very urgent renovation of a century old indian temple pond where fish and tortoises dying

hi everybody , i am a fish culturist from india; i have been assigned to provide suggestions regarding renovation of a century old hindu temple pond in india which is around 2.0 hactres in area with a deth around 15 plus feet, it is surrounded by brick walls with rock base ; it has very old fishes and tortoises released by devotees from time to time ; since one year, there has been mortality of fish and tortoise and people are so concerened with the deaths of fish and tortoise which are considered sacred ,that some people are suggesting that, these fishes should be shifted temporarily to another ponds then, all pond waters be drained out ,subsequently bottom mud to be removed, liming ,zeolite to be applied followed by filling of water and restocking of the pond with the fish stocks already shifted to another pond ;it is worth mentioning that, pond is full of algal bloom ,no facility for water exchange as no inlet or out let .----
i am fully opposed to the idea of fish and tortoise shiftings as there are very big fish and tortoise ,also no counting of fish and tortoise population is done till date ,there may be mass mortality owing to stress , transport handling ,difference in water parameters in the new temporary environment to which they will be shifted . water quality of the pond under reference is vey bad ,fully polluted with high bottom organic load as devotees provide feed to fishes regularly .
so, friends, i hereby would like to invite expert comments from aquaculturists as to whether it will be reasonable to go with the public opinion to shift fish and tortoise or go for any other management techniques to save the pond . '''yours sincerely , raj ,from india[color=red] [/color]

are there any plants growing in the pond right now? there are plants that will help clean the water. as well as plants that add oxygen to the water. if all that is there now is algae than thats an indicator of the lack of plants imo.

I think Jordan's got the right idea. My first thought while reading this was "sounds like a lack of oxygen". Do you have the resources to get a solar fountain or aerator that will help reoxygenate the pond? Algae bloom is often associated with lack of oxygen.

As an immediate and temporary fix, can you encourage visitors to the pond to sit on the wall and kick their feet in the water? This will help aerate the water and kids will probably love it.

Then I would get some plants in, whatever native reeds grow in your area, get those and put them in pots in the shallow end - that will help filter out elements that have become toxic.

Do the fish and turtles have enough other food to eat besides what people are giving them?? If so, I would stop people feeding them extra food for a time until the pond comes back into balance. After that, I would consider putting up signs indicating that over feeding is polluting the pool and to respect the health of the animals, please don't feed them. (or have only a certain amount of food that can be put in the pond per day).

Do you have some pictures you can post here?

I personally feel that oxygenation will solve many of your immediate problems and that moving the animals and "fixing" the pond might do more harm than good. Hoping some others weigh in here as well.

Add some silver carp. This is a filter-feeding Chinese carp popular in much of India. They will feed off the algal bloom. Floating plants like water hyacinth will also remove a lot of excess nutrient, but a plan may need to be in place to remove the surplus of this to compost or other use on a regular basis when enough of the water surface is covered....I'd guess no more than 25%. I agree with what others are saying also regarding aeration, quitting the supplemental feed, etc. A pond of this size ought to be able to reach a stable ecosystem, and likely a productive one yielding fish for food, without the mess and expense of draining or dredging......

I have to agree with what others have posted.

From what you have written, the obvious problem is lack of oxygen. The lack of oxygen is due to the algae bloom, which itself is being caused by over feeding.

Quite simply, the devotees are killing the fish with kindness.


1. Stop or minimize devotees from feeding fish- post signs explaining the problem.
2. Clear extra algae from the pond surface- maybe with small boat and a net.
3. Add oxygenating plants to pond.

I hope that Raj comes back and posts some pictures and maybe updates us on this. Sounds like an interesting project and one that needs some quick help.

HAJO TEMPLE POND,Photo-India ugo.cn



www.ugo.cn › Homepage › India‎




HAJO TEMPLE POND,India,Photo,Videos, map, Satellite Map ,population,Tour.

HAJO: Twenty-seven more fishes were found floating today in the Vishnupushkar Sarobar pond in the historic Hayagriva Madhab temple here in Assam's Kamrup (rural) district taking the number of dead fish recovered from the pond to 85 since yesterday.

The recovery also led to large scale protests in the area with people calling for swift action to save the aquatic life at the historic spot. Local residents found the fishes floating yesterday in the pond, which is home to about 1,200 fishes and 500 tortoises.
Teams from the Assam pollution control board and the forensic laboratory visited the place and collected samples of the water and bodies of fishes for testing, official sources said. While the exact cause was yet to be ascertained, sources in fisheries department said the aquatic creatures died due to lack of oxygen as the water in the pond had become stagnant due to lack of rainfall over the last few months.

Thanks Raj - wishing you all the best with this project!

Peter - thanks for the info - what a beautiful place.

Is it possible you have a build up of chemicals like salt in the water?