the lakes would freeze over for about 4 to 5 months of the year.

Whether or not this was because all of the fish were 'natural' and not 'stocked hybrids' I don't know, but natural selection weeded out sickly fish among the population.

My club did stock some Swedish and Danish King Carp (Norway only had Crucians at that time) and they too survived the winters with no problem. These were stocked into old 'ice lakes' and from what I hear they are growing and spawning quite well.
 
peter crabtree

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Funnily enough they did mention that as well. I think they are talking high density stock waters which are often fairly shallow.
 
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Merv Harrison

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Why not just leave an aerating pump running, this should leave a good area clear of ice, i've 3 largish ponds with Koi and Goldfish, in very exposed areas, i've left the pond pumps running and have had no problems, and we've had it bad.

It's grim up t'north.
 
Graham Whatmore

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Wouldn't have thought it was a problem myself, the North American lakes are frozen solid for 3 or 4 months of the year and it never affects them. Canal anglers regularly break the ice to fish and they are catching from the off so no worries there either.
 
peter crabtree

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Cheshire, not down our way Scott. If you want to read the thread I will pm you the site details,or anyone else who is interested.........
 
Steve Plant

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On similar lines, is it just a little bit possible that some fish will die from starvation in a very prolonged freeze up? I'm thinking of the greatly overstocked commercial pools, maybe those dug very recently & that do not have an established food chain already present, & that rely to a very great extent on anglers bait to feed the fish?
I know their metabolism will be slowed right down in this freezing weather & there subsequent need to feed will be much less, but it makes you wonder....
 
slime monster

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More likely that if fish deaths occur the oxygen levels were low before the ice ,this combined with gases escaping from the sediment would be a dangerous combination in some waters and in heavily stocked ones lethal.
 
The bad one

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Fred Bonney said:
Pond Conservation | Latest news | PRESS RELEASE: Should I break the ice on my pond to protect its wildlife?
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Vast difference between a highly maintained garden pond and a shallow club pool with high stock levels Fred.
A shallow commercial stocked at 1500 lbs per acre, mainly carp, with tree cover surrounding it and no submerged aquatic weed (most in my experience, due to them rooting it up) and the biological action of breakdown of this years fall of leaves emitting gases with no escape is a recipe for disaster
Break the bloody ice and let the gas out is my advise.
 
Graham Whatmore

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Most regularly used match fisheries break the ice as a matter of routine either that or the anglers themselves do it before fishing. It never ceases to amaze me when I read reports of 40 anglers all breaking the ice with big heavy weights then sitting down and catching from the off you would think all that banging and thumping on the bank combined with the noise of those weights hitting the ice that must sound deafening to the fish would put the fish off feeding for a month but it has quite the opposite affect.
 
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