Reviving a pond "killed" by tar

Hi all,

About 4 years ago when my driveway was getting blacktopped, a storm came and washed all the tar into the pond. The next few days almost all of the minnows, sunfish, and bluegills were killed. It has been several years, and the pond holds a healthy turtle, crawfish, frog, and bug population, with an occasional gator but still no fish. The pond is in Florida, its about 30ft by 15ft with a sand bottom, and I'm guessing a max depth of around 5-7 ft. I figured that because the pond is connected upstream to a large lake the pond would naturally restock. I checked the other day and still no signs of any fish. I'm wondering what i should do to restock the pond as its my childhood pond and it hold a lot of sentiment to me. Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you

Hi Sam; Welcome to Permies!
Boy sure bad timing for that storm to pop up right when you oiled the driveway!

I'm guessing that a fish hatchery might sell baby fish you could restock with.
If the lake upstream has a healthy population then is your inlet deep enough for fish to move thru ?
I don't know if it is legal but a little hand excavating might make things easier for them.
There's always catch and release yourself... or...
Maybe some fish food sprinkled leading to your pond...   (I'm joking)

Could it be  the turtles / birds and occasional gater  might be snacking on your baby fish ?

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for the reply.
The lake downstream is blocked with a bridge to our driveway so there isn't a large stream connecting the pond (only a few PVC pipes or so).
There is a great blue heron, a otter, and a few ospreys that used to frequent the pond but i haven't seen them since the tar incident.
I will try the the nursery, any suggestions on which species of fish to restock the pond with?
Also how many fish should i start out with?

Again really appreciate the advice

Bluegill are tough fish, so if anyone can survive, they will be able to.  How many fish you can stock depends on if you plan to feed them.  I have over a dozen Hybrid Bluegill in a tank system holding about 600 gallons of water. They are fed regularly.  Pond fish are usually stocked by the acre surface area so you need to calculate how much of an acre your pond covers.  Fish hatcheries can help with stocking rates.

I use this supplier:  http://www.dunnsfishfarm.com/

Thanks Tyler!

If your fish have a place to hide that would be good. If you get a branch in there with quite some twigs it will block the predators when the fish just swim to safety and hide in there. Maybe get some plants that do well in the area in there. Fish poop a lot , you would want the plants to feed on the nitrogens, because otherwise algae will.

Go fishing in the big lake with a rod and small hook,catch somme fish ,keep them alive while fishing and then release them into the pond.
Hard to do that with bluegills because they swallow the hook completely and rarely survive after you extract the hook from their stomacks.
If you have frogs in the pond ,means there is little pollution because frogs are the most sensitive to pollution because they breathe from their skin.
As it was sugested,add hiding places for the fish like big dead tree roots.